Question about reusing a yeast cake

I've read a lot about people reusing a yeast cake from one batch to ferment a second batch (usually the first batch is low/moderate gravity and the second batch is high gravity). I get that you want the yeast strain to be appropriate for both beers.
My question is more of a technical nature. After you rack the first beer off the yeast cake, what do you do next? Shake the cake up with the dregs? Just rack the second beer right on top? Do you rack the second beer and then shake the whole thing up? Do you aerate the second beer before you rack it onto the yeast? Has anyone every had problems with reusing a yeast cake?

Rack on top and aerate as normal. Then, get ready for a short lag time and VERY active fermentation .

I transfer or keg the batch while the new brew is cooling off.
I usually swirl it up a bit but I don't know why.
Just dump it on top and shake the hell out of it.
Wait a couple of hours and she'll be rockin.
Keep a blowoff tube handy in case you overpitched.

How many times can you "reuse" a yeast cake? Would it be OK to split the yeast cake after the 2nd usage?

hbhudy said:

How many times can you "reuse" a yeast cake? Would it be OK to split the yeast cake after the 2nd usage?

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IIRC, its usually safe up to 10 generations, you may start to get mutations thereafter.

I wouldn't use a whole cake tho, its far more yeast than you need. around 1 cup of slurry is good for most ales - use mrmalty for exact figures

hbhudy said:

How many times can you "reuse" a yeast cake? Would it be OK to split the yeast cake after the 2nd usage?

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As long as you keep your sanitation practices up to snuff, you can reuse it until it stops making good beer...

Although, at that point you are better off washing and harvesting yeast instead of just keeping a single cake alive.