Separate into layers of pastries served up with dotted frozen yogurt tops (8)
I believe the answer is:
stratify
'separate into layers' is the definition.
(I've seen this before)
'pastries served up with dotted frozen yogurt tops' is the wordplay.
'pastries' becomes 'tarts' (tart is a kind of pastry).
'served up' says the letters should be written in reverse.
'with dotted frozen yogurt tops' becomes 'ify' (I can't explain this - if you can you should give a lot more credence to this answer).
'tarts' backwards is 'strat'.
'strat'+'ify'='STRATIFY'
'of' is the link.
Can you help me to learn more?
(Other definitions for stratify that I've seen before include "Classify or grade" , "Separate into layers" , "Form into layers" , "Classify, arrange in grades" .)