I had a 4 tier cake call over recently too, but it was not my dowels. It was the road. I used wooden dowels and then doweled two big dowels all the way through. When it fell over, the wooden dowels ripped thruogh the bottom tier. I could not save that one, but fortunately with some smoothing, I was able to save the top three so the day was not ruined. I'm too scared to deliver stacked again yet, but I'm working on it.

I so didn't need to ready this! I have my first wedding cake on Saturday. It is 3 tiers with 3 layers in each. I might have dowels all over the cake just to make sure. But my question to you is - could it have been the consistency of the cake? Maybe too moist? I have mostly been using the WASC cake and change the flavoring. So far no problems.

SANZ - the consistency of the cake shouldn't matter too much since the upper tiers shouldn't be sitting on the cake below anyhow. The dowels support the weight.

Here's a tip...only use SPS for the tiered cakes that you REALLY care about, otherwise use the dowels.....

You made a really good recovery. Sorry the whole thing happened to you. This is just one of the reasons that I assemble my cakes on site. It's just not worth the headache to me. I would rather do all the finish work when I deliver and avoid as many mishaps as possible. JMO

I have never transported a cake in my life using dowels..I read too many horror stories. I have been using SPS for gee, three years now? I would say maybe 250 wedding cakes? Some of them as high as four TALL tiers..(five tiers just gets too heavy). If you don't want to transport stacked, I will tell you another good reason to use SPS...when you get onsight, you don't have to worry about centering your cake. If you put the system in at home, it is all set for you just to slide your cake on and do your border. So it saves headaches in many ways.

I think the caterers love me more for it too. They don't have to remove the 10,000 dowels people put in cakes...

but back to the subject, I actually like the second cake better too! You did a wonderful job for recovery and I would be too shaken up to even attempt a recovery. YOu should be very proud!!

What's the difference between SPS and Wilton supports? Aren't they practically the same thing?
By the way, I think that most cake disasters are due to the use of boxed cake mix. These cakes have no structure, they are too soft and airy.

I understand. Since that dowels are supporting the cake, the consistency of it should not matter. You can even make a tiered flan, if you want to. BUT, assemble it on the table. DO NOT TRY driving around with it.
Again, in my opinion, boxed cakes have a different consistency. If they are assembled on the venue, no problem at all. The problem would be driving it around.

I just got an email from the bride. She said the cake was awesome & tasted delicious; she said everyone loved it. I am in shock.

I asked her if the wedding planner explained to her what had happened. She said she did hear all about it & she thinks I was very professional about the whole thing & that she wants pictures of the whole fiasco for her wedding book. I can't believe how great she's being about this! It sure is a change from most of the bride-zilla stories I read posted here.

So, all is well & I am going to go ahead & deposit her check.

Excellent save!!! Sorry it happened though

Glad to hear that the bride was cool about it. What a compliment of how professional you were and that the cake was good! Again, you did a great job.

I'm so sorry you had to experience that and am so glad that the bride was cool with your save. It looked great by the way. I have to agree with another poster on here that said she takes her cakes to the venue separately and then assembles them, doing the finish work afterwards. In my mind, it's crazy to risk delivering an assembled cake unless it's just a small two-tiered.

I use those bubble tea straws all the time and in the bottom tier, I'll put another smaller straw inside of them (like McDonald's size). They're so easy to stick in and snip off and they do the job. I get mine from a place out of San Francisco called www.tentea.com and they're very cheap...$1.50 for a bag of 50. I wouldn't use anything else now. I'm sure the stress-free support system works great but I haven't felt like investing the money nor do I want to worry about getting it returned afterwards. Anyway, that's my two cents worth of advice. Dana
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