So I basically had everyone's worst nightmare. I made a beautiful black and white fondant wedding cake. It was 4 tiers, 6,8, 10 and 12 inches. I stacked it the night before using bubble tea straws and a center dowel through all tiers. I did drill a small hole in the center of my cake boards (cardboard foil kind) to allow the dowel to slide through. I have done 3 tiered cakes like this before and not had a problem in delivery.

Delivery was just shy of an hours drive. In the last 10 minutes, my husband who was driving, hit the brakes for a stop light and we were on a hill sloping down-- the top 3 tiers fell over and smashed pretty bad.

In the end, the chef at the restaurant and myself were able to salvage 2 of the tiers and we tried to make it look as nice as possible. We used some of the wedding flowers for the top to cover the dowel marks.

Here's my question... what did I do wrong? I know others delivery their cakes stacked all the time. Should I not have drilled holes in my cake boards? Should I have "glued" the tiers together? Any advice would help!!

Honestly, if the brakes are being put on hard, you're lucky to have any of the cake survive.

Oh, I'm so sorry that happened to your cake!!
The very best system for transporting stacked cakes that I've used is SPS--I use it to drive over horrible, and I do mean horrible, Oklahoma country roads, always at least 30 minutes and often 1 1/2 hours. The biggest problem I ever had was a tiny little curlique falling off (and that had nothing to do with the support system!). I just won't use anything else again. The peace of mind is worth $$$$ and the system itself is not expensive at all.

that is a worst nightmare. personally i travel with the cake in pieces and then stack at the venue for anything more than 2 tiers. all my 2 tiered birthday cakes, christening cakes etc are fine and very sturdy but a wedding cake is different and so much more stress plus bigger and higher individual tiers so that last thing i would want is to try and drive with it stacked.

Thanks everyone. I will definitely be doing some things differently! I just looked into the SPS system and I only saw it for round tiers. Does anyone know if you can use it with squares?

What happened you say? Hitting the brakes is what happened. That about sums it up. So sorry this happened to you.

What kind of cake boards are you using that have to drill thru them? Unless they are masonite, you drive that dowel thru them without a drilled hole. Part of what keeps the integrity. The snug fit all the way thru. A predrilled hole isn't gonna help that.

Absolutely switch to SPS. And yes, the plates do come in square, and heart. And have the cake sitting on non-skid mat of course, I have had to throw on the brakes and I have not had a cake slip at all.

I have to join in the sps chorus. Yesterday as my husband was carrying the 3 tier cake to the car, he turned to speak to my son and tilted it. It then traveled down my 1800 foot gravel driveway, arrived at the venue and was driven over a curb and down a sidewalk to get to the door. All in the back of my mother's blazer which rides like a mule wagon. Yeah it works.

I have used SPS for a while now. Never any issues.. in fact you know that sick nervous feeling you get when delivering cakes.. since switching to SPS delivery is so smooth! I am so confident that there won't be issues it makes it so much easier.

Sorry this did happen to you but at least you were able to salvage some of the cake.