I'm having such a hard time with this cake for some reason. Everything was going great, I made the cake in 2 tiers, let it completely cool overnight. Then put it together and inserted dowels and frosted it. I used Pillsbury Chocolate Fudge frosting, which was probably my frist mistake, but I was in a rush. I again let it sit overnight with it partially covered and it melted! I put it in the fridge to harden it up but that didn't do anything. I did cover it when I put it in the fridge because I am still not sure if you're supposed to or not due to the condensation. Since it was still not hard the next day I took it out and tried to smooth out the frosting and put it back in the fridge uncoverd for a couple hours. What am I doing wrong? How can I fix this????

Yup... it's the frosting. The tub frosting never really sets up the way a butter based frosting does. Better luck next time. You can make an easy chocolate frosting by creaming together 1 lb. of room temp., unsalted butter and 1 tsp. vanilla. Add about 1/4 cup of cocoa powder. Once uniform in color and texture, start adding powdered sugar to the mixture 1 cup at a time until you get the sweetness you desire.

You dowel before you ice the cake? Was this a 2-layer cake or a tiered cake?

Even still, I've used the canned icing (my youngest daughter wants a "regular cake like my friends get .... boxed cake with canned icing!") and I've never had it melt. It's not good to pipe with or make decorations with, but just to ice a cake, it usually holds up ok. That's what it's made for.

i also never refrigerate my cakes. A baked cake by itself doesn't need refrigerated. Canned frosting sits on a shelf it's entire life cycle ... it doesn't need refrigerated. So unless you had a perishable filling, the cake would have been fine sitting on your counter, just like our moms and grammas did with their cakes.

It's weird that this icing melted. How warm was your house?