Never used the flower nail technique..know Im doing it correctly b/c I saw the tutorial...used it on 2 of the 3 choc brownie cakes I made yesterday...both cakes I used it for cracked from the center out, and now after I stacked them with two layers of buttercream dream and fresh strawberries, they're falling apart!!!! argh!!!!

I literally have plastic wrap and my springform pan holding the cake up...it looks like a little kid with vertigo iced my cake...

Hoping a layer of ganache will hold it together under the fondant (and it will have frill on 3/4 of it so luckily the uneven sides wont really matter)

I've never made a brownie cake but I use the flower nail technique with any cake over 10" and have never had any issues. ??? Sorry!!

What size cakes did you use the flower nail on?

I don't usually worry about such things if it's under 12 inches or so. A huge cake, I might use the flower nail, but normally it's just not necessary.

I use flower nails in all my cakes, helps them bake faster without getting too brown (I hate to bake and I'm really impatient) and I never have issues with it cracking!

I used it on an 8 inch...it did seem to dome a bit less, and no browning (though I usually dont have tht prob w/ this cake anyway)...and I used the crisco/oil/flour recipe for greasing..the cake fell out of the pan so tht wasn't the prob..I have no idea what was!! Maybe I should only do it if it's over 10 or 12 inches...

Just in case you haven't thought of this, if you flip your cake out when it's still really hot and it's not perfectly level on top, the cake can split due to it being on an uneven surface (the cake top). The cake needs to set a bit before flipping it out. I try to rough level using the top of the pan before flipping as well. HTH