Pic Of Bulging Cake Layer After Weighting Fyi
Decorating By DianeLM Updated 30 Jun 2010 , 1:00am by millermom
There was a discussion a couple of weeks ago about cake layers that bulge like a spare tire after the filled cake has rested with some weight applied.
Below is a pic of an 8-inch round chocolate cake. Two 2-inch layers were torted and filled with chocolate fudge buttercream, as was the center.
After filling, I placed a 12-inch square ceramic tile on the cake for a few hours. It remained at room temp the whole time.
Although it was hard to capture with the camera, you can see how the third layer down bulges out to the left. It was bulging pretty much all the way around, but this was the best angle.
I simply trimmed away the bulge and iced as usual.
that is a normal occurance IMO. that is the reason you weight it down, and then you trim it off before icing. That is what I do.
what a handy piece of info-- i always let my cakes settle after filling, but it never occurred to me to use a weight! this is why i love this forum!
My last 2 cakes were simple rounds, one 6" and one 8". I did this exact method with both, and both got bubbles (one of them more than 12 hrs after it was iced) and the 8" one of them still got the bulge from the filling after putting a STIFF dam and little filling of BC. What's wrong with me?? 
I have done hundreds of cakes since opening a bakery earlier this year (and hundreds in the 13 years I've been doing this before opening a bakery). I have never taken the time (don't have that much time!) to put ceramic tiles on my cakes yet I never have this problem. Doesn't it logically follow that if you put a 12" ceramic tile down on your cake, that it will most definitely suffer bulging? It just doesn't make sense to me to do this practice. I have some 12" ceramic tiles here that are leftover from a project, and they are heavy! What decorative elements do people put on their cakes that weigh as much as a ceramic tile?
If it ain't broke, don't fix it is my line of reasoning here, but thumbs up to those who have bulging problems and need to do this.
that is a normal occurance IMO. that is the reason you weight it down, and then you trim it off before icing. That is what I do.
Exactly. Better to have it show up at this point than after icing, stacking, decorating, delivery --- YIKES! 
That's interesting, because I've always interpreted people's complaints about "bulges" to be the line where the icing dam is, not a bulge in the cake, itself.....hmm.
I torte my layers, too. If time is short and I can't wait for the cake to rest overnight (sans weight), I'll weigh it down. I crumb coat first and cover the top with saran before applying the weight. I look for bulging icing dam and scrape away any excess.
I never carve away any cake, nor have I ever seen any reason to carve away any cake doing it this way. Perhaps the crumb coat or the process of applying it has been lining up the cake layers and holding them in place.
I feel that the baked sides of the cake are a large part of the integrity of the cake, so I'm not inclined to "remove" them.
JMHO
Rae
I thought bulging was from the filling oozing out but in that picit looks like the cakes are uneven and I don't think they look filled. Don't feel bad Miller, I have the same problem and I always let them rest for a day and use a stiff dam. Maybe I'll try weighting it.
My last 2 cakes were simple rounds, one 6" and one 8". I did this exact method with both, and both got bubbles (one of them more than 12 hrs after it was iced) and the 8" one of them still got the bulge from the filling after putting a STIFF dam and little filling of BC. What's wrong with me??
When you say "bubbles", do you mean blowouts? Those air pockets that form under the buttercream and push the icing out away from the cake?
I freakin HATE those things!!!! Since having this happen to 5 of 6 individual tiers at the same time last summer, I insist on fondant covering for all cakes in the summer. It's not scientific, but it works for me.
Do you pipe your dam 1/4 inch or more from the edge of your cake? Sometimes the dam itself is pushed out. I don't know if you can see it in the pic above, but after considerable weighting, there is still a gap between my dam and the edge of the cake. This will be filled in with the crumb coat.
The only other possibility I can think of is that your icing/fondant and decorations were heavier than the weight you used during settling.
I have done hundreds of cakes since opening a bakery earlier this year (and hundreds in the 13 years I've been doing this before opening a bakery). I have never taken the time (don't have that much time!) to put ceramic tiles on my cakes yet I never have this problem. Doesn't it logically follow that if you put a 12" ceramic tile down on your cake, that it will most definitely suffer bulging? It just doesn't make sense to me to do this practice. I have some 12" ceramic tiles here that are leftover from a project, and they are heavy! What decorative elements do people put on their cakes that weigh as much as a ceramic tile?
If it ain't broke, don't fix it is my line of reasoning here, but thumbs up to those who have bulging problems and need to do this.
And thumbs up to those of you who never need to do this. 
It certainly does add another element to the decorating time, but I've had such great success since doing it this way, it's worth the extra time.
And I wouldn't say the cake "suffers" bulging. As Sharon said above, it's a natural occurence with the recipes we use.
"That's interesting, because I've always interpreted people's complaints about "bulges" to be the line where the icing dam is, not a bulge in the cake, itself"
That's what I thought as well. I have never seen the cake itself bulge out, just the icing. Interesting....my cutting skills are horrible so I would be terrified to cut it....I wish you luck!
I just want to clarify that this bulging doesn't happen to every cake. I made at least a dozen cakes since this matter was first discussed but have only now had a cake that actually did it.
And I was definitely surprised the first time I saw it happen.
I thought bulging was from the filling oozing out but in that picit looks like the cakes are uneven and I don't think they look filled.
Weird, isn't it? The cake sides were perfectly even when they were first filled.
And, yes, there are 3 layers of filling. It's chocolate fudge buttercream, which was also what the cake was iced with, so I didn't need to make the filling layers thick at all.
What recipe did you use for the cake in the pic, if you don't mind my asking? I have a recipe for Kentucky Buttermilk Puddin' Cake which is an absolutely heavenly scratch chocolate cake that would most certainly bulge like a spare tire if I weighted it down, because it's a very fat-heavy recipe and is really tender. Just curious.
It's the WASC recipe, using DH Devil's Food with the following variations: 1/4 cup cocoa added to each mix, all water replaced with brewed coffee, 3 whole eggs per mix rather than whites only.
It has a lovely texture, but does tend to produce a few air bubbles. I suspect excess air is why that particular layer bulged. It's interesting to note that the bottom layer of the cake is simply the other half of the layer above it, yet only one of the torted halves bulged. Okay, maybe it wasn't that interesting. 
dianeLM,
Yes to all your questions. I thought that too, but if you look in my pics, it was the 2 most recent cakes in my pics that I am referring to. I don't think the decorations are that heavy, but that's all I can think of.
I have had it happen other times too, but not until after doing quite a few cakes, so I don't know what I am doing differently lately. I still have the problem since I started weighting them too. 
It makes you nervous, though, when you can't tell what's going on.
Oh well
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