On the weekend, I did a 3 tiered birthday cake. I am super happy with the way it turned out, but there was a bit of a mishap when I went to disassemble the cake to cut it. I removed the dowel that was through the cake, then figured I'd separate each tier so that people could have their choice of flavour. The problem was, when I removed the top layer, the fondant and buttercream from the middle layer stuck to the bottom of the top tier's cardboard round. Does that make sense? Anyways, the same thing happened with the icing from the bottom tier. How do I separate the tiers while leaving the icing on the cake beneath?

i have only done it once, and the tiers were fondant covered (I don't know how this would work with buttercream/icing), but i put a little corn starch on the top of the bottom tier, then a round of wax paper (slightly smaller than the next tier) then the next tier (which was on a thin cake board/cardboard) then repeated on top of that tier. I was present at the cutting and with a large spatula lifted one off the other with no problem. I did not have the center dowel though. hth

I usually put a thin layer of cake crumbs between each tier; on top of the icing but underneath the cardboard circle of the tier above.

I use coarse sugar between the tier and the plate.

If you're using a crusting BC, you should let the icing crust before setting the next tier in place. I never have this sticking problem with my icing (I cut most of my wedding cakes so I saw it firsthand). If you look at my "how to cut a wedding cake' link (in signature), ,you'll see the indentation of the upper tiers on the icing yet the icing stayed in place.

AHow does it not stick if its construction stacked like in the photo? If there are plates with columns in between I could understand but if they are right on top of each other right on top of the frosting how does it not pull off?