What I am doing is this - Taking cakes out of freezer, letting them partially defrost, filling and stacking the layers, covering with buttercream. The cakes then sweat and the BC won't crust. I live in Michigan, which has been very hot and humid lately. It seems if I don't use this procedure then the cakes want to crack when I lift them to put the layers together. I don't have airconditioning (yet). Is there something else that I can try? Yesterday I let the cakes completely come to room temp. and when I put the 2nd layer on it cracked right in half. I use a the WASC recipe.

TIA in advance for any tips or help.

I freeze my layers when I'm icing in buttercream just to make the buttercream easier to get smooth, but I don't use a smoothing method that depends on crusting. The thing is that condensation is unavoidable if the cake is still frozen. If you have a turntable, you might try what I do. I center my cake base on it and put the first layer down. Then I fill it and smooth it by holding a bench scraper on top of it with one hand and I turn the turntable with the other hand. I put the second layer on top, crumbcoat all of it and then put the buttercream on it. I smooth the top like I did the filling and I smooth the sides by holding the bench scraper at right angles to the turntable right up against the side of the iced cake and turn the turntable with my other hand. It comes out very smooth. If you need to adjust any details, you can do it with a warm spatula.

What are you using to lift your layers? Do you have cake lifters?

I use 2 large Wilton cake lifters, slide one under the layer from one side and the other lifter from the opposite side...this way the entire layer is being supported.
I position the layer over where it needs to be placed and gently remove one lifter and than the other. If the layer isn't perfectly lined up I just sort of nudge it until it's right.

I don't freeze or refrigerate my layers so I'm working with room temp layers and they don't crack.

For really large layers I have 2 sideless (for lack of a real word lolol) cookie sheets that I use to transfer the layers using the same method as I do with the Wilton lifters.

I give the lifters and the cookie sheets a light spray with Pam so that the layers just slide right off without sticking. I torte my cakes too so I'm working with 1" thick layers so they're pretty fragile, but they still don't break using this method.

I'll try to find a picture of both and post a link for you.

Edit to add....I never had luck icing a cold or semi frozen cake layer. The same thing would happen to me, the icing would just pull away from the cake when the cake came to room temperature because of the condensation.

Here's the Wilton lifter
http://www.google.com/products/catalog?hl=en&cp=19&gs_id=1d&xhr=t&q=wilton+cake+lifters&qe=V2lsdG9uIGNha2UgbGlmdGVycw&qesig=fdUM6BKlHqDi0McBApXUew&pkc=AFgZ2tlnU_AfwdLDHibQTAnZt1tZq6QROk1QuQb_RSLnrAy9Eh2umwXVjdkot9lJuUOnYPYVDpEcgOGHG_TNOCy5HQz-lnUU_A&biw=1280&bih=552&bav=on.2,or.r_gc.r_pw.&um=1&ie=UTF-8&tbm=shop&cid=15361486752990945936&sa=X&ei=_rM-ToyyNJLrgQee7LWNCA&sqi=2&ved=0CDsQ8wIwAg


Here's an example of a sideless cookie sheet similar to the one I use.
http://www.target.com/Farberware-Nonstick-Insulated-Cookie-Pan/dp/B000FNAA84/ref=sr_1_15?ie=UTF8&searchView=grid5&keywords=cookies_sheets&fromGsearch=true&sr=1-15&qid=1312732245&rh=&searchRank=target104545&id=Farberware%20Nonstick%20Insulated%20Cookie%20Pan&node=1038576|1287991011&searchSize=30&searchPage=1&searchNodeID=1038576|1287991011&searchBinNameList=subjectbin%2Cprice%2Ctarget_com_primary_color-bin%2Ctarget_com_size-bin%2Ctarget_com_brand-bin&frombrowse=0

HTH