Best Boxed Cake For Tiers... I Know.. Lame
Baking By MELROSE315 Updated 30 Jul 2012 , 9:17pm by littlestruedel
I am a amatuer baker with limited on time for baking. I made a wedding cake with pilsbury yellow and chocolate layers. 3 tiers with 3 ... 2 inch layers. turned out well but the cake is so moist it seems to flatten and make a lumpy look.. only happened on th bottom layers. I used 4 dowels a tier with cake boards. I hoping to use boxed cake that would be a bit firmer? I know I should make from scratch but with 3 little boys and work... you all know .... not much time left for baking cakes! please help.
you needed more dowels! four wont hold all that weight I think its supposed to be a dowel for every 1.5 inches or something like that.
Yeah I think more dowels. So for instance if it's a 10" cake have 8 dowels, 8" have 6 dowels, etc!
Because your tiers were extra tall - 6", you should have had more support. In the 10" bottom tier you need 6 or 8. They can be (nice, thick plastic drink) straws or dowels - straws are super easy to get and cut where as dowels can be hard to cut and leave a taste behind in the cake 
In the 8" tier that is supporting only a 6"er you only need 3 placed in a triangle pattern.
thanks so much... I followed wiltons tiered cake direction and it did not mention more than four dowels... easier fix than changing cake receipe! thanks.. great to have other "cakers" to help!
I know I should make from scratch but with 3 little boys
Why? It is a personal preference, and also what your client base prefers. I don't charge enough to perfect scratch recipes, and my modified box mixes taste great. And between you and me (and the internet, lol) I just don't have the time and patience to learn how to bake from scratch. But Betty knows, so that is good enough for me!
BTW, I have 3 boys too, and a girl. The one girl is as much work as all 3 boys put together...8 going on 18.
You could use a WASC recipe which starts with a box mix and its usually fairly sturdy cake. I use this recipe and everyone assumes its scratch 
WASC: White Almond Sour Cream.
Since the cake-mix companies have modified their formulas and the amount of product in the boxes, you might want to look up how people have adapted the doctored WASC recipes to these changes, otherwise you'll end up with unusual results.
I think the 3 - 2" layers if the problem. The rule of thumb is support for every 4" of cake. When I make 6" tall tiers, it is actually two 3" cakes doweled and supported like tiers but iced and decorated as one cake. The buckling you had looks like the weight of the upper layers in each tier, not the weight of the tiers above.
I also second the pps about needing more dowels (unless you are using an SPS type system) in the future.
You might also try adding pudding mix and reducing a bit of the water for a more dense cake.
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