Help! I'm attempting my first carved cake for my son's birthday and I'm having some issues with the recipe I used. It's a brown sugar vanilla cake and when I took it out of the oven it looked like it was still raw so I put it back in for a while but it just wouldn't dry out. After I cut the dome off I noticed it is evenly baked (not more raw in the middle). So I assumed it is finished. Well I went to flip one of the layers over and it completely fell apart! I'm so upset and of course I don't have enough ingredients to make another one so I substituted with a chocolate layer. Now I am terrified of using the other vanilla layers that I baked-especially since I have to carve them! They are very delicate and I can tell they can very easily fall apart if I'm not careful. Is it safe to use them or should I just trash them and start fresh tomorrow with more chocolate layers? Is there any way I can make them more stable for carving?

Thanks!

AHi Kamone, sorry to hear about your cake troubles. A lot of mastering this cake thing is simply trial and error, so don't feel bad-everybody makes mistakes, even the pros! I've learned not to try anything too difficult without a test run and/or plenty of "plan B" time. I would suggest that you first try putting your layers into the freezer for about 30 minutes to an hour to firm them up before carving. This is not ideal, since it may dry out your cake a bit. If that doesn't work, I would strongly suggest that you start over with a sturdier cake such as a pound cake. It will stand up much better for carving. Good luck and happy birthday to your son!