does it still fall over?

Why yes it does, especially if there is an office full of my husband's employees there to see it!

I could just die and I think my DH is going to take away my baking for his office priviledges.

He suggested I bake a whimsy cake for the birthday guy today. So I made a red velvet with cream cheese.

I used the cutout in the bottom cake method. I put 4 dowels in the bottom to support the top, then 1 through the whole thing. There was a pothole covered by the rainwater on the way there. I stupidly took it assembled. So I think there was some compression there. Then I told them to eat it quick because I was afraid it might fall because of that jolt.

Well, they all went to lunch at which time the cake fell. They cleaned up the mess and salvaged the bottom. The lady I work with on the birthdays told me not to worry it was still yummy. They saved the plaque with happy birthday on it. And put it on a piece of cake for the birthday boy.

Apparently the top cake slid off the top. How the hell does that happen with a dowel, a cake board, and it being down in a well? She said the sides were coming off. Can the humidity affect the cream cheese icing? The cake was out of the fridge for a couple hours...I wish they had eaten it when I told them too. But I know that the cake should stand up as long as they need it.

We are donating the cakes so I can practice and they can have a special treat on their birthday. That was a treat, eh?

Well thanks for letting me cry on your collective shoulders. i think I can get up and go finish the cake for Thursday now. thankfully it is just a 8" round. hopefully that won't fall over.

I will post the picture of BEFORE it slid off when(if) I can stand to look at the pictures later today..... I thankfully do not have an after.

Thanks

Julia

Well, first of all the title of your post had me rolling on the floor.

Secondly, it was a for free cake, they were probably thrilled to have it. Hopefully you took pictures before delivery. I delivered a whimsy assembled but I didn't use cream cheese icing, I used IMBC. Still, it is a soft, non crusting icing, so if it was going to slide it would have with that icing as well. It seems to me it could be that rather than sliding, the upper cake probably cracked and disintegrated around that center dowel. Did you assmble the cake the same day you baked it? I just find it is much easier to work with a cake the day after it is baked. And for whimsy cakes they really need to be frozen solid when you are carving them.
How tall was each tier? Were the cakes 2 layers, or 3 layers high? I used 3 layers, but each one was only 1 1/2" tall, so assembled with filling and icing they were about 4 1/2" tall total. I used all the same size for each layer and then carved them to a flower pot shape, then slanted the tops. The bottom cakes did have the circle cut out for the upper cake to nest in. I doweled in about 4 places on the larger cakes, and 2 on the smaller ones, then a long dowel sharpened to a point and driven through the center of all of the cakes when it was completed. Another thought, was each cake tier on a cardboard circle? It really needs to be for stability. I cut mine a bit smaller than the cake bases so they would fit easily into the nesting hole. And the type of wooden doweling you use plays a big part in it as well. Colette Peters warns not to use doweling from Home Depot, it splinters and can snap off inside the cake from the weight, causing your cake to collapse. She recommends 100% oak doweling because it is so strong.
We were just discussing this in another thread this morning, Imartsy is making a whimsy as well.

I will never do another one in this method after seeing Colette Peters and my friend Michelle Packs "Crooked Cake" the cakes are all flat surfaced, no carving, no hole for nesting in the lower cakes. The slant comes from styrofoam wedges between the tiers and the styrofoam gets cut into the slant. Here is one of Michelle's that I simply love. And in Colette Peters book "Cakes To Dream On" she has instructions on how to make and assemble the crooked cake. On Michelle's, she covered the styrofoam wedges with icing to resemble tree trunks. http://www.cakestrings.com/crooked%20garden%20tiers.jpg

Sorry to hear about your cake malfuntion....The wooden dowels from home depot are fine to use...(Have been using them for 3 years and havent had a fallen cake yet)...I would suggest putting shelving liner under your cake ...its also from home depot...and its magical ...Nothing will move....Also...Dont worry...the cake was free..and it was a practice..

Did you tell them that was part of the "whimsy effect"???? Don't worry about it, it was a free cake and they should be grateful no matter what. I'm sure it tasted yummy anyway.

I feel for you that that happened to you. I am always so scared that is going to happen to me. Luckily I haven't had this problem, but I know my day is coming. I can't believe with dowels and everything it still fell off. How hard did you hit that bump?

Ok I can finally stand to look at the pictures of the cake (read "bleeping cake").

The first is when I carved it, then the second is after the icing, then the third is after decorating.

The layers are 10,9,8 and then 8,7,6. There is a well cared in the bottom cake and 4 wilton wooden dowells in the bottom and a long one through the whole thing.

The only thing I did differently is I used the icing tip to fill the cakes. I am thinking that I should have used like regularly do, it seemed like a ton of icing.

I froze before carving, then refrigerated before and after icing because it was cream cheese buttercream.

I like in Charleston, SC and it was rainging to beat the band.

I took the cake out at 9:30 to decorate, drove it at 11:30, it fell straight onto the table at 1pm.

Apparently then the sides of icing jsut started to peal off.

So what do we think??? Humidity? too much icing? Too warm? Get another career?


I have a question about the stacking with the styrofoam. If the cakes are tilted, but not carved...how do they stay attached to the board? I have that Collette Book and I will check it out but....I think i did somethign to mes this up..other people can do it..why did mine fall in an office FULL of people?

Thanks for your help and again the support.

Have a super evening..

Julia

I am by no means an expert on whimsey cakes but my first thought on looking at it, especially the before icing is on the cake, is that you have lost some stability by having torted and filled 3 times. Personally, I would only put a filling between the individual cake layers. I wouldn't torte because I just think all that filling weakens the cake's integrity, no matter how many dowels are stuck in it. Add to that the rain and humidity and I can understand why it fell! BTW - your thread title cracked me up!!

I think the combination of the humidity and the type of cake and icing probably had something to do with it. I haven't ever made a red velvet cake, but aren't they pretty soft?
The directions on this site for the whimsy cake say to tort it that much and when I made mine I torted it that much, but I never got to complete and deliver mine because the bride canceled it 2 days before the wedding (still bitter).
It does look like it is starting to sag a little in the very 1st picture that you posted. It looks like it wasn't quite in the center of the cake. Maybe it needs to be directly in the center of the cake. There might have been too much weight on that side even with dowels.

Ok, I am making myself a whimsy cake for my birthday in 3 weeks. I think I am going to do this....see where you see the flaws and let me know. I WILL make this cake. My husband very nicely told me that I was not to give up, that was what practice was for.

Chcoclate Cake, Vanilla icing (hi ratio to fight the heat and humidty)
1. bake 3 layers of a 9" and 4 layers of a 6"
2. Cut 1 cake of each size at an angle
3. Place 2 9" layers with icing in between (NO torting)
4. Place the 3rd layer on top with wide ends on same side.
5. Crumb coat bottom layer, place in freezer.
6. repeat 3-5 on top tier
7. remove bottom tier from freezer and carve bottom in SLIGHLTY (we're talking you need to really look to see it)
8. remove top tier from freezer carve bottom in slightly.
9. trace bottom of top tier on parchment paper, cut out
10. Place parchment circle on bottom tier DIRECTLY in center.
11. Carve out a well 1 inch deep at the shallow point.
12. Place 4 dowels flush with the bottom of well cut in the bottom tier.
13. Ice both cakes
14. Place top tier on bottom tier while it is crusting
15. Place long dowel in center of top cake and push all the way down
16. Complete icing and decorating.
17. drive it around the neighborhod, bring back in the house, leave it sit for an hour or two.
18. Pray, Pray, Pray

Do we think that will work?

Thanks for your help. i want to make this way work, before I move on to the wedge kind. i will master them all!! "Insert maniacal laughter here"

Hugs
Julia

Julia,
I wish you all the luck in the world and hope you are not in a straight jacket by the end of your little baking experiment.

-Grace

Here's looking at you, kid!! You can do this! After all it's JUST cake!!

I have been Dying to try one, I just haven't had the time or the occasion! Good luck to everyone who dares to attempt the Madness.

I once dropped a cake in the parking lot of Michael's minutes before my last Wilton II class. I quickly picked it up, decorated it in class, and served it up to some of my high school aged nephews, who couldn't care less it was on the ground!

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"I once dropped a cake in the parking lot of Michael's minutes before my last Wilton II class. I quickly picked it up, decorated it in class, and served it up to some of my high school aged nephews, who couldn't care less it was on the ground!"


EWWWWWW!!!!!!!ROTF... seriously I cannot stop laughing at this one!!!
!!