i need to vent or ill start crying again!
yesterday I did my 2nd wedding cake and it was a nightmare. It was a 3 tier stacked 8, 10,12 yellow cake mix cake,pudding filled, covered in fondant w/ gumpaste roses(which was the best part)and some dots. Easy right! Well my bottonm tier was bulging whenever i put the top oned on so yesterdsy i redid it covered it in fondant. it was beautiful on its own.But that dam cake just didn't want those tiers on it! I stated w/ 6 dowels,8, 10 then maybe more. every time i put those tiers on. It looked uneven, unstable and ugly. the middle level started getting cracks from all the moving back and forth. so i just decided to set up on site. Oh god, what a horrible day. the table was on a slightly slanted surface. that is not what this cake needed! everyone was watching me set up this leaning cake. we put a book under the table and something under my cake stand . but still i knew this cake would not last the night. so i removed the top tiers to find all those stupid wooden dwels slanting to one side. so iremoved all the dowels, set them straight and tried again. this was quite the show for everyone, my chef was actually sitting holding the top tiers while i did all this work. I know they felt sorry for me. I worked on there for a hour! So dowels straight I put the tiers back on again. ok looked ok. but started leaning th other way. so I said this cant be a 3 tier cake, its just not going to work. left it as 2. What more could i do? I took the bottom tier back re covered it. it was mess.the whole thing was like the 4 torted layers were shifted all over the place. but i re decorated it annd brought it back. and set it next to the other 2. I didnt have much else i could do. The bride said dont worry about it. she is an aquaintance.when she said what do i owe u .i said dont worry about it . its not what u ordered we'll talk later. Originally it was a 350$ cake. but i didnt know what to do in this situation. What would u have done? I stayed for the party, drank too much, went home and cried my eyes out. They all complemented me on my cake and all the effort i put in to save it.Does effort account for anything? But most important WHY DID THIS HAPPEN LIKE THIS? Should i charge something? Do you guys use those wood dowels? IS box cake not strong enough? Is pudding too slippery? I cant give up the fight for perfection!

First so sorry things went so bad for you but I'm sure it felt so much worse for you than what the bride and everyone else actually saw! We are our own worst critics.

It sounds like a combination of things. I use a doctored up mix that is stable enough for tiered cakes but it really depends on your mix imo. I use DH for some of my cakes and on it's own I don't think it's strong enough but Pillsbury can be a bit sturdier since it already has pudding in the mix and it also depends on if you use just the egg whites or whole eggs (whole egg recipes are a bit stronger/denser). Adding pudding mix to a box mix will help make it a more dense cake.

The pudding may have very well been too slippery but that can be corrected but a good, stiff bc dam and filling below the level of the dam, especially since the cake was torted you can get away with far less filling on each of the torted layers since you will wind up with 3 layers of filling.

Also very important to make sure all your dowels are exactly the same height or you will get leaning.

I hope your next creation doesn't give your such a headache (or hangover! )

Best,
~d

i used a large bulk box cakemix that is add 7 cups water and eggs(only 4) per six lb. box. i didn,t realize that cake strength is soooo important. i did the dam thing. But also i left the cakes out of fridge for hours so the condensation would evaporate +the bottom tier was barly refridgerated as i made it same day. Could that be part of the problem? I was also cutting each dowel seperately after sticking it in cake then cutting,pretty stupid huh? Thanks for your support!

I use to use the wooden dowels and started using bubble tea straws and they don't move once you put them in find the highest point on the cake and measure you lengths from there that way you don't have any stress on the bottom cakes. Once you have stacked the cake fill in with icing any gaps and then put your boarders.

cakesondemand, where do you get the bubble tea straws? Are they sturdier?

What are bubble tea straws?

I had problems with bulging and/or leaning when I cut the dowels too short. They have to be level with the top of the icing/fondant. I started cutting them just SLIGHTLY higher and putting a little icing - by the time you border it, and little gap is filled.

Okay, so the working part of the evening stunk, but think of all the free booze you had! Let's see a picture of this cake. While I'm sure it was a tremendous pain, I bet it looked better than you believe and still served its purpose wonderfully. I don't do very many huge cakes, but I would think that the bottom layer needed to sit a bit longer. I probably would have made that bad boy first. I think I would also start carrying a level with me to set up cakes so that you don't have to deal with bad tables. Do professionals typically carry levels?

so you guys dont have problems with dowels sliding/ leaning within the cake? thats what really seemed to screw me up.

bubble tea traws are large thick straws Duff uses them for his cakes (Ace of Cakes) you can buy them at oriental markets they come in bright colors I pay about .99 per large bag
http://www.bubbleteasupply.com click on supplies
there is also a thread here on CC where I had my information on them thats when I started to use them I love them easy to use cut with scissors.

i have a couple of pics from far away cause i couldnt stand to look at it up close.I will post soon. Leveler would have helped. As for bubble tea straws they are big thick straws that you can drink the tapioca thru,in oriental tea.

I love the Wilton hidden pillars and will not go back to using wooden dowels. It only takes 4 per layer and the legs of the plate on the next tier go right in the pillar so the weight is distributed evenly on the pillars. And then you use 4 more on the next layer. I have not had any issues since I started using these over 14 years ago.

I use the plastic dowels from SugarCraft that have screws in the top. Just unscrew to the height you need! I LOVE THEM!! I know, I know, people will say "But, what if you don't get them returned?" I don't sell my wedding cakes; only do them as gifts for people I know. In the 1 1/2 years that I have used them....I lost 3 and that was because I forgot to tell the bride to return them.

I have also used 1" PVC pipe because the "feet" on the separator plates fit into them perfectly. If I'm stacking a cake I'll use a separator plate that is just a bit smaller than the cake (on a cake board as well and duct taped to the plate). Works great!

I HATE wooden dowels because I can never cut them straight! The last time I used wooden dowels was about 7 years ago and I put, what seemed like, 500 dowels in the cake! LOL

Sorry you had trouble (and possibly a headache) from this wedding! That's why I only give them as gifts!

Beth in KY

I am with lisascakes, the hidden pillars are wonderful. As long as you make sure to cut them all the same length, you will not have any problem.

I think your dowels leaned because of the pudding. It takes a bit of experience to learn how much is too much.

Don't feel bad, I had a simialr experience when I did a freinds are a couple of years ago. Between to much pudding and not enough refrigeration combined with 1 short dowel, I almost lost the entire 4 tier cake. I did just what you did, I shortened it a layer and moved on. Chalk it up to experience, next time will be better.

Oh you poor thing! You must have felt so under pressure with all those people watching you. We all have bad cakes and bad set ups, don't beat yourself up, just think how fortunate you are that the bride was so cool about it all. Imagine how awful it would've been with a bridezilla

I also use bubble tea straws, just ordered some off ebay, $0.99 for a 40 pack.
http://cgi.ebay.com/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewItem&ih=019&sspagename=STRK%3AMEWN%3AIT&viewitem=&item=290046812239&rd=1&rd=1
Shipping is really affordable too!

If it were me and I was uncomfortable with how it looked I would charge her only for the cost of the ingredients/flowers, etc. But, that is just my opinion.

Beth in KY

When you get the chance you should post the pics you have of it, I´m pretty sure it wasn´t as bad, we tend to be our worst critics... I would give her a discount OR her next cake for free OR give her both! I wouldn´t just charge for ingredients, you spent time on it! You delivered and I bet it was yuuuuumy! Did the bride tell you something else? She liked it, right?
Oh, and I´m also guessing it was your pudding filling what caused the problem.
HTH and chin up!
(If you really are loosing sleep over this, charge her $250 and give her a free cake, a "I´m sorry" cake )

Poor baby!!!! I don't know how to make you feel better. I love my scratch cakes because I never have to worry about the cake bulging. I use staws or wooden dowels (depending on the weight of the cake). I would never use a pudding filling for a stacked cake(unless you refridgerated the cake after you filled, iced and stacked it). Depending on what kind of fondant and the decoration on the cake I will sometimes refridgerate the whole cake and let the cake thaw for about 5 hours on site. Hope this helps. Better luck next time!
Andrea

found this info on another site

Can Wedding Cakes Fall Down???

There are 2 reasons for this:
1. Dowel rods are made from wood. Cakes are moist. Have you ever smelled moist wood? The pieces of cake that are touching those dowel rods WILL taste like wet wood.
2. Dowel rods can slip. If only 1 dowel rod slips, your cake will lean, or even worse, fall on the floor.
Have you ever heard a horror story about someone's cake leaning, or falling on the floor, dowel rod slippage is usually the reason why.

this was on a site selling steel cake supports

I made a practice cake with pudding, and it slid! I wish I had a picture of that one! I put it in the fridge to firm up, and then I heard my ice maker dumping ice cubes........or so I thought! It was my cake with chocolate roses. Oh, what a mess!!! If I ever use a pudding filling again, I will sprinkle the top of the filling with powdered sugar or chopped chocolate pieces.

Before transporting a cake, ALWAYS put it in the fridge for at least a few hours. This helps firm it up and make it more stable.

As for charging the bride..........tell her your concerns then tell her to "pay whatever she feels is fair." My guess is that she'll give you full price. People are often very understanding and generous.l

Thank you for all your help and support. My conclusion is : i'm staying away from wood dowels forever.I just ordered the wilton plastic supports, straws and the adjustable screw type. I think that if the support was studier the cake strength and filling wouldnt have been as important since there would be no weight on the base cake. I will test these out and put weight on to my base cake and see. I will refrigerate as long as possible always. I will get a leveler for tables. I will learn from this and be better from it. You guys are great!

I guess that I would say "Never say never"... I just don't trust the straw method... I just don't... OTOH, Thank you to the women who suggested that I use PVC Pipe for the stacking in my early days working with wedding cakes and the physics of support.. There is no getting PVC to buckle It makes a cake as solid as can be and supports the next layer up without wobble. I also agree with the PP that the pudding was probably too runny for this cake.

Now, I use dowels again, but I have somewhat of a clue on what I'm doing... I've traveled with stacked cakes over 250 miles all set up and no problem. I also use a central dowel through each layer of work as an added piece of stability. The important thing is to learn your physics and experiment a little for what works for you. You could also try thicker dowel rods..

I know it's heartbreaking, but just put this in your toolbag of "what NOT to do" and consider it another stripe earned and move on from it. We often learn more from our mistakes than from our instant successes. As for what to charge, charge what you need to in order to not feel resentful of making this cake. That means, a MINIMUM of the COMPLETE materials list (laundry soap, hand towels, ingredients, etc.)..

i agree w/ dodibug- bake a day early so the cakes can settle.

i've used both straws and wooden dowels, measure one from the highest point, then cut all the same size for that tier. one long dowel through all cakes in the center.


the pudding can be made thicker, i'd put half the milk and it would be much more stable, plus refrigerating before transporting would be helpful.

here is a dense doctored mix recipe that i've used under fondant on tiered cakes and it holds up well:

one mix w/ pudding in it
1 c flour
1 c sugar
1 c sour cream
4 eggs
1 box of pudding (flavor matching the mix)
1/3 c oil
1/2 cup liquid (water, milk, coffee, juice, fruit puree-what ever works)
1 tsp vanilla
1/3 tsp salt

bake at 325- much more dense than just a plain old mix-


sorry that happened, how frustrating. i do agree though that you mad e a big effort and should charge- if you want to discount it , fine...but you did do alot of work, regardless. if you are resolved at not charging - you could say, i spent x amount on supplies (inluding every little thing, paper towels, gas to the store etc) and this is how many hours i spent....pay me what you think is fair. you should AT LEAST be reimbursed for supplies.

Wow....we are sisters! Not very fun huh? I guess the best advice I got was to check in with the bride and get a feeling from her as to what she thought of the whole cake situation.
Charging her for your materials seems like a good idea. And if she feels like you deserve more, she will give you more.(I hope)

Did I read that you torted more than one layer? That scares me to death! The one and only time I did that the cake was a heaping pile in the cake box by the time it got to its destination!

I also gave up on the wooden dowel rods and use the plastic dowels... much better! Be sure to post a picture ! We would love to see. Thanks~Rhondie