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I am making a wedding cake for a friend this Saturday. It is a 12" round bottom tier (WASC w/cannoli filling & vanilla bc), 8" double barrel tier (guinness chocolate stout cake with bailey's bc/filling) and a 6' top tier (lemon w/ raspberry filling & vanilla bc). I'll be stacking at home with the SPS.
I baked everything monday, wrapped & froze them and took them out today to torte/fill/ice/etc so that I can put the fondant on tomorrow. Everything was going along perfectly until.....
I left the 12" to torte/fill/ice for last.... As I was putting on the 2nd layer, it broke apart as I was putting it on the bottom layer, into about 5 pieces of various sizes. I pushed/pulled/placed it back together, placed the top layer on and then crumb coated it (which was difficult due to the somewhat jagged edges of the middle tier). It is sitting in my fridge now, getting nice & cold but I am worried, worried, worried that when they go to cut it (or worse, when I am driving!!) that it will crumble away. Am I playing with fire? Should I rebake the whole bottom tier (and make more cannoli filling and make more buttercream which means I need to go to the store because I need more ingredients and cant make more cannoli filling until tomorrow when I can get to the one store that carries Polly-O...)?? or is it ok? Have you ever had a layer break apart like that? How did it turn out?
Hmmm, it's hard to know with that one. Sometimes the filling and frosting is enough to keep it together. They say frosting can cover a multitude of sins! But a wedding cake? If it was me I'd re do it otherwise I'd be stressing about it, and would loose sleep over it.
If the broken layer is one of the center layers AND you are using SPS, then I really would worry about it.
Once they cut it, it will be held together between the filling and the other layers.
It is the center layer - I am using the SPS plates with wilton hollow dowels (my cakes never seem to be EXACTLY 4 inches each and every time). Dora, did you mean I really WOULD worry or I really would NOT worry?
My concern is this - for the cannoli filling, I allowed my ricotta to drain for 24+hours, if I redo the tier, I wont be able to let it drain at all. SO...a cake with a middle layer that has broken but been patched back together OR a brand new tier where the cannoli filling is crazy watery. Which is worse?? ACK! (I'm kicking myself, because I *always* use as additional cake board to support a layer that size when moving it - but I was in a hurry and just figured, "eh. I can do this quicker with my hands! duh!"
How many layers is your 12" tier? If the broken layer is in the center, it has cake and filling beneath it and on top of it, and it's frosted on the outside so it looks fine, you should not have any trouble with it. Especially with the SPS system as there won't be any weight on the cake to stress it.
Phew....Thanks!!!! It IS the center layer of a 3 layer cake and I AM using SPS. This is the 1st wedding cake I've ever done and I am not digging the added stress and pressure. This is not what I call - fun. ;)
I would have switched it and used the broken one on the bottom and used some frosting to "spackle" it together. The fact that it is the center layer and not stable would worry me a little.
That being said, a wetter filling will actually help you here. It shold help to keep things together. I would worry less about transport and more about when it is plated. Those fault lines where it broke may come apart.
My concern is the plating. I wont be there to see what it looks like. I ****HOPE*** things go ok!!
Most likely... things will be fine. We'll cross our fingers (and spatulas) for you! :D
Phew! All went A-OK. The cake actually sat out for WAY too long (7 hours!!) before serving but everything went perfect, including the cutting/plating. I stacked at home & used SPS and drove and hour+ in stop/go traffic. Bottom tier is 12", middle is a double barrel 8", top is 6". Here is the finished product...
http://cakecentral.com/g/i/2851014/a/3264500/sort/display_order/
Ah, a lovely cake. So glad everything went well. I was following this thread with bated breath, although I didn't have a clue as to what might happen!
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