OMG what happened!! He was perfect last night, and now his whole head is cut off!! I used the pudding added mix and cooked it long enought! Was the icing too heavy maybe?? How can i fix this!!

Did you stick a dowl through it's head down to the board? Someitmes you have to do that to give it some stability.

i've never used dowel rods before!! the directions didn't say anything about having to do that! those are shisk-ka-bob skewrs in there now.

Oh i just want to cry!!!

This looks like MY 3D Christmas Tree disaster. However, I doweled and redoweled that and it still didn't work.

What kind of icing are you using? The Wilton Class Buttercream? Did you crumbcoat and refrigerate first? It COULD be that your icing is a little heavy for "Lambkins" head to handle. Maybe use a different "fluffier.....whipped" icing.

Just a few thoughts! SORRY! But, just think, when you figure this out....learning has taken place and you can help someone else down the road!!

GOOD LUCK!

Beth in KY

yup, did a crumb coat and referigated it too. I used buttercream dream.

Wow, So sorry, hopefully someone will be able to help and some of us we can learn sometime new.

I'm so sorry! Wish I could help...

I can't say for sure, but I've read that you need to use a dense cake for "stand-up" cakes. Maybe your cake was just too soft for this type of design. I don't think I would use any cake with a pudding added to it. If I were to make it I would use a pound cake type recipe or maybe the DH Butter Recipe Golden - it makes a pretty dense batter.

Sorry, I can't be more specific.

Looks like the cake itself was too moist and soft for a 3-d cake which means that when you piped the buttercream it was too heavy for his poor little head. I wouldn't use a dowel because the cake is too moist and light and would just fall off the dowel. Just try to "glue" it back together with buttercream and forget the dowel. Smooth it out and try again.

Agreed, bellejoey has the right idea. Piece it back together, and start over. Its amazing what a little buttercream can do to fix a cake. I suggest using an icing thats not so dense, but super smooth.

I must have done something wrong with the recipe, becuase i made another today and it tasted 100x better than the other one. The 1st way very dry (funny, since it practically fell apart) and just didn't taste good at all. the one today was soo yummy and moist. I baked the dowel rods into the cake, just to make sure it was supported enought!!

I never thought to bake the dowel in the cake. how did that turn out? It sounds like it would be a good idea.

Great job on your second lamb. Did you have any issues, pulling the dowels out while cutting? Cool Idea.

I'm glad you had time to re-create the lamb. I felt so bad for you but at least it all turned out great!

I made a doll cake once. Her head about fell off but I did a little "brain surgery" and doweled through the top of her head, down her spine, all the way to the buttocks . Poor little girl . But at least she survived. All j/k aside, I will dowel from now on.

What a great idea!! I'm curious whether the dowel rod caused the cake surrounding it to taste any different?? I like your technique, something I would never have thought of, but wonder if it affected the cake?

I love your second lamb, so glad you were able to finalize the little beauty. Congrats!