hello, i am making a wedding cake this weekend and the bride was almond flavored buttercream. i usually just do vanilla. How much almond flavoring do i put into one batch of BC dream? and do i still add the vanilla?

also, the last wedding cake i did was a 12in, 10in, 8in,6in, i noticed after a day it started to buldge on the bottom two tiers. it only had buttercream between the layers and not much. just wondering if anyone knew why that happened.

one more question. this wedding cake for this weekend requires sparkling sugar all over it. it will be done in the BC. what's the best way to stick this to it? i'm also having to make like 50 BC roses, i'd like to do in advance, do i freeze or refigerate? on wax paper? or foil?

thanks for the help, i don't know what i would do without all of you on CC.

kasie

I haven't made the bc dream so I can't help with that one!

To prevent buldging, I like to let my cakes rest for a day after baking. And since you said you didn't overfill them you may not have cut the dowels to the correct height. If they were too short there was too much weight on the tiers. They should be cut to the height of the cake-not the icing!

You can place the bc roses on wax paper and then in an airtight container and pop them in the freezer.

Not sure the best way to get sparkles to stick. Hhhhmmm.....

I always let my roses air dry. Remember that anything frozen will melt when removed from the freezer. Air dried BC roses won't melt. I make my roses on little squares of wa paper on the rose nail, then pull the rose (wax paper and all) off and put them on a cookie sheet to sit on my counter to dry.

dodi, if the dowels are cut to the height of the cake, then 1/4" or 1/2" of icing on it, wont' the next tier sink into the icing? I always cut my dowels to the height of the icing, so there is no sinking at all. Sorry I went a little dense here.

I'e always cut the dowels before I ice. Maybe if it does mush a little I've never noticed because there's a border? I'm guessing. Maybe I'm crazy! did I say maybe?

Thanks indy for mentioning the airdry thing. I wasn't even thinking that's what I did with the roses that I left in the freezer for my cake two weekends ago(and had to remake on-site)! Anybody need 20 bc roses?

I have posted an "Anti-Bulge" tutorial here:

http://www.cakeboss.com/PreventBulging.aspx

I also agree that you may have cut your dowels a tiny bit short!

Kelly that is a great step by step!

Very nice Kelly. Have you thought about adding the other possible buldge makers and making it into an article on here as the ? comes up so often?

i don't think dowels were the problem, it started to buldge prior to even adding dowels and a day before it got stacked! i just don't know, seems like the cake settled (like a house sometimes can, at least that's how my husband put it). anyway, i'm baffled.

as for the almond flavoring.....anybody???

thaks for the rose advice, i'll just let em air dry

Whenever I use Almond flavoring in anything I always go 50/50 with Almond and Vanilla. It's a great combination!

I will add under-dowelling to my tutorial as a possible cause. Most of the time, though, I think it's a matter of a not completely level cake that hasn't rested long enough. The little suckers do succumb to gravity. I like to let mine rest overnight so they get it all out of their systems.

I always use almond flavoring instead of vanilla. I just think it tastes better. I always get rave reviews. Just substitute the almond for the vanilla.