I am SOOOOO upset. 
A friend from work asked me to make her daughter's first birthday cake. I quoted her $50 (low, but I'm still perfecting my skills!). She sent me a picture of the cake she wanted. I made it with 8, 6, and 4 inch tiers, and it was all buttercream (fondant accents) with vanilla strawberry mousse for filling. I supported it with plastic straws in the bottom and center tiers, and it was also 85 degrees here today.
I have only made 3 tiered cakes before...a fondant wedding cake, a baby shower cake, and a Mad Hatter cake, which all turned out just fine.
Anyway, I spent two days on this cake, making all the fondant accents, etc., and went to set it up this morning. She was pleased, and the cake survived the party (barely). I am so embarrassed. Thank goodness she's a friend ...SEE PICTURES BELOW!)
I've booked a wedding cake, and now I'm terrified of doing it. Don't know what I did wrong to get such a horrible lean.
I am so sorry that happened to you... It is a beautiful cake though! Next time use wooden dowels instead of plastic straws to support your tiers. You can buy them from a local hardware store or from Michael's or AC Moore. Just place them into the cake to measure the correct length, then trim and put back in.
Good luck with your next one. I'm sure it won't happen again. 
I have no answer, solution, or suggestion....bump.
But I must say, despite the lean...your cake is beautiful. I think you did a great job!!! I completely understand how you feel though and I'm sorry! I am sure someone with much more experience than me can provide some insight....and I will learn from this as well.
(your cake is beautiful)
well it looks gorgeous-did you transport it and it shifted??? maybe a center dowel would help next time?? It really is lovely-
I think it is precious and had you not said that I would have thought that is the look you were going for, the whimsy topsy turvey look, it is simply precious. I don't know about straws.. I have just purchased boba tea straws, fat thick straws and will be using them on a layered cake next weekend.. hope they work!
I would suggest that the straws may not have been evenly cut. Also, I have never used straws for fear of this exact thing. I only use dowels and then I use a long dowel hammered through the whole puppy!
Don't let this freak you out! You can do it! We all have our train wrecks!
The cake still looked cute
Stephanie
When I first saw the picture, without reading your post, I thought your cake was supposed to be a tilted cake. It still looks good. I've only done one stacked cake and I used wooden dowels. They are more sturdy.
You know what I thought the same thing.....it looks great leaning! I thought it was a topsy turvey cake! 
The cake really is beautiful and please don't let this dissuade you from future orders - or straws!! Looks to me like they weren't level... how many did you use? I would have put 6 in the 8" and 4 in the 6". Are you measuring and cutting each straw individually? I measure one and then use that to measure the rest. It is more important that all your dowels be level to each other than the cake.
Thank you all...I really appreciate all of the nice compliments, and the great suggestions!
It HAD to be my straws, because before stacking, each tier was perfectly level. Something to practice!!! I also may start putting a dowel through the entire cake, for extra stability....you can only imagine how wobbly that thing was!
Your cake is absolutely beautiful!
And yes, I use wooden dowels. I also use one long one to put through all three tiers. It helps keep them together so much better.
Thanks so much for starting this thread-it gave me one of those "ah-hah!" moments! I've stacked quite a few cakes and never had a problem til last week, with one similar to Stacey's. Three round tiers, first two stacked great, top one was crooked! The method I've been using is sticking the dowels into the cake, marking them at the point that the dowel sticks out of the icing and then cutting them one at a time (and probably all dowels ending up a little different length). I guess I didn't want the top tier to "sink down" into the icing anywhere, since I'm not always sure that my icing thickness is perfectly even on top. But this totally makes sense, to cut all the dowels to the same height, even if the tier is partially flush with the tier underneath and partially slightly gapping or sunk a bit into the icing, so that the cake ends up level in the end. Am I understanding this right?
Julie
I use wooden dowels and measure them to make them exactly the same, but had the same problem a couple weeks ago. In my case, the cake was moved after stacking which I am sure contributed to the leaning. I also think perhaps the cake was not firm enough to keep the dowels in position to support the weight of the next layer. The cake I did was devils food in the botton layer and butter cake in the middle. I have gone to using a cake mix along with an extra egg and pudding to make a more dense cake when I am stacking, so hopefully this doesn't ever happen to me again.
I am SOOOOO upset.
A friend from work asked me to make her daughter's first birthday cake. I quoted her $50 (low, but I'm still perfecting my skills!). She sent me a picture of the cake she wanted. I made it with 8, 6, and 4 inch tiers, and it was all buttercream (fondant accents) with vanilla strawberry mousse for filling.
First of all, you need to STOP giving these things away. Did this even cover your costs? I charge $45 for a regular 8" round or 9x13 and I'm NOT THAT GOOD... but I also not willing to work for free. You said you worked for two days on this on TOP of the costs of making it - which includes pan useage, mixer useage, electricity useage etc... It will be VERY hard to tell her next year that the same cake you charged $50 for last year is not $100 because you have "gotten better". It's just not good practice to price too low!
Melissa
I think the cake turned out beautiful. It has a whimsical look.
I've only used ordinary plastic straws when I was putting a small tier on top of a sheet cake, but other than that I'd go with the dowels.. With dowels you won't have to worry about this happening again. You can cut a lot of supports from one 36" dowel rod and they're a cheap investment.
I'd like to know what the boba tea straws are and where you get them.
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