I Am Just Heartsick...this Is Long...
Decorating By tatetart Updated 14 Sep 2006 , 9:59pm by fourangelsmommie
WOW...what a cake, I'm impressed! I'm gonna say that your friend called you asking if she could take the top of the cake off AFTER she had already tried it, and figured out it wasn't gonna work!
Your friend must've hit some bumps on her way home.
I once transported a cake for a 20 minute ride in a taxi. I held the cake the entire time to compensate for all the curves in the road. when i got home and opened it the box to show my husband, a corner of the cake (sheet cake) fell half way down the cake! I fixed the cake by using two spatulas to pick up the corner. When I recalled my taxi ride home, I remembered that the taxi hit a speed bump pretty hard and believe that that's what caused the sides/corner to fall.
The fact that the sides of your cake bulged on all sides makes me believe that she probably was not careful driving home.
UPDATE!!
My friend called to tell me that the cake made the trip okay.
In fact, the nine hour trip only took her seven hours. 
And the cake managed to survive it. hmmmm...
I told her how literally nauceas I had been since the whole thing happened, because I couldn't pin down a cause and she was a little taken aback; and reassured me that since it had never happened before, she was fairly sure it would never happen again.
Then she called again to tell me the cake was a hit at the shower and cut and tasted great. Then she again told me-once again- that all this was a "one-time fluke" and would NEVER happen again. 
I think I am pretty sure what happened now. Thanks for all your kind, supportive comments. You kept me bouyed through this whole mess.
And now it is becoming even a little comical... 
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