Why, Oh Why, Did This Happen To My Cake?????? (Long)
Decorating By projectqueen Updated 14 Sep 2006 , 1:26am by bunit
I had a major cake disaster over the weekend and I need help trying to pinpoint where I went wrong. It is likely a combination of things, but if I could narrow it down it would be helpfull.
I made a doll cake with the wonder mold and sat it on top of a 10" round that was baked in a 3" high pan, torted twice and filled so it was 3 layers high.
My husband did NOT drive carefully and when this cake arrived at its destination, the doll and the top layer of the bottom cake had partially slid off into the side of the cake box and the whole bottom cake was smashed and mushed.
I have made the doll cake twice before and never had any problems. I did a few things different this time and just wondered if you could help me figure out if there was something blatant that led to this cakes demise.
My husband said, "well, at least you know what not to do next time". I really don't, except NOT LET HIM DRIVE!!! I don't think he has ever driven worse. He was making rough stops at stop signs and when he got on the parkway he took the entrance ramp curve at what felt like about 40 mph.
In his defense, while his driving was definitely part of it, I think I might have still had problems with this cake.
This is what I did different:
1. I tried a new recipe for the bottom cake. I used a DH yellow cake mix (which I always use) but tried the extender recipe from this website that calls for a cup of sour cream. I have never used sour cream in a cake before. Could this recipe have made the bottom cake too soft? (I just remembered, I also substituted butter for the oil in the cake mix, too.)
2. I tried a new filling that I have not used before. I bought the strawberry sleeve filling and used it straight from the package between the bottom layer and the middle layer (with a bc dam around the whole edge like always) and I mixed it with bc and put that between the middle layer and the top layer (again, I used a bc dam). It was a very soft filling when mixed with the bc but I know people add stuff to bc all the time to use as a filling. Do you think the filling was the problem?
3. I used Wilton wood dowels between the doll and the bottom cake. I used 4 dowels and did not use a center dowel since I had a full size barbie doll that was going from the doll cake into the center of the bottom cake. Should I have used more dowels? Should I have used a center dowel even though there was a full size doll there? Also, I had a hard time cutting the dowels the right height and once the doll cake was on top of the dowels, she wasn't sitting completely flush with the top of the cake. She might have been resting on one or two of the wood dowels (I think this might have been the biggest error- well, aside from the driving). I guess that made her unstable.
When I eventually took the doll off and tried to cut what was left of the mush of a bottom cake, there were no dowels sticking up, they were all laying down inside of the cake????
Should I just give up on cake decorating? I have only been at this about 6 months and it takes me forever to decorate a cake. To have it end like this just makes me sick. The worst part is, do I have to change everything about what I do to not have it happen again? It seemed like the bottom cake was starting to bulge a bit before I even put it in the car.
Can anyone help? 
It really sounds as if one the cake was to moist and two maybe just maybe the dowels went in at an angle instead of straight therfor the weight just shifted down. Now your filling could have caused this slide two depending on how much you used . Did you have rain while you were baking?
I'm so sorry this happened to you, but DO NOT give up! You can only learn good lessons from your mistakes. Also don't lay all the blame on the driver... Unless he was flying over train tracks and slamming on the brakes, I doubt it was all his fault. I hate to have someone else drive with my cakes in the car. I cringe at every bump, but I know that my driving is no better. You just feel it more when you don't have control.
Mixing the strawberry with the BC makes it more slippery. I usually use straight strawberry and only use BC for the dam. Also don't use a thick layer of filling.
This was way too much weight for the tender cake with torting and fruit filling. You should have made the barbie cake on a separate board that would rest on the dowels in the other cake. (constructed like a wedding cake). This will move the weight off of the cake and on to the dowels. You could cut a hole in the center of the board for Barbie's legs if you need to.
HTH!
Best Wishes
Jenn
Yes, I did have rain while I was baking.
Do you think the extender recipe made the cake too moist? The sour cream? The butter instead of oil?
The filling was soft, but it was surrounded by a bc dam. As for the thickness of the fillig, I pipe the dam using just the coupler in my pastry bag and fill up to that height. So I guess it's about 1/4" or 3/8" or so?
Don't think the extender recipe makes cakes too moist - however, I do not substitute butter for oil with my extender because I think the butter makes too delicate of a cake when stacking.
Sorry - I just had a cake hit the floor of my car last week - but I was the bad driver 
Lisanne
This was way too much weight for the tender cake with torting and fruit filling. You should have made the barbie cake on a separate board that would rest on the dowels in the other cake. (constructed like a wedding cake). This will move the weight off of the cake and on to the dowels. You could cut a hole in the center of the board for Barbie's legs if you need to.
Sorry if I didn't explain the stacking well, what you suggested is exactly what I did. The doll was on a separate cake board covered in press n seal that then sat on top of the dowels. As I said, the dowels may not have all been even because there were some gaps between the bottom of the cake board and the cake below it.
I know not to completely blame driver error, LOL, since I saw a bit of a bulging issue before I even left the house. It's just when I drive with a cake, I go about 5 miles an hour and start to brake for stop signs about 1/2 block before I get to one. I was holding my breath the whole way there....
Sorry i think the rain was your culprit
Rain=Death
I now reduce my water or liquids by 1/4 cup when its raining
I never heard of this. Does all the moisture from outside actually get into the cake?
It was a rain and wind storm we had. The power actually went off but fortunately (or maybe unfortunately 
) it was after the cakes came out of the oven.
Also, I never used the press n seal before on the bottom of a cake board when stacking. I got the idea from someone here on cc.
Could the plastic on the bottom of the cake board have made it too slippery?
See, this is why I feel like quitting. There are just too many things that could have gone wrong and I will never know how to do it right without changing every single thing I do when I bake a cake, one thing at a time. 
I was holding my breath the whole way there....
HA HA I'm usually blue when we get there from holding my breath!
Your dowels should be exactly even with the top of the icing. If they were above the icing, this is probably what caused them to fall over. 
Next time try less filling and really even dowels! I also reccomend using an odd number of dowels in a ring and never a center dowel. (I'm sure someone will argue with me on this, but I have never had a problem using this method.) I hope it works out better in the future!
Please don't give up !!! I'm new at this and I am seeing more and more how these unfortunate incidents can be a great learning tool for ALL of us. I feel badly that it's at your expense, though. I dread the time when I have a terrible mishap with a cake, especially if it were to be a wedding cake (although ANY cake you are making for someone else for a special occasion is just as important). I will be HORRIFIED if I biff it big time with a cake but I'm sure it is bound to happen
Hang in there. It sounds like your heart is really in this ~ and if it is then you should continue on !!!
Thanks for sharing your story with us so we can all learn from it. I have to make one of these doll cake with my daughter in December for her niece's b'day so I need all the help I can get !!!
Suzanne
I have the hardest time with the dowels. How do you get them even? Maybe my cakes are not totally even or level to start with.
I don't have as much trouble cutting them all the same as I do getting the correct measurement to start with.
What surprised me most out of your story is when you said the dowels were "laying down" inside the cake. WOW. Does that happen when they aren't put into the cake PERFECTLY straight up and down ???
Beats me. I couldn't find them until I started poking around in the mush with the knife. I had to pick them up with the cake knife, not a single one was straight up and down. I guess it happened from the shift of the cake.
I'll post a photo when I get home. (shhhh, I'm at work now)
I think that you should have put a dowel through both cakes even though the doll was in the middle maybe putting a dowel on each side of her? The plastic on the card board might have made it slippery as well. I transported a stacked cake and didn't put a dowel through both cakes and it sounds like your disaster, the top cake slid to the side and off the bottom cake which smashed that side of the bottom cake. I'm sorry to hear this happened as I know how terrible it feels to put so much work into your cake and have this happen.
Jacqui
What do you do about the cake board between the cakes then if it's not covered? Doesn't it get all greasy and stained from the bc?
I do not think that it is the actaul rain that may cause problems, but it is humidity. This will alter you baking significantly. I have found this out since moving from WA to AL.
In order to get you dowels even, first push them into the cake, mark where the top of the cake hits then take the dowel out and cut it at the mark. Put the dowel back into the cake and it will be even.
I would like to make at least one recommendation, and that is to use the round plastic (hollow, about 3/4 inches wide)dowels from wilton. They can be cut with a sharp knife and I think they would not slip out from under the doll.
Also that seems like a lot of filling.....I make a dam but not near that much filling.
I am so sorry this happened. You just can't get discouraged, your cakes are so pretty!!!
There are disposable divider plates which have the dowels fit into rings (bkeith used them in the demo on topsy turvy cake) but I think you have to be a bakery to buy them, I would really like to get them to use.
I use plastic straws instead of dowels, they hold up just fine (Physics!) and its easier to get them cut perfectly even with the top of the cake. Sometimes with stacked cakes I will put a sharpened dowel through all layers too.
The biggest thing that has helped me transport cakes like that is refrigerating it overnight. The frosting gets hard and it travels like a rock. As long as there are a few hours before the party time for it to warm up again, it is great.
To me, it sounds like the main issue was the torting and the filling. Whenever I have a cake that is going to be stacked or tiered, I DO NOT torte them. No matter what filling you use or how stiff the dam is, that stuff makes things slide.
Don't give up! You just tried a LOT of things with that cake. I always use some sort of cake mix extender and it is never an issue ~ I don't think that was the problem.
So sorry this happened to you! Don't give up! The only thing we can do about mistakes, is learn from them... A couple of questions: Did you put some buttercream between the bottom cake board and the bottom layer of cake? This acts as a "glue" and can be helpfull in preventing "slippage".of the base cake from the cakeboard. I also agree with refridgerating the cake to let the frosting become firm to transport the cake. THis makes a world of difference. I live in Maine, and the weather is never predictable- you have to go with the flow. I would also have to reccomend, If I read this correctly, not to torte the wonder mold cake. You have different diameter cakes involved when you do, and the more layers filled with filling/icing, the higher the chance for an accident! Just my Thinkin'!! Good luck, and NEVER GIVE UP!!! --B.
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