I have a question.......that i know has been posted many times but i keep trying the tips posted here and nothing works.

when stacking fondant covered cakes I keep getting the bulging sides and the cakes do not look leveled. I am not sure why, I have allowed the cakes to settle usually over night. I use firm filling with a buttercream crumb coating. the cakes are refridgerated and then covered in fondant. I have even let the fondant covered cakes sit over night before stacking them to see if this will help the situation but no such luck.

I have used the foil covered cake plates thinking they are more sturdier than the plain cardboard ones. I even use the dowels and the center dowl as well. any suggestions would be very helpful here

thanks in advance.

I'm probably not the one to answer your question but the following link might help:

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

Good Luck

Are you cutting your dowels below cake level? I know from reading (because I'm also practicing with stacked cakes) that if it bulges to try cutting the dowels 1/4" higher than the cake. There will be a slight gap but nothing you can't cover up and this prevents anything from laying on the cakes.

Another thing, maybe your dowels aren't going in straight?

are you covering your cake and tucking the fondant under the cake? sometimes when you do this it wil create a bulge. If you trim your fondant just to the bottom of the cake it should help. I've noticed with my cakes, if the fondant is too thick it will drag down the cake and create a bulge where the was none before

in theory the weight of your upper tiers are resting on the dowling and not the cake itself.
so if they are bulging the lower cakes must be carrying a good deal of the wieght.

are you dowling before or after fondant application?
make sure your cakes are level as possible ( each seperate layer) before stacking.

double check the hieght of your dowels that they are not grossly different in hieght

not sure what else - but I am sure someone will know! good luck

i had a problem once with the bottom layer of my cake looking like it was sinking, especially a couple hours after i had stacked them, but i found out that my dowels were not the same height, i agree that you need to cut your dowels a little longer so the layer above isnt even touching the bottom layer at all.

I agree with aswartzw, are you cutting your dowels 1/4 inch higher than the highest part of your cake? Also are you cutting your dowels all even?
I use a mortar for my dam, it's 1/2 BC and 1/2 cake crumbs (usually what I cut off the cake to level it.)
I have only used dowels a couple of times and I have no pictures at this time.
But from the class I took the above are all important.

Hope this helps.

Good Luck.

you guys are great thank you!

I love the article posted it seems very helpful.
I think I can try letting the cake sit out of the fridge overnight before covering with fondant? it might help? and I think maybe it would help to cut the dowels a bit higher and put more of them in the cake!

thanks again!

The only time I've really had the problem is if my cakes were not perfectly level when I put them together...just like the cakeboss link showed. Best of luck to you!