I did my first pillared cake -- I used the Wilton push in pillars. Delivered the cake at room temp and it looked perfect. When I pushed in the pillars I got the bulge in the bottom tier you see below (didn't have time to fix because I was late to my in-laws anniversary party for which this is for). Should I have pushed the pillars in when the cake was chilled - would that have helped?

I don't usually have bulge issues (anymore) and this wasn't overfilled -- I used preserves and it was a dense cake -- so it truly was due to the pressure of the pillar pressing through...or maybe it was that I was using the Whipped Cream Buttercream and I also used it for the dam and unlike my thicker BCs it didn't hold due to the pressure....

Any suggestions?

First,.........Beautiful cake !!! Your drop strings are excellent. The bulge was probably due to the whipped buttercream icing. I use that quite a bit. I always make my dam twice as thick and start it in from the side about 3/8 of an inch and just fill the gap with frosting when i do my crumb coat, Seams to work pretty good.

That is a very nice cake. I am sure it was a hit even with the bulge. I think you answered your own question. The dam always needs to be the thicker buttercream and I bet that is what went wrong. Great cake anyway!

Thanks - I thought it might be the BC - I had thick BC made for the strings should have used that....

Lisanne

Awesome strings! I can't do stringwork for the life of me!

I think chilling the cake would have helped prevent the bulging when you pushed the pillars in. We use push in pillars at work and our cakes are always chilled before we use them.

I agree a thicker BC for the dam. Excellent strings and beautiful cake. I bet absolutely no one noticed.

So, you put a wide dam of BC under the layer of fondant on top of bottom cake? Just trying to understand.... Or are you talking about the same dam you use to keep filling in...??

Actually I can see where the dam is in the top layer too. So you all are talking about using the stiffer bc in the filling dam area.... Since it is showing in the top too, it must not just be the pillars right? Pillars made it more pronounced in lower layer. OK...I got it. Now, if you chill it first, would it bulge after it warmed up? OK... newbie to shut up now...thanks!

How long did you let the cake rest before filling and decorating it? I have found that if I bake a day ahead of time, and let the cakes "rest" that when I do put them together and stack them (using a dam for the filling of course) that I do not get the "bulge". I even go as far as stacking them on top of each other (2 to a stack! - and always wrapped in saran wrap) so that they have that weight already on them, and it compresses them that much more.

If I am in a hurry and trying to bake and decorate the same day - the bulge will always appear.

Thanks all -- this had more than enough time to settle - I filled and let crust before decorating and gave it a good three hours to settle and crust before final icing put on.

I truly think it was the Whipped Cream BC I used for the dam -- I will use my more stable BC from now on for the dam and then the Whipped Cream BC for the outside!

Lisanne

That is my favorite icing but not for a dam. It will do it every time. You are right that probably is it.