I was very excited about my new Williams SOnoma snowman cake pan and decided to make it yesterday. The directions called for a spice cake which they gave the recipe for. I followed everything to the letter, the cake is two sides to the snowman and stands up - it is really quite pretty. Anyway, the cake cooked fine, I "glued" the two sides together with buttercream, allowed it to set in the refrigerator 1/2 hr as per the directions. I put the buttercream on the board and stood the snowman up - so far so good.

Here is the problem...I decorated the entire cake then went to put it in the refrigerator and it fell over and the head came off!! There was NO saving this one. I am sooo dissapointed but I have no idea what I did wrong. Can anyone help? What do you do to keep the cake standing up? The how on earth do you transport them???

It really was pretty for a moment or two

oh I hope you get an answer to this one. I'm doing one for this weekend and am now worried. I've haven't done a stand up cake yet.

bump, bump.

Here's another thread on the snowman pan, everyone seems to be having trouble with it...
http://www.cakecentral.com/cake-decorating-ftopict-54096-.html

First and foremost: Your cake must be pretty sturdy! The nice recipes they publish in the magazines sound nice and taste great probably, but they're light and flimsy for 3d-ing cakes!

Make the "durable for 3D" recipe here on CC.

NEXT: DOWELS!! That's what makes every cake "stand." You need to drive a wooden dowel, sharpened on the end like a pencil, down through the full length of the cake. It needs to sink into your (doubled or tripled and taped together) cake boards. That way, the cake is stable, glued and nailed to the board, and it's going to be able to be transported!

Any questions, pm me!

HTH,
--Knox--

I think Knox has got it down pat. That sound like it should work. Definately must have a sturdy cke to start with.
June

The problem with the Williams-Sonoma cake pan, is that you bake in 2 pieces - front and back, and THEN put it together. There is a vertical seam, so putting a dowel up through it won't work. On the other thread we've been discussing using dowels from one side to the other at a slant...

I agree with 7yyrt, I also read the thread she linked you to and it is not that you are doing something wrong, and I don't believe it is the cake type either (dense enough or not)... I truly believe it is the pan, it is pretty skinny for the height of it. When I saw this pan at my local WS I saw one of the girls that worked there removing the cake they had for display, she said that it was their 4th attempt and they all kept on falling, wouldn't stay up for more than an hour, and with no fancy decorations! I would call WS and ask if you can return the pan, that is what I would do. Best of luck!

Now that I've taken a look at the pan, it does seem very "thin."

I might try baking once more, using a durable cake recipe, cross-doweling, and vertical doweling. (As well as the "gluing" using icing, etc.)

After taking all the known practical steps as a decorator, if it still came apart--WS would have to credit my account for said pan!

Hopefully (and sensibly) these steps all put together should work beautifully. It's a beautiful pan pattern. Let's hope it works for you!

Keep us posted, and GOOD LUCK!
--Knox--

First - thank you everyone for all of your help I thought I was going crazy!!

Knox - I am going to take your advise and use dense mic, cross dowling,etc. I will let you know if I have any luck...