i am making a 5 tier cake this morning for a function on thursday morning. its a good thing i started today because i am having a problem with my cakes!!!

first off, i am using this extender recipe;

one box mix
4 egg whites
1/3 cup oil
1/2 cup water
1 cup sour cream
1 box pudding


i baked two 10" rounds late last night and i thought they rose a ton in the oven, when i took them out, the rise went back down to a normal height. i took them out of the pans after 10 minutes and the cakes seems to take on a slight hourglass shape (bulding at the top and bottom, and more narrow in the middle. the top edges also slightly peeled upward. it didnt look too bad, i just noticed it was slightly different. i did use 3 whole eggs and a mix with pudding in it.

well just now, i took the 2 8" rounds out of the oven. the same thing happened , only way worse!!! these ones are really hourglass shaped. the thing i did different today is i put 4 whole eggs and i also went a little crazy with the "pan dropping" to get the air bubbles out.

ok, so now i think that the 10" is salvagable, but i will not be able to use the 8" because i am covering this in fondant and the ridges would be way to noticable.

I NEED HELP!!! what do you suggest i do? scratch the extender recipe? its got to be sturdy since it is tall and has fondant....i feel like a big idiot for taking this one and now i am stuck. help help help!!!

bump

Have you tried to trim off the offending parts of the cakes? This might help ya. That way you'll get the sides nice n straight and perpendicular. Just don't forget to do a crumb coat with your frosting. And you can also trim off those curly bits on the top there too.

This is when frosting and decoration comes to play! I usually use a nice crumb coat (a little heavier) to even out the mistakes. With a little creative decorating your cake will look fab...as well as taste delious!

I just use a box mix with 1 box of pudding for every 2 mixes. I have never had any trouble with them not turning out. They are sturdy, but moist. I personally would re-bake if at all possible, you probably could carve the sides to make them straight, but that would alter the size of the tiers. The last thing you want to be doing is fighting with a cake, trying to salvage it. You will spend more time doing that than you would re-baking the whole thing.

Oh, and don't forget to use cake strips when baking.

i actually just did try to trim it right before i came backe and saw your suggestion...i do awesome at trimming for 3d cakes but to cut a round circle that isnt angled is too hard. i figured i could cut the 8 into a 6 inch but i angled it on accident and so now i am back to square one...maybe i will use those for the top 4 inch cake that has to be carved into a dome shape for making a 3-d kings crown. at least the cake TASTES good. ugh, gotta laugh at these bad days...its the only way to keep my chin up. i do still need to figure out how to make the rest of my cake though. i dont think a 4" and a 10" will sufficiently match the 5 tier that was promised!!

any other suggestions?

I would rebake. I use the white almond sour cream cake recipe for 95% of my cakes - it is very sturdy and bakes up beautifully (and that one recipe makes 15 cups of batter!!) For a chocolate cake I just use ONE extra egg and ONE box of pudding per DH Dark Chocolate Fudge cake mix.....and that works like a dream too. Sorry your baking is trying your patience today.

I use Betty Crocker devil's food with devils food pudding for chocolate. Duncan Hines white with white chocolate pudding for white.

any ideas how this turned out stange? too much liquid? sugar? fat? heat? argh- i dont recall this happening the other times.

I always use a DH cake mix, add one more egg than the box calls for and a box of pudding mix. It works well and is sturdy enough for stacking. Sometimes I add 1 tsp almond extract when I make the butter cake too. HTH! Good luck with your baking!

Here you go! I bake at 325 - and use the homemade oil/crisco/flour to grase the pans - works like a charm everytime!

WHITE ALMOND SOUR CREAM CAKE

2 boxes white cake mix (Iprefer Duncan Hines)
2 cups all purpose flour
2 cups granulated sugar
1 ½ teaspoons salt
2- 2/3 cups water (adjust when adding fruit see below)
¼ cup vegetable oil
2 teaspoons real vanilla
2 teaspoons almond extract
2 cups sour cream (16 ounces)
8 large egg whites

Place all dry ingredients in a large mixing bowl and stir together with a wire whisk. Add the remaining ingredients and beat on a low speed for 2 minutes. Bake at 325 degrees until the cake tests done.

This recipe makes:
One 14 round and one 6 round OR
One 16 round OR
One 12 round and one 10 round OR
One 12x18 sheet cake OR
One 12 round and one 8 round and one 6 round

Half the recipe makes:
Two 8 rounds OR
Two 6 rounds and 6 cupcakes

Double the recipe makes:
One 18 round and one 10 round OR
All 4 sizes of the wilton petal pan set

I had a wedding cake get messed up a while back- it was going to be covered in fondant, so I tried to "cut my 6" topper cake out of messed up bigger cake, and then spent an entire day trying to get the fondant to look right- I eventually had to rebake- and make new fondant since I had crumbs all over the stuff I tried to use- I wish I had just rebaked from the start- I barely got the cake done in time!
i am still new to this, but I use DH and use buttermilk for water and butter for oil, haven't tried putting pudding in it, but I am going to now!
I do soak them in a sugar syrup and haven't had any problems but I also have nver made one with so many tiers.
I think if you dowel it correctly you should be fine
Make sure you let us see a picture when you are done!

I found this:

http://www.cakecentral.com/cake_recipe-2322-0-White-Almond-Sour-Cream-Cake.html

cake balls ha ha???? i am rebaking like this

betty crocker mix (w/ pudding in it)
4 egg WHITES only
1/3 c oil
1/4 c water
NO EXTRA PUDDING

using my bake even strips at 325'

i agree with those of you who mentioned fighting with a cake...too much time wasted. i hope this one works, if not, i'll go with the sour cream almond.

i will post pics on wed or thursday.
5 tier whimsical with alternating stripes and bubble cakes in turqoise, blue white and leaf green with touches or red...a red 3d crown at the top using gold painted luster dust, gems and pearls. a top overlay of fondant, trimmed with large zig zags with the edges curled up and piped with silver royal icing beading on the edges.


ha ha, i know what some of you are thinking...how can she pull that off if she cant even bake a cake mix? gotta laugh!

ha ha did they look like this??? Just gotta laugh b/c it happened to me!! I don't know why.... but I just torted the cakes and filled it and it turned out just fine. I'll try to upload both pictures - before & after Of course I just did buttercream - w/ fondant it might show up even better.... or worse - don't know! Good luck!

Here's my forum's post about my cake "waist" http://www.cakecentral.com/cake-decorating-ftopict-39255-waist.html

Thanks for the recipe and info Quad!!

Sandy

You're welcome!

imartsy, EXACTLY!!! you had me busting out laughing because i remember reading your thread when that happened...bizarre huh? way good save on your icing. i was too afraid to try filling it in because i am sure the fondant would still show every imperfection. anyhow, i decided to rebake ( i really only lost 2 8" cakes, i will use the 2 10" because it hardly affected those. i did bake a bit differently and they are much better now, but now they are full of air bubbles because i was afraid to bang them out by dropping or tapping the pan again. oh well, what a learning lesson - hopefully i can hide the air pockets with the icing.

thanks also to the two of you who posted the almond sour cream recipe.

imartsy, that is the strangest thing I have ever seen! It looks like it tried to implode! And it actually looks like it kind of twisted during baking! Good save though! No one would EVER know (well, except for US) that your cake didn't bake up perfectly!

I have used both sour cream and pudding mix and it came out fine, but I also added extra flour and sugar to the box mix.

I would say make them again. Thanks Quad for the recipe, I have been looking for it.
June

You're welcome. I have that recipe not only saved on the computer - but mulitple places in my kitchen too! It isn't on here anymore.

I pray that does not happen to the cake I have in the oven right now! Hope it all works out!

the cake is done- its in my photos

It's GORGEOUS!!! You did a wonderful job on it!!

thank you- you want to know whats funny? the cake that was "messed up" actually tasted better than the revised "correct" recipe. it was soooooo moist and flavorful!