Help? I made a cake for a friend's brother for a TG BD celebration. The choc cake with choc mousse filling (thank you cake central recipes) and fall colored basketweave was beautiful at my home. I drove at a snail's pace to deliver and still the top layer shifted somehow. It was only a 9 inch 2 layer cake, so I did not dowel it. I put a thick "dam" of BC icing around the bottom layer and then filled with the choc mousse, but it shifted during delivery. The basketweave I had to fix several times due to 9 inch not matching up at the finish was broken in several places when I arrived. I shimmied the plate to make top layer go back in place, explained to Chris the dilemna and she kindly said it was fine and not to redo it (no time that day before Thanksgiving!) How can I keep this from happening this week when I bring her another for her sister's BD? Do I dowel a 2 layer 9 inch cake just in case? I have a theory that since the cake was not in the refrig more than a half hour before I delivered it, the mousse was soft and that may have caused the cake to slide apart. Any other suggestions?

I think your filling and icing were too soft to transport. Next time plan to refridgerate lyour cake longer.
Even dowels may not stop this from happening. The cake can tear and the layers still slide apart if things are soft. I really believe refridgeration is the key.

I'm with classicake...your mousse was to warm, maybe a bit too much of it as well. Next time, place your mousse/filling in and place it in the fridge for about an hour then take it out and ice the rest of the cake and put it back in the refrigerator for about 2 hours before transporting it.

Good luck!

Thank You for this advice; will try less filling & added refrigeration this week and post the result. Thank you both very much!

Just wanted to add my agreement with possibly too much or warm filling. I had my first ever in my life slider cake about a year ago, and when I did the "autopsy" on the cake to figure out why it happened, I narrowed it down to too much filling (and the guy in front of me who slammed on his brakes didn't help much, either!! ) I had 2 tiers already put together with a center dowel and like someone mentioned above, the cake slid right thru the dowel.

(The bride got a 3-tier cake instead of a 4-tier cake ... we were still able to serve the 4th tier from the kitchen. I discounted her $200 .... and she was still so happy with everything that she tipped my crew $200. So it worked out ok!)

No problem! I hope it turns out better this time!!!!

Thank You to indydebi, too. I thought the cake might have split with a dowel, espec since it was a soft choc cake ...delicious but not very dense. Thank you for sharing your mishap and it did work out well

SUCCESS THIS TIME! I delivered a white cake with choc mousse filling yesterday morning. No Sliding! I refrigerated for a few hours after filling with less mousse & adding a crumb coat. Went back and frosted with buttercream, deco'd with maroon writing and roses and reverse shell border, and Chris said the cake was beautiful!!! Their Mom's name was rose, and the cake was for her sister's 70th BD. So far, everyone is happy (Chris will bring it to her sister today). Thank you for all of your suggestions with my sliding layers