I can't believe it. I just knew this thing was going to hold together. I was making a birthday cake for a little girl (party in the morning). Well it was very soft and one of the layers broke when putting it together. Well I patched it and went on and made the cake.

The cake has been sitting here in the kitchen while I put my grandbaby down for a nap. My husband just yelled to me and the back side of the 10" tier (bottom tier) just broke off and was laying on the counter! CRAP! What am I going to do now!

I really don't want to remake this cake. It is for a friends daughter and it is a free cake. I don't think it will be a huge deal to them but hate to send it like this..........if it were a paid cake at least I would have some money to redo it...but this would put $$ out of my pocket twice if I redid it.

What to do what to do.....

Here is the cake prior to the disaster.

How is it assembled, what is supporting it....did you cool the cakes before assembling?

Maybe you could take off the top tier and put it on a larger board and redo the boarder. Then use the bottom tier that crumbled to serve first. At least she is still getting a cute cake but would have the servings they need.

Sorry this happened to you!

Very cute cake!

Hi Jamie,

Yes, I cooled them before crumb coating then they were in the fridge wrapped in wax paper for a couple days until time to decorate them. They are supported with dowls (wooden). 6 supporting the top layer and one through the middle.

I used WASC and have NEVER had it fall apart but I think I know what I did. The flour you add....I just looked and I grabbed self rising. It tastes great but is very very soft.

I don't know for sure...but I think it may have dried out, in the fridge too long without being sealed up tight? And then crumbled with the pressure of the dowels inside, and the handling? I don't know. I haven't made WASC before, so maybe someone who has will think of something. Sorry!

Well it will be ok. I talked to the parents and they are fine with it. You can't see the break from the front anyway.

I love the taste of WASC I just wish I could make it without it being a doctored cake. I hate box cakes. I hate the texture, too airy. I use to love boxed cakes until I got a great collection of scratch now it's all about scratch to me now.

I made a WASC in the wonder mold for a "big pink strawberry" - when I put on the fondant, the cake split and I had to remake the cake. This time, I made a pound cake from a white cake mix and used buttercream - no fondant and it held together fine.

I love WASC and was surprised that it split.

So sorry to hear about your troubles.
The cake looks beautiful and if it's a free cake, I wouldn't put much more work into it. Like you said, you can't see the back anyway.

Good Luck ~ I'm sure they'll love it anyway!

Sorry to hear about your disaster! I'm sure they wouldn't mind if you just fixed it. I think the kids are more interested in eating it than how it looks!

I too had a cake fall apart on me this weekend! Mine was the 16 in base of a 3 tiered cake, luckily it was before I had decorated. I was moving the cake and really need some lessons on moving and stacking. Sorry to hear about your break. Glad the parents were ok with it.

I too had a cake collapse...any ideas why? could i have put too much filling in it? or maybe the transporting to much moving? thank god it left my place in one piece but during the transport the bottom layer started shifting. so the bottom slid the two top layers ended up fine and they used those two as the main ones and served what was left of the bottom out of the kitchen. (buttercream icing with fondant accents on it.

Too much filling and unevenly cut dowels can create huge problems... And it appears that each tier of your cake is 3 layers - is that correct? I would think the more layers (or even taller layers) between cakeboards the greater the importance of having each tier perfectly level.

Here's a thread that gives frosting/filling requirements by cake size (to give you an idea if you overfilled). Frosting/frosting filling require requirements are found on the Wilton links (cake preparation guides). If using pastry filling, there is a separate chart for that, as well as Indydebi's usage thread. Indydebi also has a pictoral guide for cutting level dowels (which is included).

Oh, and a lot of info & directions for using the most common types of cake support systems (will illustrations). Also, leahs has addtional info on SPS system (as a sticky):

http://www.cakecentral.com/cake-decorating-ftopict-603925.html

As a matter of fact, the SPS system just saved a cake with a bad cakeboard from almost certain disaster:

http://www.cakecentral.com/cake-decorating-ftopict-623644-.html

HTH

So sorry to hear that patticakesnc. Don't feel bad, your not in on this alone. I had the same experience this weekend. I thought I would try the WASC for the first time. So I made this cake for my mom and dad (good thing), so I can try it out too. I used an canned apple pie filling for the fillings and butterscotch icing for the first time too. This is a 3 layer cake (as you can tell), I put the icing over it warm(the icing being warm, not the cake) because when it's cooled it's fudgy like....not what I expected. So I finally got it all together and not looking too too bad. But I was not happy and I thought this was the disaster cake. UNTIL, I was in the car with my hubby and kids, hubby driving and I'm holding the cake (with the cover on the cake holder) The top slides off and I try to slide it back on but it's too late. The cake cracked in 3 pieces and fell all apart. Good thing the cover was on or I would of had cake all over me. What a disaster!!! I don't have pics of the real disaster cake, lol.
The cake was good though. Anybody have any suggestions to why this would happen? I'm thinking there was too much filling and not dammed well enough. Do you think this cake recipe is good for doing carved cakes?

On my cake it was 2 layers per tier. I know it looks a lot bigger than a normal 2 layer don't it? The reason it I grabbed the self rising flour instead of the AP flour when I did my cake so it GREW! I think that was my problem as far as the falling apart too. See it was SOOOO soft. And smart me decided to tort it as well. Now I should have known not to do that with it the way it was. So I think that thinner soft layers added to the heavy buttercream filling was my downfall on it falling apart. I just did a baby shower cake over the weekend for a lady and used WASC and it held together beautifully. (see pic)

Kerry_Kake:
I have used the cake for carving before and it worked out ok for me. I prefer to use a pound cake for carving though. As for your cake...so sorry that happend......It Looked Great!

JanH:
Yes, I have come to the conclusion that I want SPS! I hate cutting dowls and never ever ever ever want to do it again....
But thanks so much for the links..

The really funny thing is that even with the big ole hunk out of the back that I just covered with a layer of Buttercream the guests loved it so much they all wanted my cards....GO FIGURE!