Hi everyone. I searched all over for information on this and seem to come up with everything BUT what I need.
I am making my daughters' 2nd birthday cake this weekend and will be making my first Topsy Turvey cake. I do daycare as my full time job, so I have a couple questions...
I ALWAYS use boxed cake mixes and spruce them up so they dont taste like homemade. However, they always seem to turn out too moist (seem sacraligious to say that). But they crumble when cut. Short of making a pound cake, what can I do to dense it up? I was hoping to do:
Chocolate cake with oreo filling
Banana cake with chocolate filling
Strawberry with cream filling
Any recommendations on how to make it more dense? The cakes you see on TV always seem to be so sturdy.

This is Trish's recipe, she uses Duncan Hines box mixes. Use your box mix adding 1 cup 2% milk. To that you will add 2/3 cup sour cream, 3 extra large eggs, 1 tbsp oil and 1 tsp real vanilla. Almond extract can be substituted for the vanilla if baking a white cake. Mix 30 seconds on low and then 2 minutes on mdium speed. Bake at 325. If using large eggs you may and extra egg, but not necessary.


If making a chocolate cake directions are exactly the same as indicated above except, you use half the amount of oil as called for on the box instead of the 1 tbsp indicated above.

Hi and Welcome on your 1st post, cryssek.

Cakes don't crumble when cut because they're too moist.

Cakes crumble when cut because the knife is dull.

What is happening is that the blade isn't sharp enough to thinly slice through the cake layer so you wind up using blunt force to smoosh the cake layers down and tear them apart!

Here's a superthread that you might find helpful...

Everything you need to know to make, decorate and assemble tiered/stacked/layer cakes:

http://cakecentral.com/cake-decorating-ftopict-605188-.html

This thead has popular CC recipes for crusting American buttercreams, several types of fondant, and doctored cake mix (WASC as well as other flavor variations) - and so much more!
(Such as how to use the sleeved pastry fillings and how to properly cut a cake tier.)

For the fillings you're seeking, there are shelf stable and refrigerated versions, so I'll refer you to the CC recipes section.

Oreo:

http://cakecentral.com/modules.php?name=Recipes&sort=recipename&sort_dir=ASC&op=search&chname=X&chingredients=X&searchtext=oreo&cat_id=46&x=12&y=10

Cream:

http://cakecentral.com/modules.php?name=Recipes&sort=recipename&sort_dir=ASC&op=search&chname=X&chingredients=X&searchtext=cream&cat_id=46&x=15&y=16

Chocolate:

http://cakecentral.com/modules.php?name=Recipes&sort=recipename&sort_dir=ASC&op=search&chname=X&chingredients=X&searchtext=chocolate&cat_id=46&x=15&y=18

HTH

Ditto what Jan said on the knife. A non-serrated knife seems to work better, too.