I need some advice. I just made a bridal shower cake for my sister. It was 3 tiers, BC icing with gumpaste flowers that I made days in advance and a fondant border.
I completed it and was really proud of it- everything fell into place. It was refridgerated overnight and the cake made it to the venue (driven up a large hill) perfectly.
I dropped it off at 10am, the shower was at 1pm.
The cake sat out until the last gift was open. The room did get hot. When we went to cut it, the top layer of the bottom tier had shifted. Nothing else had moved. I had dowels on all layers, according to guidlines that Toba Garrett had outlined. (I didn't use a center dowel- I didn't think I needed it and I'm still not sure it would have helped.) I think I may have had too much filling on the bottom tier (although it was dammed), and I probably should have used a less fluffy cake on the bottom. The cakes were level (I actually bought a level at a hardware store). I used cookie sticks (suggested by Toba) as dowels. What did I miss? (Help! I'm doing her wedding cake as well.)

so the cake was cut at about 2PM or even 3PM

I'd shift to if I had to wait that long in hot room.

If it was on same table as gifts then could be as simple as the vibrations from all the commotion.

If you used the paper cookie sticks, they probably got soft from the moisture of the cake.

I used them before because I didn't have any dowels and had issues before the cake shifting then leaning over.

Why would someone of Toba Garrett's calibur advise people to use cookie sticks? I am a lowly wilton instructor, and would never tell someone to use them.

I have used cookie sticks several times with no issues at all when I didn't have dowels. I think in this case it was the old fashioned heat=death for a cake issue. The cake itself will start to sort of melt and that will not help hold the support dowels in place, they will shift and down will come the cake. When making her wedding cake use a system like SPS that hooks together. It's a really stable system. The real problem here is that melted cake is not really yummy cake and your rep could be harmed by that. Try to set up as close to the reception time as possible to help keep the cake out of the heat for as long as possible.

Cat

HOnestly, I can't see a cake that was sitting on a flat table just deciding to slide. I deliver wedding cakes that sit for hours on a table before they are cut. I dont refrigerate ahead of time ... maybe that was the issue? The only time I've ever had icing issues were the two times I refrigerated a cake.

Put butter in the 'frig and it gets hard. Take it out of the frig and it gets soft. Many icings work the same way. My icing crusts well when air dried (not refrigerated) so there is no "melting" in any of the moving process.

Sounds like the supports gave out.

I too vote for the supports being the issue. Truly paper cookie sticks are not intended as cake supports.

Thank you everyone. I really was surprised to see it had moved at all. I have the SPS on order and will use that for the wedding. I never thought that the cookie sticks would be an issue- but it does make sense that it could start to break down, given the filling, and the heat of the room.

I shouldn't have had it out for so long... that did not help things...

Thanks again, I really appreciate it.

You're going to love SPS.

I just wanted to say thank you to all that responded to my post. My sister's wedding was Oct. 9th. My cake was 6 tiers, inspired by Ramacake.
I used the SPS system. My husband, scared to death, had to stack it at the reception site, because I was still with the wedding party having pictures taken.
The cake stayed in place all night! I received tons of compliments on presentaion and taste. I learned so much from the people on this website. Thank you so much!

That is great news!
Glad the cake worked out...
Do you have any pics of the cake...
Jodi