Hi! I baked a cake, torted it so I had three layers. Then I filled the cooled layers with Whipped Cream Buttercream icing. Since I didn't have a ceramic tile the size of my cake, I put parchment paper on the top of the cake, then I took the 14" cake pan I had baked the cake in & laid that on the parchment paper. I then proceeded to add water to the pan to give it weight. This cake sat for about 3 hours. PERFECTLY level & no bulging! Hope this helps someone else!

Water + cake = too dangerous for me. A ceramic tile will cost less than $1.50

After the cake has sat for hours with the tile on top (or whatever is used for weight), and the cake then bulges, do you scrape th sides, or add more frosting over the crumb coat? How do you smooth out the bulges?

I agree - a pan filled with water sitting on a cake is just a disaster waiting to happen.

Glad it worked for you though

thanks for sharing, very good tip... although filling with water is indeed a risk. If tile is not an option, maybe you want to try filling with dried beans, chickpeas, rice or even sugar.. as it's contained by the pan, you can recover all.

Okay! Okay...maybe this was just a disaster in the making. You all have me converted! No more water filled pans on top of my cakes. Maybe I really have been lucky, but I am NEVER going to chance it again! Thanks so much!

You can also set cans of veggies or soups in the cake pan to add weight. Or a couple of books.

yes, once it settles how do you fix the bulge? resmooth the icing?