I am decorating a cake for a friend's son. He is deathly allergic to eggs. Everything was prepared at her home for safety reasons- fondant, buttercream (I made those) and the cake, which she baked yesterday.

She texted me this morning to let me know she had filled the cakes and they were level and resting. ( I am coming to decorate them this afternoon.) She added that the top was cracking! Her exact words were: "If it was California, people would be evacuating!" I haven't seen a picture, not sure how bad it is. The cake is wrapped and awaiting frosting, I didn't ask her to crumbcoat it because she was uncomfortable with it.

The cake was to be frosted with chocolate buttercream and covered in MMF. I had concerns about the structural integrity of an eggless cale, so I'm not completely surprised. Any suggestions for how to help the cake survive until tomorrow afternoon to make its debut? Maybe chocolate wrapped? It is a 3 layer, one tier cake. Should I put skewers through it to help the layers stay on top of each other or would that just make a new point of weakness? The cake is fairly dense.

We may be baking cup cakes tonight instead, but this is the first time he has had a birthday cake because he was only recently cleared to eat wheat flour. It would mean so much to him if he had a cake, I don't want to disappoint.

I'm very appreciative of any advice you have!

We did one layer eggless and they never held together. Three layers was kind of ambitious. Maybe try & glue it together with the icing or like you said some ganache.

Xantahn gum is sposed to help it have a little stick to it-iveness.
She probably used it.

Thanks for the suggestion of Xanthan gum. She considered it, but didn't use it because she was afraid it would be slimy. Having never tried it, I had no advice to offer. I will suggest that she try it next time. Do you know how much to use?

When I arrived tonight, the cake looked fine. The cracks she saw were small fissures on the surface only. The three layers were 1" each, so I put a 1" base under it to get the desired height. It seemed very stable when I left. We'll see how it looks tomorrow when I put the finishing touches on it. Cross your fingers!

It won't be my life's masterpiece, but fine for a 10 year old's birthday. I'll post a pic tomorrow.

You do have to use the right amount. I think maybe a half teaspoon per one recipe is in the ballpark--it needs to be researched & all for that particular recipe I think.

Ok. How does one go about researching such a thing?

The cake survived, it was not a picture of perfection, but that was due to fondant/frosting issues not the fact that the cake was eggless. I forgot my fondant smoother, which made a difficult batch of fondant even more tough to work with. I'll pass your info along to my friend, although, after this ordeal, I think she sees only cupcakes in his future. lol

I'm linking to the photo, but it's in my photos if the link doesn't work.
http://cakecentral.com/modules.php?name=gallery&file=displayimage&pid=1861064
Thanks again!

The picture of the cake is flat amazing.
Wonderful work--he had to have been delighted.

I googled eggless cake with xanthan gum and hit pay dirt.

http://www.google.com/search?q=eggless+cake+with+xanthan+gum&rls=com.microsoft:en-us:IE-SearchBox&ie=UTF-8&oe=UTF-8&sourceid=ie7&rlz=1I7DKUS

And while it's not exactly the same you can take a blob of fondant to help smooth the fondant cake too. But no flaws are evident to moi. Great job!

Thanks for all your help, K8memphis! I really wish I had thought of the fondant blob trick! I was so stressed about the cake collapsing, I did not give everything else the attention it deserved. I have passed your wonderful advice along to my friend.

I also appreciate your kind words, I know a little crease in the fondant won't ruin the day for a 10 year old, but it sure bothers me.

Have a blessed day!

You're welcome, Cake-Buddy!
My boy was on a special diet growing up so I know what it's like.
(He turned out to be a chef in some of the finest restaurants in the country.)