I have to make a jack daniels bottle cake. (not standing, it will be lying down) chocolate cake with jd flavored bc, fondant covered.

It's pretty big, so I am going to make it out of two 11x15x2 cakes so I can make it a 2 layer cake.

The recipe I am planning on using is the the "amazing chocolate cake" recipe (wasc made with the dh dark choc fudge mix) unless anyone has a good choc cake recipe that would hold up better for carving?

So, it will be the two cakes layered, and the recipe says I will need to freeze the cake for at least two hours prior to carving.

My question is, should I fill and stack these cakes prior to freezing, or freeze them first and then fill and stack them?
My head tells me to freeze first, then fill and stack....but I'm worried about what will happen to the filling after it thaws...

Freeze for 2 hours??? I think that's a little much. I would torte, fill and freeze for about 20 mins, then carve.

I have also used that choc WASC recipe before and it is wonderful at carving.

I always fill crumbcoat then freeze and carve. Where in Ohio are you located? I'm from Ohio too!!!

OK, that is what I will do. And I'm glad to hear it carves well, too. Thank you for your help.

I'm near Cincinnati.

I usually fill, crumbcoat then put it in the fridge to set for a while, then carve if I need to.

Sometimes after it has been in the fridge and it's room temp again, I get this bulge of bc on the sides where the filling is. Would you happen to know what I am doing wrong when that happens?

The bulge is from the natural process of the cake as it settles, you are doing nothing wrong.