I made a 3 tier stacked buttercream cake (Sizes 6, 10, 14). When it was time to cut the cake, I removed each tier. As I took the tiers apart, for example I removed the 6" and the top of the 10" icing come off exposing the cake. How can I prevent this from happening in the future? Do I need to insert the dowel rod 1/8 taller so that cake will rest on the dowel rods and not the actual 10" (bottom) cake.

You can use a circle of waxed paper underneath your cardboard or wait until the BC has crusted before stacking.

You could sprinkle coconut, or powdered sugar.

too many people are allergic to coconut or simply hate it. I would not use coconut. Really if you're using a crusting bc, just wait for it to crust before stacking.

Cut a circle of wax paper the same size as your upper tier and place between the tiers.

Thanks for the replies. Soo, if I wait for the BC to crust before stacking, when it time to disassemble the cake, the buttercream on the top of the bottom tier will not get stuck to the bottom of the smaller tier. I'll try the waxed paper circle as well.

Thanks.

IndyDebi, I live in a small town and my only competition is a bistro resturant that does wedding cakes on the side. Their starting price is $400.00. So I did some calculation and I believe it work out to be $4.00 per slice serving 100 pp. I guess due to their overhead.

My question, I know I should not price my cakes to low and I should not undercut the competition. My base starting price is $200.00 minimum order, B/C $3.50 and fondant $4.00. Do you think this is reasonable? Should I increase my starting price to $300. Not to point finger, but my cakes are more appealing to the eyes.

Ok just to let you know, I am a very busy person and my time is valuable. I am a single mom of 3, an Accountant and studying towards my accountant license. I guess I answered my question, lol. I may increase the price.

Yes, I do think your pricing is reasonable, based on the above info (I dont' have any info regarding yoru costs or anything). If you can offer more (i.e. better) cakes than the competition at the same price as the competition, then you are offering your clients more for their money. ("Yeah, Jane, but for the same money you can see this other cake lady and get a really AWESOME cake!")

Thanks Indydebi.

how much powdered sugar. I just made a 3 tier that i put together on site and it still stuck. So, the icing was crusted, and i laid powder sugar down. It wasn't put together 1 and a half hours!!

I use a crusting BC, which I let dry thoroughly and it still sticks. How are you guys not getting it to stick? Once you put the next tier on, you are breaking the crusted seal. It sticks to wax paper also.

It just plain sticks to whatever I put on top of it.

I leave a hair of space (using dowels) between the tiers. Works for me. The border hides the space.

With my icing recipe, I have .... seriously ..... picked up a 6" BC iced cake, holding it on the sides, just like you would a fondant cake, with no damage. Contrary to what this sounds like, the icing ISN'T rock hard when eaten ... still the nice creamy icing that we all love on a cake! Ergo, when another tier is on top of it, it holds up fine and doesn't stick.

Can't tell you what I might be doing different than anyone else. That's one of the disadvantages of being a "until it looks right!" type of cook/baker!

@indydebi ‍ Sorry, old post, but I was scrolling through and was curious about the same thing questioned in this post. I typically transport my cakes stacked and use a small dollop of buttercream to "glue" the tiers together to help prevent shifting. I have to travel very curvy roads to get into town with every cake so it mentally helps assure me that it isn't gonna slide off the bottom tier. lol! Is this not necessary?? Will the cake not shift if it is sitting only on the dowels and/or on parchment paper? I use a crusting buttercream as well and have this issue so I'm trying to figure out a better way.

I never transported cakes stacked unless I had a center dowel rod down the center (which is also not a guarantee if the car in front of you slams on their brakes.  Ask me how I know that.  go ahead!  :-)   ).  If I just sat the tiers on top of each other, I'd wait until I got to the venue, then would stack and finish decorating (which never took more than 15-20 minutes, max).  As mentioned a number of times above ... let the icing crust before assembly and the icing wont stick to the cardboards when the top tier is removed.  See the photo link in my comment above for a pic of how easily it comes apart.

Hmmmm. Mine always crusts before stacking and I still have this issue. 

I have delivered many, many stacked cakes as much as 50 miles away and seldom had a problem.  Cover the area that  the next up tier will sit on w/finely ground cake, cookie, cracker, or cereal crumbs, or even coconut (but many people are allergic to that so I don't use it.) before setting that upper tier on it.  Usually  the border work is enough to hold it.  Yes, you can use a center dowel, but as IndiDeb said, don't rely on it:)