I've been reading posts for days and my head is spinning! I need to make a Lightning McQueen 3D cake for Sunday. I did a trial run last night and it went less than smooth. The cake crumbled horribly and started to fall apart. By the end, I got the shape I wanted but I shudder to think what this cake will look like when it is served. I am going to bake an extra 9x9 cake for the cab part instead of using pieces. I think that might be easier. But here are some questions:

1) I didn't put this cake in the fridge or the freezer prior to carving. Should I? If so, fridge or freezer and for how long? Do you torte the cake prior to freezing or are you freezing the individual cakes and filling later? Do you let it thaw before carving it? I saw so many opinions on this but I needed a method that followed this from beginning to end. I'm afraid I'm mixing and matching steps incorrectly here.

2) The cake will be a total of 4 inches high, at it's tallest point (two 9x13 and one 9x9). Would this require a dowel? My test cake seems pretty stable and it's only going from my kitchen to the dining room table.

3) My son loves chocolate ganache and I wanted to use that as my filling and to cover the cake under the fondant. Would this change things? Or would I do it the same way?

If it helps, I'm using a Duncan Hines Devil's Food mix with pudding and sour cream added to the mix to make it denser. Any advice would be appreciated. My kids are having a double birthday party on Sunday and in-laws, my parents, and other family are descending on Saturday so I need this squared away so I feel confident enough to pull it off for the party. As if I wasn't ready to cry already! LOL!

Secrets of cake carving:

http://cakecentral.com/cake-decorating-ftopict-59361-.html

HTH