In Need Of Some Help Please - Cake Tiering Correctly.
Decorating By Neeny Updated 20 May 2011 , 10:43am by sugarandstuff
Hi everyone,
I'm sure someone has already asked this question before but I can't find any answers and I'm running out of time.
So.. I've pretty much just started making cakes and I'm OK at doing 1 tiered basic cakes but when it comes to doing a 2 tiered cake it all goes horribly wrong.
I use a vanilla sponge cake recipe which I bake all the way through. Ususally for 1.5 hours at between 140 - 150 degrees. And I always check that it's cooked through. I then leave it to cool and level, fill and then crumb coat. Put it back into the fridge and then I add plastic dowels (I use the really fat boba straws as dowels) and I use about 4-5 of them. Then I apply the fondant.
When I stack the cakes they buckle and are complely ruined. I've changed my recipe/fondant/cooking time/temperature but still it goes wrong.
Can anyone give me any pointers as I have a 2 tiered cake to make in two weeks.
Thanks in advance,
Janine
The first thing is that I always insert the dowels after I've applied the fondant- that way you know where the top level of the cake is. This may be a silly question, but does your top tier have a cardboard round supporting it? Or are you just putting the cake on top of the fondant without any structure between the tiers?
Hi thanks for the response.
Come to think about it the straws must be way too short and also - no, I've not used another board on the top tier. How thick would this need to be?
Also, I'm quite generous with my fillings. Is this likely to be another cause of my problems?
- no, I've not used another board on the top tier. How thick would this need to be?
Each tier needs to be on its own corrugated cake circle.
http://www.wilton.com/cakes/tiered-cakes/stacked-tiered-cake-construction.cfm
Hi thanks for the response.
Also, I'm quite generous with my fillings. Is this likely to be another cause of my problems?
I think if you get each tier on it's own board (same size as each tier, so it doesn't show around the edges) and cut your dowels so they are the exact height of the tier (with the fondant on) - then your problems will most likely be solved. 
If after doing that you find your cakes tend to bulge around the filling line, then your generosity with the fillings may be a problem...or it may mean you just need to pipe a stronger dam to hold the filling in and/or make sure the cake has adequate time to settle between filling and applying frosting.
There are a lot of great free videos on the Wilton site or youtube that teach you how to stack and dowel a tiered cake using the cake board and dowel method. I used bubble tea or even just plastic straws for smaller cakes that works well.
Quote by @%username% on %date%
%body%