Help! Bottom Tier Is Failing.....
Decorating By twinsplus14me Updated 14 Dec 2011 , 1:52am by kakeladi
I've made a WASC cake with a 12" bottom, 9" middle and 6" top tier. The bottom is collapsing on one side. I have cardboard separators between the tiers as well as some dowels. I thought for sure it would be strong enough. Did I do something wrong? Any recommendations?
Yes, it was already stacked. The dowels were apparently too small, slid sideways and the bottom layer cracked. Thank goodness I had enough time to bake the bottom layer again. Better now than later. 
What size dowels do you usually use on bottom tiers for heavy cakes? I guess this is the heaviest one I've made so far. I've never had this problem before.
Dowels/straws that are about 1/4" wide are enough. Look at the ones Wilton sells at a store to understand the size.
How many dowels did you use and how did you measure how tall they needed to be?
A WASC cake is not really that heavy
To support a 9" tier you should use 5 to 7 dowels spread around an 8" circle. - none in the middle.
I used 1/4" dowels but I only used 4. Next time I'll put 6 or 7 in. Lesson learned.... 
"slid sideways" That's always the problem, or potential problem with dowels. Because they DON'T CONNECT to anything, when they go even a wee bit off perfectly perpendicular, they can cause your cake to fall.
Seriously, get yourself SPS at your earliest moment.
"slid sideways" That's always the problem, or potential problem with dowels. Because they DON'T CONNECT to anything, when they go even a wee bit off perfectly perpendicular, they can cause your cake to fall.
Seriously, get yourself SPS at your earliest moment.
Definitely! I'm not going thru this again. What a mess. Thanks for the help
Hey twinsplus14me, I was wondering what your name means? Please tell me that is not how many kids you have 
Hey twinsplus14me, I was wondering what your name means? Please tell me that is not how many kids you have
I think she has 3 children... twins plus 1, for her. 
Hey twinsplus14me, I was wondering what your name means? Please tell me that is not how many kids you have
I think she has 3 children... twins plus 1, for her.
Ahhhh! I get it! lol! I have twins plus 2, then!
I have 3, a set of twins and a little surprise package that arrived 7 years later.
"slid sideways" That's always the problem, or potential problem with dowels. Because they DON'T CONNECT to anything, when they go even a wee bit off perfectly perpendicular, they can cause your cake to fall.
Seriously, get yourself SPS at your earliest moment.
What is SPS??
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