I have been making cakes for 4 years now. I need help figuring out what I have been doing wrong. My cakes seen to have a line around where the 2 layers meet. It seems fine the day I decorate them, but when I see pictures of them at the party I seem to see a line around it. I use buttercream as a filling and then crumb  coat my cake and fondant over it. Could any one help me with is problem. Here I have attached 2 pictures for you all to see. Thank you. :)

Well only one picture came out here is the other one. 

Im not sure the official term but its the air coming out from your cake settling.  Alot of people on here reccomend filling your cake then putting something heavy (like a clean floor tile) to lightly press on it, as to let all the air escape before icing it. There are a few old threads about it--ill try to find em!  HTH

Cakes look great BTW!! 

I see it both cakes.  Let me ask you 2 questions.  #1 When you are putting the layers together do you put top sides together?  That is do you put the 1st layer right side up and the top one top side down?  #2 Do you pipe a line of buttercream around the edge of the cake before filling.

Also I bevel the top of each cake.  I found this made all the difference.  

auntginn, thank you for helping out. I put top side down on the bottom layer and top side up on the top layer. I do not pipe a line of butter cream when the filling is buttercream. Only when it's a differant filling other than buttercream. 

Acakecentral.com/t/633571/my-newest-trick this thread talks about cake bulge.

it sounds as though your buttercream is getting too soft and the pressure of the layers and weight of decoration may be pressing it down and out.  i saw on here the other day that someone uses rolled up fondant as a "dam" so that that doesn't happen.  not sure i like that idea, especially on a buttercream covered cake, but might be worth it to try on a fondant cake.  i haven't had this issue, i generally use a stiffer icing for filling or let the cake settle before i decorate.  hope this helps!

I bevel, pipe and I keep my cakes well chilled through out the icing process.  If I think I've had them out to long, I pop them back into the fridge for a bit.  The icing sets up nicely this way.  Also I do not cover my iced cake with fondant until they have chilled for at least 3 hours. This way the buttercream sets nicely and stays firm while covering with the fondant and can be moved around easily if I need to.

A

Yeah your cake is settling

cakemommy, thank you I think that's my problem with the bulging. I will try the tile method. 

I have always been gentle with my cakes. I never knew to press down on them to get air out. It sounds funny but for now on I will be using a tile piece as one of my cake tools. :)

What a great idea cakemommy.  I had plexiglass bases and their all gone now.

Hi there, very cool cakes! If you are putting cakes top-to-top (flipping over the top layer so the flat bottom is on top), you have to make sure that there is absolutely no dome left on the cake before you do as it seems to make the filling squidge out. When I started baking, I made this mistake all the time (i hated wasting yummy cake!) until someone told me. Even a slight curve at the edge caused a problem. I have since started using a wet tea towel around the cake tins when baking them and it reduces the dome effect, thereby meaning I have to waste less cake! Hope it helps :-) :-)

I don't put any weight on my cakes and I dont use a dam if my filling is butter cream.    The only time I have seen a buldge start is when the cake sat out waaaay too long....I mean HOURS and HOURS.  How long had this cake been out? 

Oops...one other time....I had a tiered cake travel for a couple hours.   I had my supporting dowels cut flush with the top of the cake.  The jarring around and bump road just constantely vibrated the cake the entire trip.   Now, if a cake is traveling, I cut the supporting dowels just very slightly below the icing...if that makes sense.   I make sure the top tier is setteled down good...not squishing the tier it is sitting on....just not as high as before. 

No, my problem is the bulging. From not letting the cake settle.  I have been reading about it in leah_s thread. :)

I know....I was talking about the buldging.     My responses was when I had bulging a couple times.