Ganache And Fondant Cakes Are So Hard To Cut, And Poly Dowels Really Mess Up The Cake
Business By moreCakePlz Updated 17 Aug 2016 , 4:09pm by AAtKT
On my last family cake I was practicing some new techniques: three tiered, double barrel cake covered in ganache and then fondant. The cakes were a delicate sort (red velvet, pina colada, and devils food) and need to travel a long distance, so I used lots of support.
The bottom, 9” round tier (red velvet) needed to support 8 inches of cake above so I used 6 poly-dowels. In middle tier, that was also 9” round, I used 4 wooden dowels to support the layer above and 2 long wooden dowels that went through both barrels of cake and into the board below. For the top tier I just had one long wooden dowel that when through all three layers and into the board below.
Is this too much support? When I pulled out all the support the two 9" cakes were a mess, especially the red velvet at the bottom.Then when I tried to cut the cake into the 1x2 inch serving size the pieces would just fall apart. I needed to cut big, thick wedges of cake to be able to cut through the fondant, ganache, dowel holes, and keep the cake from crumbling.
Is there some secret to getting the nice uniform slices
of cake when using ganache and fondant? The knife I used was a big, unserrated knife,
but it wasn’t very sharp. Is there a special knife that I should use to cut the cake?
I also couldn’t
get the top part of the barrel cake off.
I couldn’t lift it off whole so I had to cut it into thirds. This really messed up the pattern of cuts
that I was supposed to do.
So a question to all the professional folks out there... If you deliver a cake do you give someone special
instructions on how to disassemble the cake? Things like removing the dowels, tiers, and
type of knife to use? Also, when calculating number of servings, do you reduce the number of servings dues to damage by the dowels?
thanks,
Carol
I ALWAYS gave the person cutting the cake instructions if there was anything unusual about the cake, and even if it wasn't I would tell them that. Especially with all of the stuff decorators are doing now to make the tiers taller, the venue needs to know what to watch out for. A lot of the things we do make the venue's job more difficult, so anything I could do to give them tips for cutting strange setups was good.
I didn't add servings to account for dowels, but I don't use center dowels, either. Those do tend to mess the cake up more because you have to pull them out of multiple tiers and it just ends up being messier a lot of the time.
i'll answer a couple of these -- do you mean the poly dowel that are 3/4 inch -- if yes then you ate up half the width of the cake -- yeah that wasn't the way to go obvously --
you're right that those double tiers need special support -- i think i'd echo Leah_s and advise sps because i can't remember what i used last time but it was red velvet -- i think i used those little dudes that have the screw coming out the top that you can adjust the height --
i know what you mean but yes i increase the number of servings in every cake by 10-15% but i never tell the bride -- to allow for dowel and someone dropping a slice -- cutting their finger and bleedi-- hahahahaha all that stuff
the only advice i ever gave was to say there was an extra board hidden in the double tall tiers --
i think you did good to take the cake off by thirds -- they can be kinda messy -- i use a:
- serrated knife
- a spatula to clean off the crumb accumulation
- a pitcher of hot water to dip the blade in
- a towel to wipe it dry on
for every slice if necessary -- which is why i learned how to decline cutting cakes early on hahhahahaha
so someone else can advise on the ganache/fondant thing
Can I ask you if your cake was cold? I keep my cakes cold until serving. It's so much easier to cut nice clean even thin slices. Due to the hot weather here I don't have issues with a soft smushy cake that way but the slices come to room temperature almost within seconds lol.
You might also want to use denser cakes, delicate cakes and ganache and fondant don't go that well together. Ganache and fondant are very heavy and you need a sturdy cake to support that.
@julia1812 yes the cake was pretty cold. Actually some people said it was too cold to eat and they popped it in the microwave a few seconds to melt the icing a little. I think next time I will try @-K8memphis idea of a warm blade to cut. I checked the dowels too, they are a little less than a 1/2" wide.
@costumeczar I used the center dowel hoping to keep the top tier from sliding off the rest of the cake. There was noting holding them together except a bit of frosting glue. Is the center dowel unnecessary? Does it just give a false sense of comfort?
Quote by @moreCakePlz on 28 minutes ago
@julia1812 yes the cake was pretty cold. Actually some people said it was too cold to eat and they popped it in the microwave a few seconds to melt the icing a little. I think next time I will try @-K8memphis idea of a warm blade to cut. I checked the dowels too, they are a little less than a 1/2" wide.
@costumeczar I used the center dowel hoping to keep the top tier from sliding off the rest of the cake. There was noting holding them together except a bit of frosting glue. Is the center dowel unnecessary? Does it just give a false sense of comfort?
I personally think it gives you maybe a little more security but not as much as people think, The only time I'd use one was if I had to give a cake to someone else fully-assembled and they were traveling with it. Even then, as we've seen on here plenty of times, people can still manage to destroy a cake even with a center dowel. I'm with @julia1812 on the "transport while cold" thing. that's always a better way to keep the cake in one piece than moving it at room temp. The safest way to move a cake is to do it in sections and assemble at the reception site, but sometimes if you absolutely have to do it before you leave a center dowel can make you feel like you have a little more control over things shifting. I just never used them for my own deliveries.
Also, what @ElizabethsCakeCreations said about using a denser cake might be where the problem was. Some cakes are just fluffier than others and make a lot more crumbs when you cut them. It might not have had anything to do with the fondant or stacking method, it might just be that the particular type of cake is just fluffy.
when the cake was baked and if it was fridged/frozen can also be a factor -- real fresh cake usually needs to 'season' at least overnight -- and a run through the freezing process really does something nice to the texture -- reconstitutes the moisture -- effectively seasons it for you --
but it's not a good idea with cakes made with butter because the butter stays a teeny bit too firm even after coming to room temp and may account for many scratch cakes being deemed 'dry' -- they're not really dry -- the butter stays stiff -- will relax wonderfully with a few seconds in the mocrozapper -- which is why cut out cookie bakers will often freeze their dough -- anyway
best to you
With regards to the knife, I use a super thin flat bladed knife that I sharpen right before I cut the cake. I always take that particular knife with me when I take a cake somewhere and have been known to freak out if someone brings a serrated/thick/blunt etc knife near my cakes lol.
I once entered a cake into our local show which was cut by the judge with a blunt knife and made a complaint as it made the cake look terrible. The next year when I entered they remembered me and promised to make sure the judge had sharpened her knife 
No reminding required from me lol.
I use Ganache but not fondant. I use that knife on both my dense and light fluffy cakes and it cuts beautiful clean slices. I clean it between cuts with paper towel (which I also pack and take with me) so the top of the cake looks clean too.
I am only a hobby baker but get pretty serious about it all haha, the last cake I did was for my husband's dad and I was in such a rush that I forgot my knife, his Mum brings a thick serrated knife over and the minute my husband sees it coming (she was behind me) he nicely but quickly asks her to get a flat/sharp knife, even he knows better lol.
What they said above: Thin, VERY sharp flat knife, wipe the knife clean between cuts. [I prefer a thin serrated knife, but others swear a non-serrated works better--comes down to your personal preference.]
SPS is a wonderful solution for traditional, 4" high cakes, but with double barrel cakes, you enter a whole new realm.
Red velvet/pina colada/devil's food should be ok with ganache and fondant if they aren't thick. But...getting ganache/fondant thin is a skill that comes with practice on multiple cakes--it doesn't happen overnight.
Something else that comes with practice on multiple cakes is the actual act of cutting a ganache/fondant cake. Some people cut straight down, some people lightly "saw" than finish cutting straight down. You can also have warm water to warm up the very sharp, thin knife after you wipe the knife between each cut. Example: Cut slice--wipe knife--dip knife in hot water--dry knife--cut-- repeat.
Thanks guys, I’m going to get me a new knife for cutting cake. @Natka81 my ganache was a little thick on the sides, but pretty thin on top. I use those acrylic rounds to get my sides and top perfectly flat and straight, so I neededl a lot of ganache to get everything even. I bought the rounds with the 1/2" gap, but that may be too much. I will try one with the 1/4" gap and see if that works better.
Who knew cutting the cake would be the hard part…
I had acrylic circles made up with a 1/4 inch allowance, ie 6.25 inches for the 6 inch cakes but I am going to have to get another set I think.
The cake tins that I have (Fat Daddio's) are not metric inches like we work with over here and so once cooked and cooled the 1/4 inch gap is far too big and uses wayyyyyy too much ganache to fill in - about twice what 'The Ganacherator' recommends, which should be more than adequate.
Measure your pans exact size before you replace your circles so you don't get caught out like I did.
Okay... I must be of an odd variety... I presumed that Metric and Inches were of two different measuring varieties...
Metric length is measured in meters and Imperial length is measured in inches, feet, yards, etc...
But I can be wrong... I haven't been everywhere...
An inch when converted to metric is 2.56cm, the cake tins are labelled in inches but each 'inch is only 2.5cm' with my fat daddio tins..
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