I have been doing cakes for a little over three years now and I have only had one cake catastrophe and that was because I did not level it right. This morning I made a cake and everything was fine I leveled it, stacked it the same, used dowels like I normally do and everything was perfect. After the customer picked it up the cake started to droop and flop over. Luckily this customer has gotten about five cakes from me she wasn't really that upset. I told her I would compensate her with another cake. I'm just blown away that this happened. I have no idea what happened like I said I torted it everything leveled and put the same amount of dowels I usually do. What do you think caused the problem. It's iced with buttercream, American buttercream and it was a pretty stiff consistency. 
maybe you slid one of your dowels over when you centered the cake on top --
maybe you cut your dowel the height of the cake top and not to the exact same length --
maybe you used three dowel and one failed --
i mean idk -- how did you construct it?
Thanks for replying! Well...this one the first time that I stacked 3 cakes (layers) and then 2 more. I usually do 2 cakes per tier. I used 4 dowels at the bottom and one long one in the middle (from top to bottom). I used the thick straws (but I always do). I am sad that this happened. I just really don't want it to ever happened again. I do not cut my dowels exactly the same. I usually place them in the cake, pull them up, mark them and cut them individually but I have been doing it like this for 3 years. Again thank you for answering.
You don't mention putting a board between the tiers. You did do that, didn't you? Otherwise the dowels aren't going to be of any use as their purpose is to support the weight of the upper tier on the cardboard...
Maybe try using an odd number of individual dowels... Kinda works on the principle of the more corners something has the less chance it will tip or something like that... Don't think I am explaining it well...
And if they aren't all the same height, and one is taller than the rest, it will push the cake up on that side and the other side would be sunk in... They should all be the same height...
Yes! Of course. I am sorry I was debating on mentioning that but I assumed that was a given, lol (but hey never know) Yes, I always do. I even put a board under the last cake that goes directly on top of the cake drum/board.
yes and this result is why that type of construction isn't truly viable -- you've got potentially four different lengths to try to provide stability -- which you can tell now of course how important it is to be exact and accurate with dowel length although you dodged a bullet on three years of cakes eventually this can happen --
and good that your client is so nice about it :)
and i'm sorry that this did happen but going forward your cakes will be even better for it
i like aatkt's idea of uneven number of dowels too -- five is nice because if one fails -- like if you placed the top tier and scootched it over a smidge to center it and one dowel got pushed off its base -- the other four will hold no problem-o --
some people like to caution about your cake looking like swiss cheese from all the dowel but losing a few servings to dowels is so much better than losing the entire cake silhouette to a structural failure --
so sure one can put too many -- but construction is too important to skimp -- and you can use the right size dowel for the tier too --
i make/made purses to scale -- that is they would be 4" to 6" deep, 14" wide and 12" tall -- so you've got to have your sh*t together to get that thing to stand without toppling -- i used bamboo skewers planted into skinny straws so very little cake was displaced because there wasn't much there to work with -- the plate for the second tier rested on the cut straw -- the top tier was secured, kept from falling over with the skewers sticking up through the straw -- no room for error and no room for much in the way of dowel --
so anyway -- best of the best of the best to you --
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