Hello, I’m making a three tiered (10/8/6) cake this weekend and I am very worried because the customer wants chocolate as the bottom 10” tier. My chocolate cake is very soft and oil based and I am wondering if it will be okay to stack under the other tiers because it is so soft.

I plan to use a center dowel and I have sturdy plastic dowels for the bottom tier and thick straws for the middle tier. Also it’s worth mentioning this cake will be covered in fondant and the bottoms chocolate tier will have ruffles all around which will add more weight to the cake.

should I

A) use my oil based soft recipe and use lots of support and decorate the cake after it has been in the fridge so it is more sturdy?

B) use my recipe but alter it to be more sturdy, like reduce the oil and add sour cream. 

Or C) find a butter based or oil based but more sturdy chocolate cake recipe to use? 

I will also have other larger cakes in the future that also need to be stacked and they want chocolate as their bottom tier also.

what do you guys think? I’m constantly going back and forth with what I’m going to do and I honestly want to avoid any cake tragedies please. 

you'll be fine -- make sure all your supports per tier are all cut exactly the same length before you insert them all -- you put one in, mark it with the top of the cake, remove it , clean it off, but not the measurement mark (done that a thousand times hahaha) then cut  all the dowel for that tier using that first one as your guide-- repeat for the next tier --

i think you could add an extra egg in your recipe for a little more sturdiness if you want -- if you add sour cream are you sure it will work? but it's the supports that hold the structure -- not the nature of the cake --

i delivered cold cake -- it adds that extra bit of invisible cohesiveness -- some bakers never fridged their cakes -- some always do --

you'll be fine --post some pictures!

but i mean most of my cakes were soft oil based cakes -- that's what the american palate likes/wants yes?

Even a cheesecake...If it has the proper support will survive as a bottom layer! I subscribe everything K8 said!

I've heard the same thing reported by -K8 and Regina over and over, HOWEVER, my go-to chocolate cake used to be Hersey's Perfectly Chocolate chocolate cake.  It is a super soft recipe and is so tender I've always been afraid the insertion of dowels would actually cause it to split.  Instead, for stacking and carving, I use the WASC chocolate version with an added packet of instant chocolate pudding, a packet of instant hot cocoa mix, additional cocoa powder, and a tablespoon of chocolate extract.  It is as good as my old favorite and sturdy enough to carve while being moist and delicious.

Ooohh my goodness Sandra

the perfectly perfect is quite tender -- I wonder what would happen if we added those extra ingredients to the perfectly perfect -- I'm never gonna try it 'cause I really can't eat that anymore but still I'm curious -- and I never got good results adding pudding to cakes but anyway --

but still I think an extra egg in the pp would help it immensely as well as alyssaj76's cake we need a test kitchen 

Uuggg it only posted one line of me post:(   

How can you adulterate my recipe like that? ;(   I’m gonna cry.  

Actually, the chocolate recipe that I use is not your recipe, Lynne.  I found this one before yours and it is so good, I just keep using it.  You would not believe the depth of chocolate flavor from all the different sources, amazing.  I also add a bit of expresso powder and sometimes Guiness.  I do love a super chocolatey cake and this one is.

Once again... Sandra is right, sure you can have a cheese cake as a bottom tier and it will not get smashed if well supported...But if you need to stab that poor cheesecake or chocolate cake or whatever you are using 8-10 times to get the proper support... yes, the layer will not be smashed, but will surely fall apart with all those holes in the structure. A three tie cake with a small base of 10 will require at least 8 points of support... better to have a sturdy cake and be on the safe side.