Earthquake Cake - How Did This Happen?? - Page 2

Just saw this.
Well the cake was gorgeous before the disaster, your flowers and all are wonderful!
Ok, the pressing down with the pans thing, well that might have been part of the problem.
The fact that the cakes were really damp, makes me think that your cakes were not completely cooled before you put them in the fridge and hence the dampness.
A two layer cake or three layer, is not a stacked cake, it is a regular cake and should be fine.
So adding to the dampness, the pressing down and the fact that there was one heck of a lot of icing and decorations, well I suspect that also your boards perhaps could have been heavier.
But here is what I think really did you in, the weight of all of the icing is all on the sides of the cake, even on the top all of the decoration goes towards the sides. So the weight of the basketweave along with all of the other decorations on a cake that sounds to me like it was unstable to begin with, well I think that was the problem.
A level cake is very important. A completely cooled cake before it is wrapped and moisture is trapped into the cake is also important. Supporting a cake like this with two minimum corrugated cardboards with the corrugations going in different directions, is important. I wouldn't refrigerate a cake, covering it would be sufficient.
When putting a heavy amount of decoration and icing on a cake, you want to make sure that you have a very dense cake to begin with, A package mix made according to the box directions is not dense enough to handle the weight of so much decoration.
Anyway, just my opinion.
Hugs Squirrelly Cakes

Did you leave the cakes in the pan to cool completely? That may have been the reason why they were so wet is because as the cooled in the pan, the heat created condensation in the pan and that condensation had nowhere to go but back into your cakes. As soon as I take a cake out of the oven I level it by pressing down on the cake, I then let the cake cool in the pan for 10 minutes before taking it out of the pan to cool on my cooling rack.
So maybe what your issue was that you did level it, just not properly and also that your cake was way too moist.
I agree that you did have enough cake boards under it. I usually use only one cake board under a 2 layer cake and have had no problems (as of yet) with the splitting of the cake like you did.

Well, it is always a good idea to wrap your cakes completely in plastic wrap once cooled. You are right, after 4 hours they should be cool.
I know some people use the various levelling methods and swear by them, and I don't want to offend anyone here. But the thing is, there are so many variants involved when you do this. They density of the cake, how much pressure you apply, what is going to be happening to the cake afterwards in terms of weight of icing and decorations and even the moisture level of both the cakes and the icing.
So if you are happy with it and it works for you, that is just fine. But personally because you actually pushing the cake into itself and affecting the density, well there could be problems with some types of cakes, depending on the recipe or how they are altered, how much they are cooked, how big the crown is etc.
I nearly always make from scratch cakes and the main reason I do is well, I don't like the too sweet taste of a cake mix, or the texture. Now with some of the doctoring methods, well I don't mind those. But on the whole, I find that they have a more delicate texture. I find that I have to handle them more carefully because of this rather spongey type of texture. I find that they break easier, again probably do the texture. I find that some of them tend to stick to the pan too.
There is always a risk that exerting too much pressure on a cake, will break it. Even just when you are flipping it, you have to be careful.
Like I said, if it works for you and you are happy with doing this, that is fine. But it isn't done in professional baking courses.
Hugs Squirrelly Cakes

i can see that you have a lot of trouble shooting here already but i thought i would put my two cents in also. I think that what could have caused this is that the top cake cracked. It may have cracked slightly when you placed it on top of the other and you never saw it. When you were icing it the icing was flexible so you wouldn't really see the crack in the cake opening and closing. After the icing dried some is when you probably saw the hairline cracks. Then, after some stress of being picked up etc, the crack reopened and with the addition of the decorations etc, it just kept on going.

AngelWendy,
I am so sorry of what happened!! In my humble opinion this is what could have happened.
1) You tried to level the cake with icing - that's a No,No. Why? Because the weight of the icing and decorations are going to cause weight pressure on that already weak area. I personally use small mashmeallows which I wet a bit with water to give support to some areas that look a little unleveled.
2) Did you dowell the cake? This cake seems pretty high to me. Dowells give support to cakes. Follow the same architechtural principle as a two or more stories building. The cake came out georgeous and I'm sure ...delicious! Remember these two points before you decorate a cake: leveling and dowelling. Good luck next time my friend!!!