Oh My Gosh!!! I have never had this happen to me but I guess it's the first and won't be the last...

Today I had TWO cakes to do, well actually finish this morning!! So, here I was up at 5 AM and right after getting my only cup of coffee I started to do the birthday cake first. It was made out of Duncan Hines Devils Food Chocolate cake mix. When I baked them a day and a half ago, they turned out beautiful..So, there I am getting ready to stack this monster. First I had to put some vanilla pudding in for the filling. Thank goodness I put that border dam around first! Then attempting the great thing of putting this other layer of 11x15? or is it 11x12?? cake ontop. After managalling, I finally got it on there. I turn around for a small second, and there it was,, a crack in the corner!! I almost cried!! But I said to myself, well it's only a minor small one, hope it doesn't get any bigger. And it didn't.
So, there I am icing away, and wouldn't you know it, I had problems with the buttercream. It was not cooperating with me at all!!

So, now I am losing patience with this monster!!
So, now I am using the ol' hot water and spatula routine to get this thing to smooth out.. And it finally does..Then when I go to move it to my turntable the top of the cake on the buttercream starts to show signs of a crack..
And to top it all off my hubby comes down and says to me, "that looks terrible". I said, "No..duh...dude"..And started to cry..
By this time, I had it all smooth and got the bloody thing finished.. Wow, was I EVER glad to see that cake go!!
I just can't figure what happen to the cake and the buttercream. The buttercream was made FRESH!!
Any ideas out there??? First chance I get, I will try to get this pic of the princess birthday cake posted.

It happens crashdummy2... could have been humidity.. could have been from handling the cake.. it's really hard to say, but sometimes they'll just crack.. I'm glad you got it done and off to where it needed to go... I know how frustrating it can be when cakes crack though ... glad all turned out well in the end

This large size cake is just really hard to handle! I am wondering though if you at least doubled your cake board, I usually have to triple board this half sheet! After you had the initial crack, any flexing at all would cause the crack to show up in your icing.

I was making one of these a month and had such a time with them, I've started making two quarter size and putting them together, of course the board still has to be solid or the icing will crack between the two anyway.

Sorry it was so frustrating for you, but glad that you were able to conquer the monster! LOL
Janice

You know, the same thingh appen to me yesterday!!!!
i made brides white cake.. it was soooo moist... when i was torting it, my leveler slid right though.. and went kinda close to the top.. then getting the top off of that to fill was soooo hard! i was sweating like crazy!
then to begin with, i didnt put the cake on a board.. so after finally getting off the top.... filling and putting back on the top (which was a pain also)... i had to move the whole "monster" (lol. i like that term) on to the board!! aaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaa....
then i frosted it.. got it decorated.. then when i got it out of the fride this morning.. wouldntyou know it.. the crack started showing!! i just smoothed over it with my finger.. and it was fine.

ANY advice and steps on torting and filling a 1/2 sheet???

Here's my advise..... DON'T Do IT! I can't imagine that. It would be so hard!!

lol peacock!! your funny...

i dont think it was so hard as to say i wouldn't do it again... but there has to be a easier way.. ya know what i mean

I wouldn't try to slice a cake that size.. I'd have to double layer it ... I know I'd crack it with my luck if I tried to slice a single layer

I've done a large sheet cake, large by my standards...12x18...torted it and used another cake board with plastic over the end of it to slide beteween the layers. This was after I had leveled it, and had it on a board already for the cake. When the bottom was ready, I slid the top back onto it off the board. Before I had the board, I used my cooling racks for this, again with the little bit of plastic at the end. One time I used small cooling racks with the little legs...didn't lift it up high enough and drug tracks through the bottom! Lesson learned!

After my funny little comment... it looks like I will have to do just that... torte a big cake. To save money one of my brides wants me to make a cake to feed about 150, and sheet cakes to feed the rest (100). They will have to be double layer and torted. They will just be flat iced and not decorated. Serves me right for making my little comment LOL

Yes sir ree there bobb.......I kinda had a feeling it might have had something to do with the humidity here because it was a hot day yesterday. I even had to crank up the AC (which I hardly do anymore due to new ceiling fans).
And for the boards thing...oh yes sir ree......I even put 3 boards together because I figured this "monster" was going to be heavy. I am also thinking of perhaps how I grabbed this thing to put on my turntable. I do remember grabbing ever so carefully on the ends then sliding my hands to the middle of the cake and boards for the transfer. Hmmmm......
I also did that second layer after it was baked and cooled, put it on a board with plastic on the bottom for the transfer for the top layer. That didn't work for me, I had the top layer 1/4 ontop, and wouldn't you know it, the vanilla pudding liked the cake so much and it liked the plastic, that it wouldn't give up the plastic. So, I got my two biggest spatula's that I use for grilling outside and used those.
But Like everyone says, the larger the cake, the harder it is to get done.

crashdummy2, there is hope!!! Don't give up, just keep trying things until you come up with something that works for you and you will. We all have faith in you!!!

Awww...thank you...I have faith in me too. I knew that someday I was gonna have to tackle something like this and out grow the fear.
I did post this monster pic, it's in the childrens birthday marked as "princess cake'05"

The only other project I have scheduled is this wedding cake to feed approx 100 people. But it's a simple one, I mean icing it and border trimming it. And all Ihave to do is put some real flowers on it and it will be done.
Question,,should I get someone from a florist to put the flowers on?? I'm kinda scared to do it myself...

Nope, step out there and do it!!! You'll be surprised at how fun it is! Depending on how the flowers are going to be on the cake, either with water spikes or laying flowers directly on the cake, check out the safe way to use them! I believe there is a thread (post) about such things.

Alrighty.....I WILL get out there and do it....I "want" to do it, and know that someday I will HAVE to do it..
It's actually a simple task, the bride doesn't have a topper, she wanted real red roses with some babys breath. So I already ordered the little bowl for the flowers and I'm going to get the roses at our local bulk store (they seem to be cheaper by the 24 instead of the 12)...
And laying some flowers in between the pillars on the cake plate and laying the roses on the bottom of the cake around the bottom base.

Thank you for the extra "boot"...I needed it. Like my hubby tells me, "you gotta get kicked out of the nest sometime". "now, that your kicked out, get out there and fly, fly fly....."

LOL! Glad to be a helpful "boot" anytime! (I can hear the flapping of your wings now!)

Your cake sounds like it's going to be real pretty. What color of roses are you using? And you are going to be posting a picture of it when you have finished it....???

Hello Ms. Jscakes...I will be getting the deep red roses, I guess they call them the American Rose? But the dark red color.
And most definitely I will be posting a pic once I get the table all set up and get home later that day..

Thank gosh this bride decided she did not want chocolate cake!! She wants the french vanilla flavor which is fine with me.... and when I bake this flavor, my house smells good for a couple of days..yummy...

So, I will let you know on June 4 when I post the pic......

Have a nice evening........