One of my really good friends baby shower was last weekend. She has seen my cakes loved them tatse, look etc. So It was really inprotant for me to do the shower cake. I did a 10,8, 6 inch round pan used the dowel rod methoid. After I staccked the 10 & 8 together I went to do the centre rod and the cake started to crack cave on me. Needless to say it was ot ideal & I was a little upset but the shower was the next afternoon so I rebaked the 10 was up till 2:30. While I was waiting for that I went ahead & did the 8 & 6 so all I would have to do the next day was the 10. After redecorting i stacked all three together had to redo the icing on the middle cake. I was still to jittery after the whole cake splitting & thought would be fine the top two were heavy enough not to move only had less than a mile to go. I out the cakein the car & it started to slide off. I caught it with my hand not to bad knew I could fix it on site. Put my hazards on and drove no more than 5 mph. Went fine for a block then disater struck 10 inch cracked & the two fell in the floor board. By the time I made it to the house I was in tears. The hostess were s great went & salavaged what they could & we ate that. Got rave reviews on taste. I had donetwo layers each with filling and toreted each layer once. I have no idea this is the 3 rd disatser in a row what wrong with me? Any suggestions would be great.

What type of cake are you making? it sounds like you may want to try adjusting your recipe, or trying a different cake type - at least for the large bottom layer.

Only stack on site it is not worth the risk, although one is tempted. Sorry, when things go wrong one rally wonders is it all worth it. Sometimes it brings me so down and I'm a perfectionist and then I think I love doing it but really it is a huge responsibility. Just let us all learn from our mistakes I also always put each cake box on grippy rubber to stop sliding.

Oh and I forgot to add - don't give up! I would much rather have people happy with the taste of a cake, then a nice looking one that stays on peoples plates as they head to the trash! I am sure your cake was much better, even in pieces than something picked up at the local warehouse store looking and tasting generic.

I do not torte any cakes that have to be stacked or tiered. IMO - it makes them too unstable. Maybe after I have more experience I will be more comfortable doing it - but not now.

That stinks that it fell, but then they all got to see how good it tasted! Did you get any pics of it before you tried to deliver it?

DON'T GIVE UP!! Just mark it as a lesson learned and go on to the next challenge!

I am really sorry that this happened to you! I think that if if were me, I would have tried to get to the party early and just assembled it there.

Did not get a chance to take pictures I was already pressed for time. I used the dh yellow& strawberry mix & added 1 cup each for every two boxes of sourcream, flour, sugar. How does one stack on site without running the icing of the other cakes. I have heard of people doing this but when I tried I just ruined the icing on the top cake?

Quadcrew, do you not put any fillings at all in your stacked cakes?

Also - I've heard pound cake holds up better - I know it is supposed to for carved cakes - or a Madeira cake recipe. I'm still pretty new too so I haven't done too many stacked cakes.... still trying to learn this stuff!

Oh - yes, I put fillings in my cakes, I just don't torte them. I put the filling just between the layers. I have never even had anyone ask me to "torte" a stacked or tiered cake.

1) Did you use cardboard between the tiers?

2) If you did put cardboard between the tiers, did you make a little hole in the center of each one for the sharpened center dowel?

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Did you sharpen the center dowel with a pencil sharpener or did you cut it at an angle?

Make sure your cakes have been chilled before you start stacking them and transporting them. It can only help.

What kind of dowels did you use? How many? It sounds like many you didn't have enough support on the bottom tier which caused it to crack and make the other tiers tumble. Do you put icing under your bottom tier to make it stick to the board? Chilling cakes makes a huge difference when you deliver stacked cakes...If you have room in your fridge, try that next time.

My first few tiered cakes experienced some cracks, that fortunately, were salvageable with creative frosting. Honestly, I think my cakes were too moist, and on some advice, I use about 1/3 less oil in my recipes. I haven't had a problem since. I also let my cakes completely cool, like for half a day, before I unpan them. Just a thought...good luck!