I have always wondered what a person does if a wedding cake 'goes bad'. I had an order for a large 5 layer wedding cake, no pillars, chocolate fudge with chocolate mint filling and all buttercream frosting and decorated with about a thousand small pearls. All went well and I was happy with the cake.
We decided to put it in a box and in our van for the night because it is about fridge temp. here through the night and only a few degrees above during the day. It had to be delivered by 11am the next morning. We went out for the evening and luckily returned home by 10pm. I had to take a peek at the cake before going in and found it had collapsed to the side of the box.
We brought it in, thank God for a very supporting husband, and found that the dowling in the bottom layer, I used about 12, had collapsed and given way. I've never had a dowling problem before so I'm not sure why this happened. All I could do was try to salvage as much as I could and assess the damages.
The bottom layer was half crushed, the other 4 had enough damage that I had to completely re-ice. My DH just said "tell me what I can do, boy this cake tastes good". I put him to work stripping icing which I found works well when the cake is cold, and I started baking the bottom layers again. It took us until 7am Saturday morning to finish.
I didn't use dowling, my husband sawed up some plastic pillars I had and they worked very well as they had a nice square base. We slept 2 hours, delivered the cake and I then went on to teach a 4 hour cake decorating class. I slept well last night and have been napping all day.
Next time I have such a heavy cake I will be using the sawed up pillar method for sure.
That afternoon one of my students asked me what I would have done had I found it that way in the morning. I told her I would have made up a horrible illness and had my husband take me to emergency, put on the best acting you have ever seen and gotten myself admitted. Then he could phone the customer and tell them I had suddenly taken ill and was in the hospital. lol
. I have always worried about the narrow wooden dowels being pushed "crooked" and tearing through the cake! It has never happened to me - is this what happened? or did they actually break? I definitely need a new system! (those suckers are hard to cut anyway!)
I think the weight toppled one and the rest followed like dominos. Half of the large bottom layer was untouched but the other half was crushed from the layers above. Possibly I had one in not perfectly vertical. I just looked up the sps system online and will start shopping for them immediately and keep them on hand.
12 Dowels just seems like a whole lot... I use all wooden dowels and I've never used more than 6 in ANY layer... the more holes you poke in the cake, the more you upset the structure and are more likely to have shifting and a collapse.
This is so true! Sorry that it happened to you. But I've only, always used wooden dowels as well, and have never had any problems at all. And I've been doing this for well over 7 years now!
wow, you were definitely strong for that. If it were me I think I just would have started crying and writing out a refund check for the client. but way to pull an all-nighter! super kudos to you and your husband 
Sorry this happened to you. Thank goodness you checked on your cake when you did and that you were able to rebake and repair. I gotta say your emergency room plan had me rolling on the floor. I'll remember that...just in case 
can someone please tell me what SPS is?
Here's a thread that tells where to buy it, how to use it, etc. HTH!!
http://www.cakecentral.com/cake-decorating-ftopict-603925.html
That is every cake decorator's nightmare come true, that or tripping and falling while delivering the cake! I am so sorry for you.
Anyway, I use bubble tea straws. I got the idea from one of Sharron Zambito's DVD's. I find the best price and buy in bulk online. They are super easy to cut with scissors and I have not had bad luck yet!
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