3 tiered, started to slide in the car during delivery.

It was bound to happen, especially since I don't have much experience, and NONE when it comes to delivery. I had a three tiered round birthday cake to do for a co-worker's daughter's 16th b-day, to be delivered by me this afternoon. It was a 5 minute drive that felt like 5 hours, especially since I drove 15 miles an hour at the most and still watched the thing wiggle and shimmy like jello.

The tiers were 4", 6" and 8". Buttercream with fondant flames going up the lenght of the cake, fondant butterflies and tropical looking lillies. I used bubble tea straws for support...clearly a mistake on my part. While they seemed great for stacking, the transportation and all the wiggling and jiggling and the stop and go of the vehicle is no match for them.

I would have preferred to assemble it on site but this gal was taking it down to the lake, an hour away with STEEP hills. She thought it was beautiful but we all know she was being kind because it was terrible...the tiers all slid over like the leaning tower of Piza and the only reason they didn't completely slide off was because I literally had my hand cupped around the top tier..so my paw prints are all over it, mushing the icing, half the flowers fell off or broke off. She tried to pay me (I was only charging 40 bucks) but I wouldn't take it, I just couldn't.

I took it inside the building and tried to right it and reapply the flowers and such...it was just horrible. There is no way she will be able to get out of town with it in one piece, much less to the lake. I feel so terrible and embarrassed, sick to my stomach and want to cry.

How do people get tiered cakes delivered if you can't assemble them on site? I don't have the SPS system yet...obviously I need it.

Has this happened to anyone else?

Thanks for the reply Leah! You are right, they are not expensive and I really wish I had ordered some before I started this cake..it was a pre-determined disaster.

I did not have a dowl all the way through... I literally had 5 straws in the bottom tier, cardboard under the middle tier was resting on those, then the top tier was resting on 3 straws in the middle...why did I think that would NOT move all over???!!! Such ignorance on my part. I still have a lump in my throat over it.

I thought I'd be safe with those small tiers, I mean 4 inches isn't big at all. I just had buttercream filling in between the layers and I do have AC, plus I had it going full blast to the floorboards in the car. It is 100 degrees here but it was cool in the house and car.

I think it was moving like that because the layers are heavy and were too much for the inertia in the car and really, when I think about it, there was no stability, nothing keeping the tiers attatched to each other, so when they started moving, the cardboard simply slid off the straws.

I really don't know why I thought it would be safe..except that I did a three tier cake, (the tiers were larger)...and delivered it to the same office a few months ago with no shifting or anything. Used the straws in that one too. It was an over the top wedding cake for a coworker that ran off and got married..so they wanted to have an office celebration for him...no problems on that one. Maybe I was just lucky that time.

HI,
no, I didn't add icing to glue them together and I don't know why I completely omitted that. I am kicking myself because I can not understand why I didn't think about the shifting issue beforehand...I must be losing my mind. Lesson definately learned for next time. Thank you for taking the time to reply to my plight!

Oh my...I am glad (in a way) that I'm not the only one with this problem. I also have discovered that 100 degree days won't do many favors for a cake hat has to be transported in the trunk of my car...as big and roomy as it is. I shouldn't have sold my minivan and bought the stupid Maxima. LOl I can't imagine the humidity in Florida and Louisianna...you ladies have it much more rough than me. I have a wedding cake to deliver this weekend, it's an outside wedding, it's supposed to be in the high 80's...and I'm a guest because it's a very good friend's sister in law that is getting married. I'm going early and stacking those tiers ON SITE. LOL

Thanks for listening to my tales of woe everybody!!