I was enlisted by my Sis-in-Law to make a Pretty Princess themed cake for my niece. I went to work with this elaborate idea of pink and white cake made into a checkered pattern, about 3 or four layers thick! I used round pans and boxed cake mix (amateur!) and cut the target shape out of the cakes and swapped them. I stacked and filled, stacked and filled, stacked and filled. Getting kinda heavy now, don't you think? I started to frost the cake, and to my utter surprise *gasp* it broke in half and collapsed. Party is 2 hours away, I have to drive for at least 45 minutes to get there. No time for a new cake, still have to finish decorating the accompanying cupcakes. YIPES! The cake was sort of salvaged, ended up being just one layer, and the cupcakes weren't decorated very well. Lets just say I am traumatized, I haven't tried checkered cakes again.

Next time, try BAKING the cake as a checker instead of damaging the structure (as you saw) by cutting it after-the-fact. The make sets for it or you can fashion a tin foil ring, but you basically keep the batters separate as you pour them in, remove the rings/foil, then bake. HTH

sorry this happened to you but you can't keep stacking layer after layer after layer etc without any supports, it will collapse. Anything over 4 inches tall needs a support system. HTH

I am sorry you had a bad experience, but don't give up, it happens! When I make a checkerboard board cake, I use the separator with my regular pans, so each layer is 2". I like the idea of using tinfoil to make the separator, here is a picture of it - for the next time you make one.

http://www.wilton.com/store/site/product.cfm?sku=2105-9961

I have that insert. It works really well and is simple to use. While it isn't perfect, it's pretty close as you can see