A friend of mine who has been recommending me to family and friends and has been one of my biggest cake supporters/promoters ordered a cake from me for this past weekend. This is the second cake I've made one for her and she gave me some feedback to help me out and let me know what she and the other guests had thought. They LOVED the cake and the frosting but several ppl, including her, noticed that there was hardly any filling (vanilla custard and sliced bananas this time, custard and strawberries the frist time).

I know what she means but I also tend to make heavy, dense and moist cakes. I use a cake dam but I really cant put too much filling since the weight of the cake just squishes it all out and then you have the dreaded BULGE!!!!

Any suggestions? Whether it be a lighter cake that is still moist and rich or a different way of putting them together or what not? I'm really upset and want to fix this. I'd love to be able to put more filling! But just cant see how to make it possible.

HELP!

When I've made cakes with custard and whipped cream type fillings I cut a little well in the bottom layer so it makes more room for the filling without squishing out the sides. I've never heard of anyone else doing this and I don't really know if it's the right thing to do, but it seemed to work for me.

debbie, that is a really good idea. Seems like an obvious solution but I have never thought about it!

You didn't mention the size of the cake in height? Was there just one layer of filling? Or 3 layers of filling? Maybe torting to get 3 filling layers would help.

Other decorators from this site, have said they do as debbief says. I haven,t tried it, but sounds like great advice. Someone showed a pic on the thread about this subject.

If you just do two layers of cake and one layer of filling, then you can torte those layers, and add three layers of filling, that way you are adding more filling it, with out having to make one really thick layer.

With some fillings you do have to go on the lighter side or they can cause the cake to be slippery and cause other issues as well.

I'm not sure what kind of custard you use, but have you thought of using a pastry creme, which taste the same, but is much thicker.

If I'm using BC, I stiffen it with extra powdered sugar to make my dam. Sharon Zambito suggests this in her DVD and it works. If I'm using ganache, which I really prefer, I just make a thick dam with it. Either way, I am able to put in as much filling as the dam is high. I then wrap and weight the filled cake with a ceramic tile to settle before I ganache, (or BC),, and fondant. I never have trouble with the bulge and I, too, love thick fillings.

Jan