Frosting a soft, weak double layer cake

Question

Hello! I made 2 9” rounds of chocolate cake. They’re very soft, moist, and weak AND they both stuck to the bottom of the pan, so have broken apart a bit. The worse of the 2 is in the photo. Should I use the less weak round on the bottom for stability? Because it’d sure be great if I could hide the one in the picture on the bottom. Also, how should I transfer the 2nd round to the top? I can’t just hold it because it’ll break. Thanks for any tips you may have!! The good news is that both the cake and frosting of my sour cream chocolate cake are delicious!

Erica · Answer

Stephanie - just to follow up, your advice worked!

Erica · Answer

Maureen - great idea — I wish I had thought of it! I ended up with the stronger layer on the bottom and the frosting did a good job hiding the many imperfections. It was so delicious I’m going to make another this week. If the same thing happens, I’ll be using this trick. Thank you!

Maureen P. · Answer

Try putting the layers in the freezer and then frost them frozen. Works for all cakes, especially when they are so fragile.

Nancy · Answer

If the cake is really weak and you have some clean wooden chopsticks and a saw, or toothpicks, you could use them as dowels in the lower layer to hold or support the upper layer.
Perhaps with a disc supporting the upper cake.
Then cut and them one after the other.

Erica · Answer

Thanks so much, Stephanie. I’ll give this a shot. And I hadn’t thought of a trifle if all else fails — good idea. thanks!

Stephanie B. · Answer

Hmm that's tricky. I'd use the more structurally sound cake for the bottom. You can hide many ills with a good layer of frosting, so IF you can get the cake pictured on top in one piece, I think you'll be ok to frost. Can you very gently slide it off your parchment paper?

And if worse comes to worse, you can always make a trifle.

Frosting a soft, weak double layer cake

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