Welcome to the Cake Decorators Q&A

I made a two tier stacked cake for a friend’s birthday at the weekend. As I was at the party I got the job of deconstructing it so it could be cut! I had attached the top tier with some royal icing and when I lifted the top tier off most of the fondant from the top of the bottom tier came with it as did two of the dowels, which was all a bit messy! Is there any way to avoid this? I did use a fair amount of royal icing as it had to travel for an hour and a half!

This sometimes happens. I stick mine down with a good blob of ganache on the dowels. Ganache loosens off with a warm palette knife where as royal icing breaks. If you use white ganache make it with more chocolate, less cream, for strength, it’s not as strong as dark ganache.