There’s nothing more frustrating than a cake that keeps shifting while you’re trying to frost it. Sometimes the whole cake moves on the board or the layers start sliding apart to make the cake lean. Either way, it makes decorating messy and stressful. If you're wondering how to stop cakes from sliding, you’re in the right place! In this tutorial I’ll show you why cakes slide and how to prevent it from happening!
One of the main reasons cakes slide happens right at the start, when you’re layering your cake. When you stack your cake layers with filling in between, it might look sturdy but if the bottom layer isn’t attached to the cake board, the whole cake can shift around. This happens because as you spread or smooth frosting, you’re pushing against the cake. Without anything securing it to the board, the pressure nudges it sideways. This makes it much harder to get neat, smooth frosting.
The solution is simple: use buttercream to “glue” the cake to the board. Spread a small amount of buttercream in the centre of your cake board before you layer your cake. Then place your first cake layer on top and press down gently. Now alternate between cake layers and filling to assemble the cake. Once the buttercream sets, it will hold the cake in place so it won’t move while you frost and decorate.
To speed up the setting of the buttercream "glue", put the cake in the freezer for 15 minutes before you frost it. If you prefer, you can put it into the fridge instead for 30 minutes. Chilling the cake will also make it less crumbly. Now frosting it will be much easier! I love to use my 4 Minute Buttercream to frost my cakes because it's easy to make, delicious, stable, and gets super smooth!
Maybe you’ve attached the cake to the board and it’s still sliding. In that case, the filling between the cake layers could be the problem. If the filling is soft, like fresh buttercream, it will allow the cake layers above and below to move. The pressure of spreading frosting around the outside can nudge the upper layers sideways. This happens even if the bottom layer is secure. As the layers shift, the cake starts to lean. If you keep scraping with your frosting smoother, it will never look straight.
To fix this, wrap the cake in cling film or Saran Wrap and gently push the layers back to the middle of the board. Now your cake will be straight. Then put it in the fridge for about 30 minutes. Once chilled, the filling will firm up and hold the layers in place. Then you can safely unwrap it and apply your final coat of frosting without worrying about the layers moving.
The best ways to stop cake layers from moving is to secure the bottom layer to the board and let your cake chill at key points. Here’s the sequence I use:
The extra step of chilling might feel like it slows you down but it actually saves time in the long run! With a secure cake, you won’t have to keep stopping to fix leaning or sliding.
Check out my tutorials to help with other common decorating issues like buttercream cracking and frosting bulges. And to improve your cake decorating skills, visit my cake school to learn hundreds of cake decorating techniques and designs!
You can also watch a video of this tutorial on how to stop cakes from sliding:
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