We propose an experimentally feasible protocol for implementing controlled dense coding with a six-atom cluster state in cavity QED. In the scheme, we investigate that the atoms interact simultaneously with the highly detuned single-mode cavity and the strong classical driving field, and thus our scheme is not sensitive to both the cavity decay and the thermal field. In addition, the four-atom entangled states can be exactly distinguished by performing the single-atom measurements in cavity QED, therefore our scheme might be implemented in a simple way.