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bellsnbows
Junior Member
Joined: May 18, 2006
Posts: 58
Location: MS but near Memphis, TN
Birthday: Sep 01
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Sat Oct 24, 2009 3:21 pm |
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I had two tiered cakes to deliver today. As I'm working on the first one, the top tier is giving me fits. The icing keeps sliding off and I am getting crumbs like crazy. I completely scrapped off the icing and re-iced it THREE times! I was finally satisfied (not happy, but satisfied) and went to deliver. It was going to an area I have delivered to several times and no problems. I get there just before the party, open the back of my car and scream! The icing has all slid down the side of the cake top and bottom tiers. I could see the cake through the huge cracks in the icing. It was terrible!!! I kinda of fixed it. It wasn't pretty, but ok enough at that point. I took $30 of the price of the cake and felt so terrible about the whole thing.
I come home and start the next one. Bottom tier seems ok. I start the top one and the same thing happens!!!! I scrape, re-ice, scrape re-ice. (This is a whole new batch of icing.) I change my design up a little and decide to put a grass skirt around it to cover up the damage. By the time I get the last piece of the grass skirt on, I realized all of the icing slid off on the other side and pulled all the mmf off with it. Then I notice the bottom tier has time weird bulge and I can tell it's about to crack and all of the icing fall off of it too. No matter what I did, the icing just slid off! And I hadn't even moved it, yet. I finally just had to call her an hour and a half before the party and tell her there was no way it was going to make it there.
I have been making cakes for 10 years and have NEVER had this happen. It is cold outside, not hot. I made my icing exactly like I always do. I am using Kroger brand shortening as I have since the Crisco switch and Walmart brand powdered sugar like I always do. The icing seems slimy (the way Crisco was after the switch). The top layer of the cake is also sliding off of the bottom layer of the cake. What is going on?????? Please tell me Kroger did not change theirs. I have checked my label and it still shows transfat.
In 10 years I have only had to cancel on someone once and that was because I had to go to the hospital and ended up having emergency surgery. And to top it off, this was for the lady who offered to be my investor to open my own bakery! And the cherry on top is all 5 of my orders this week have been disasters! (colors bled, cupcakes all fell over in delivery, etc.)  |
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Barb1959
Regular Member
Joined: Aug 29, 2009
Posts: 139
Location: Lanoka Harbor, NJ
Birthday: Jan 06
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Sat Oct 24, 2009 3:41 pm |
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I ca't give you any advice, I just want to say I feel so bad for you and I hope things get better.  |
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tarheelgirl
Frequent Member
Joined: Mar 23, 2008
Posts: 427
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Sat Oct 24, 2009 3:47 pm |
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I am sorry you had a bad cake week! Maybe its the weather change? I am in NC and the weather has been from the 40's at night to the almost 80's during the day! |
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BlakesCakes
Forum SuperStar!
Joined: Aug 01, 2005
Posts: 2601
Location: Cleveland, OH
Birthday: May 14
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Sat Oct 24, 2009 5:07 pm |
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I know nothing about Kroger shortening, but clearly that's the common link in the problems with sliding, color, etc.
I strongly suggest that you invest in some hi-ratio shortening. I have no problems whatsoever with my Sweetex based buttercream. I've had it tolerate a 90 degree day..........
HTH
Rae |
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conb
Regular Member
Joined: Jan 22, 2006
Posts: 138
Location: Philadelphia, Pa
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Sat Oct 24, 2009 5:25 pm |
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Sorry this happen to you. |
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millermom
Frequent Member
Joined: Aug 20, 2007
Posts: 277
Location: In front of my computer at the moment!:)
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Sat Oct 24, 2009 5:42 pm |
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The only time I had frosting slide off the cake like that, someone on here told me to add meringue powder. That made all the difference.
I had stopped using it because I didn't know that it was doing anything for me, but apparently it was! I have used it ever since, and never had the problem again. |
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Ruth0209
Forum Addict
Joined: Aug 09, 2007
Posts: 936
Location: Scenic Idaho
Birthday: Feb 09
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Sat Oct 24, 2009 6:02 pm |
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Wow! I'm so sorry. I'd be an absolute wreck.
I agree with the suggestion to try the high ratio shortening. It's a dream. It's more expensive but you use less. It just holds up better. I think it's worth it. |
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Kitagrl
Forum SuperStar!
Joined: Jun 16, 2005
Posts: 4061
Location: NE Philly suburbs
Birthday: Jan 31
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Sat Oct 24, 2009 6:04 pm |
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Awww...wow I've never really had icing slide off before (except some meringue kind one time, that was rough) but I have noticed that with cakes "when it rains, it pours"!!!! Seems like once I have trouble with one cake, I have trouble with them all.
So sorry...well next week is another week.... |
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sugarshack
Forum SuperStar!
Joined: Jul 16, 2004
Posts: 2475
Location: LA
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Sat Oct 24, 2009 7:41 pm |
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I would suspect that shortening and also suggest hi ratio. always consistent.
so sorry you went thru all of that! |
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madgeowens
Forum Fanatic
Joined: Aug 21, 2007
Posts: 1395
Location: Pa
Birthday: Sep 27
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Sat Oct 24, 2009 8:03 pm |
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That would be a nightmare........sorry for your troubles..........hope it gets better soon |
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cuteums
Frequent Member
Joined: May 13, 2007
Posts: 255
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Sat Oct 24, 2009 8:12 pm |
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you could have gotten a bad batch of shortening. Shortening can go bad after a while, or if it has been exposed to heat. Who knows what happened to it before it wound up on the store shelf. Buy a brand new can (maybe try a different store brand like Stop and Shop or even Wal mart) and see how that works. |
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J1977
Newbie
Joined: Nov 10, 2008
Posts: 16
Location: St. Louis
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Sat Oct 24, 2009 8:20 pm |
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BellsnBows I feel your pain. I'm in St. Louis and this Thurs/Fri was very rainy and humid. We had the house open to air it out and I had bc sliding off my cake as well. 4 tiers scraped and iced 3 times and the final batch was with Indydeb's (sp?) bc and it still took hours to crust. I'm fairly new to decorating but I am blaming it on the humidity. I also have sweetex and so I may add meringue powder from now on to avoid that happening again. |
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KKristy
Regular Member
Joined: Jan 22, 2009
Posts: 111
Location: Indy
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Sat Oct 24, 2009 8:33 pm |
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BellsnBows,
Sorry to hear about your icing troubles...good thing tomorrow is a new day ! I also use Kroger shortening( when I run out of Hi Ratio )....they now have 2 kinds on the shelf ( at least here at my local store) one with trans fat and one without...and the containers look very similar...( I bought the wrong one last time by accident). Maybe that is the answer to your 'sliding icing' ? |
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cakesbydina
Regular Member
Joined: Jun 08, 2008
Posts: 194
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Sun Oct 25, 2009 4:00 am |
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so weird I just posted something similar happening to me last night. It took me four hours to make frosting that wasn't slimy and stretchy in consistancy. I used the same recipe I always used but it was humid. I finally switched to regular buttercream as opposed to smbc and it still did the same thing. Very frustrating. |
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luvmysmoother
Regular Member
Joined: Sep 06, 2009
Posts: 105
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Sun Oct 25, 2009 11:01 pm |
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I think the only time I ever had weird icing is when I added meringue powder to it as well. It separated when I coloured the icing and ever since I made the connection between meringue powder and bad icing I haven't had problems:) But yes - if you had a bad week last week you'll have a great week this week. Don't worry - everyone has crumby cake days - it will pass - hang in there:) |
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