I am freaking out here and need some help...please!

I covered a cake in chocolate satin ice...it went on ok but the second tier had too much icing on it I think (or it was just too soft of icing, crusting cream cheese) because there is a spot that looks pretty bad. It is in the back so I can get over that I think.

On top of the fondant she wanted a vine pattern. I got a stencil to use and it was a nightmare. Did not work at all. So I went over the stencil and piped on the pattern. It is all lumpy looking now that it has crusted. I tried smoothing it with a damp paintbrush but it is still all lumpy. I dont think I can scrape it off at this point and even if I did I am pretty sure the results would be the same.

SO....now that the cake is assembled (3 tiers) I dont think I can fix my fondant issue. What can I do about my piping?? Should I attempt to scrape and re-do? Should I go over it with a larger size tip? HELP!! I am in tears thinking about delivering this cake. My SIL is SOOO picky.

I tried taking a pic but it didnt really show what I was talking about because of the glare off the fondant.

What is making the vine lumpy? Is your icing smooth?

Without seeing what you are talking about, my first thought was also what you did ... smoothing with a wet brush. But, since that didn't work, I might add a few flowers or leaves to the lumpy parts?

I wish I could help you but without seeing it, its hard to picture what you're talking about. In my experience, overpiping has always been a disaster unless I was doing something like a sheet cake and started with a bigger tip and then went smaller for effect. I might try and scrape off one little section and see what happens that way if its worse, you haven't completely ruined it.

As for the lumpiness, would chilling your cake help? I always chill my cakes before applying the fondant and then again after but I don't use a crusting BC so I don't know if that makes a difference. I find it helps avoid finger prints and dents and such.

good luck

I have had it in the fridge. I am just wondering if I used too small a tip to start with or something. It is a vine pattern with leaves and I sort of filled in the leave outlines and smoothed the icing with a brush, like I was painting it inside the outline. I will go try to get a better pic to share.

Maybe try taking a pic of the cake outside for the best lighting. That way we can see more of the details.

For taking a picture, you can also try turning on bright lights in the room and turning off your flash. Or put your camera at a different angle so the flash bounces off a different part of the cake. Usually when I stand above my cakes, the flash is too bright, but if I get down at eye level, it seems to work better and there's not as much glare.

What tip are you using to make your vines with? When you say "lumpy" are you referring to the icing not being straight? If you're squeezing the bag hard and moving too slowly, the icing will get built up in an area. If you're not squeezing hard enough, or moving too fast, the icing vine will tear. Sometimes a smaller tip also makes it more difficult to squeeze and get a straight line with. Just a thought - but without seeing the actual cake, it's difficult to understand exactly what you're referring to. Good luck!

Thanks for all the tips everyone. I ended up scraping and re-doing sections of it with a larger tip. I think what happened was because there were remnants of the stenciled design underneath it just wasnt laying flat against the cake and I could see some of the stencil where the piping didnt cover. Hard to explain. And this is chocolate fondant with red vines so it is really hard to get a good photo of it. I am super critical and I am sure it will be fine...just one of those days!

Didnt help that when I was rolling fondant I grabbed baking soda instead of cornstarch so I was already irritated with it!

Honestly I was so tired I didnt notice, lol! It wasnt sticking to the rolling pin so I didnt really pay attention and assumed it was the right stuff.

All in all I think it was ok in the end. She said it was very pretty and seemed happy with it, so unless she was just saying that to be nice (which is not her style) I guess it was fine. We are our own worst critic I guess. I will add a picture to my photos later.