It Was Almost A Disaster, If It Had Been What Would You Do?
Decorating By Joybeth Updated 6 Mar 2009 , 3:24pm by Kitagrl
I made this wedding cake for a friend, 8, 12, 14. I started out having troubles with the ribbon, it wouldn't lay flat against the cake. It was very stiff ribbon and it really didn't have any give in it. I then piped tiny buttercream dots on the top of the ribbon, placed the pearls, and took off for the hour drive. On the arrival, there were several people there willing to help set up the fountain and stuff, (it didn't help one of them made cakes as a second living.) When I open up the boxes all the little dots had fallen off the ribbon!!!! Ahhhh. Well thanks to info on here I was well prepared with more icing, but, I didn't take more than one bag! So made do with ziploc....wasted time. Finally get all of those done. (felt like forever) I then go to pick up the top cake. It was sitting on a table and as I picked it up the tablecloth on the table slid a tiny bit, causing me to lose control of the cake, as it was falling I managed to catch it. Smooshing the side of the cake! Did I mention this one had all the dots still on it??? I was able to resmooth it. So needless to say I redid the the ribbon, dots, and pearls, get it all set up, and was 10 minutes late to the wedding. Now. If I hadn't have been able to catch it, and it had fallen. What would you have done? Do you carry extra cakes or just pray you never have an accident?? Any hints for next time? The cake is the red and white one in my photos.
ive never done a wedding cake before . . but im sat here with my heart in my throat thinking omg omg omg dont fall over! lol
Honestly, in that situation I don't know what I would have done. I always carry an emergency kit with little extras... but it does not include an extra cake...lol...
Glad you caught it!
Honestly, in that situation I don't know what I would have done. I always carry an emergency kit with little extras... but it does not include an extra cake...lol...
Glad you caught it!
Ditto! And ALWAYS carry that emergency kit!
Your cake is beautiful by the way!
Sorry to hear about the troubles with your cake - but it looks wonderful in your pictures.
#1 when I set up cakes - I like to get there pretty early - like in the morning for an afternoon wedding. If there are people there who want to offer to help set up - I say thank you but I have it all under control and work better by myself. I find it very distracting to have other people around "trying to help" and (don't flogg me) other "cake people" can be the worse. We all have are own ways of doing something and to someone else may look totatlly wrong - but the end results will look the same. Usually can get done faster by myself than with help.
I'm not sure what I would have done if the cake would have completely fell and was not able to be saved. I do not carry extra cake - and I don't think most of us do. Depending on time between set up time and reception and distance from home, would be the deciding factor for me if I would be able to replace the damaged cake. Otherwise it would come to having to give some sort of credit back to the couple.
First, congratulations on a great catch.
Second, it looks perfect in the photos so great job with the fixes.
Third, if it were me & I hadn't have been able to catch it, and it had fallen. What would I have done?
CRIED! 
Then I would put my big girl panties on, remove the pillars from the middle layer, ice/smooth the top, place the topper on it to cover anything I couldn't redeem, find the MOB and explain what happened and offer a partial refund.
Also, since the top layer is traditionally the anniversary layer, offer to bake a replacement. (I include a 6 inch anniversary cake with my wedding cakes though, so I wouldn't have to do that part.)
Wow thanks for the replies everyone. Next time I will definitely be better prepared. juleebug, I almost cried, but with my mom and other people around I decided I had better retain the "grown up" image I am trying to retain. lol. I was so thankful when it was done. The torture was sitting through the reception and watching all these kids run by the cake table....The bride was so funny, when they cut the cake together, he stuffed her mouth she made a face and then said "Oh! That's good!" and cut another piece. I was like well duh... lol. Thanks everyone!
Yikes! I probably would have grabbed some flowers from the nearest arrangement and used them in place of the topper. Then I would have flew to Walmart to make sure there was enough cake to go around. Good catch! 
Ignore me, just trying to remove my repeat post lol
I started out having troubles with the ribbon, it wouldn't lay flat against the cake. It was very stiff ribbon and it really didn't have any give in it.
I'm betting I know why the ribbon wouldn't lay flat. It gapped at the top, right? Mine was doing the same thing until I figured out what I was doing.
When you smoothed the cake, you created a slight slope to the cake (bottom wider than the top). I thought I could see it in the pic. This ever so slight, barely perceptible slope causes the gap. The sides of the cake need to be a perfect (!) 90 degree angle.
If you smooth with a bench scraper, it's easy to lay the bench scraper blade against the side of the cake and the side of the blade on the plate/board/turntable .... and it is forced into a perfect 90 degree angle, giving you a perfectly straight up-and-down side of a cake. If you try this, you'll have a much easier time with the ribbon. I was SO excited when I figured this out!
You say the ribbon was stiff ... was it wired ribbon? I always tell my brides never to buy wire ribbon. I used it once and it cut into my cake and it looked so bad that I never posted a pic of it anywhere. 
I had thought that wired ribbon would work great (you know , hold it's shape blah blah blah), but boy was I wrong. I may be just bad in working with it, but I prefer not to use it.
The cake looks beautiful!! As someone said in your comments, I NEVER would have thought you had problems with this cake.
Thank you Indi Debi!!!! Yes I believe that was part of the problem, the funny thing is I used a bench scraper to smooth it. I guess I just wasn't holding it straight enough. I will definitely do it different next time.
Thank you so much for all your comments!
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