Seriously, days like this just make me think caking isnt worth it. I have my first 2 wedding cakes this week. one is a 4 tier white square cake with tiny swags of blossoms and butterflies and the other is a 3 tier round cake with sunflowers like the dummy in my pictures. i also have a grooms cakes and 12 cupcakes

I took 3 days off work to do these cakes thinking id have loads of time as the cakes were in the freezer and all the flowers were made but i spent from 9-30am until 5 pm just torting crumbcoating and fondanting and putting the flowers on the 4 tier. thats ALL DAY on one cake and yet other people are doing like 3 wedding cakes in a day!

its not just the time and energy but the cake isnt completely level even though i levelled and torted it with my agbay. the 12 inch seems fine but the 10 inch isnt level - its not terrible looking or anything but im worried about stacking it with the 8 inch and 6 inch on top.

this is my first cake bigger than a 2 tier and also my first time using 2 cakes per tier to get a 4 inch high tier so the cake just seems HUGE and scary and heavy to me compared to my usual cakes. im so worried this is going to fall over. im using the white hollow dowels on the bottom 2 tiers and then bubble tea straws and ordinary thin dowels on the 8 inch tier....are there any tips anyone can give me? im stacking at the venue. will there be a space in between the tiers if i cut all my dowels the same length but the cake isnt level?

Please help, im just so tired and sad and my fondant covering wasnt as good as usual but luckily the flowers hide that but im disappointed in myself. i sensibly waited 9 months of running my business before attempting a wedding cake and now i wish id never taken them on and I the other to do tomorow, just cant wait til this week is over.

Cathy,
I am sorry you are having such a bad day. The first thing I would say is BREATH. Walk away from the cakes and take a walk or shower or something to refresh you. I would not work on the first cake or even look at it anymore today. Go ahead and start the prep you need to do for the others and try to get a gresh prespective.

As for the leveling, I am not sure what you can do now that it is stacked and allready has the fondant on it but if there is a solution short of taking the fondant off I am sure someone with alot of wedding experience will join in soon.

Please dont give up. Take some time to unwind and I am sure it will all look better. We all have these days.

Deanna

I just took a peek at your cakes - you do incredible work!! Like Deanna said, you probably just need to take a breather for a bit. Also, judging from your work, I don't think you need to feel the least bit intimidated about doing a wedding cake - just think of it as a fancy party cake because you can certainly do it!

Well i would make sure the dowels in that 10 inch are level, even if the tier is slightly off, cover the space with a boarder or flowers if you can. If it isn't that off it shouldn't be to hard to shore up, but if you leave a lean in there, by the time you get to the top tier it will be really noticeable. Do you have a small level to place on the top of the tier to see if its really that off? the fondant or icing might just be a bit thicker in one spot.

Oh and i'm still amazed that people do more then one wedding cake in a day. I have done as many as two but that stressed me out so that i don't think i would want to do it on a regular basis.

i think maybe i could do a piped ball border if needs be to cover any space. it isnt a huge slope but i can see it and with this being my first 4 tier im just worried that it will fall over

I agree w/ doing more than 1 wedding cake in a day.......I generally "book" thursday, friday and saturday for a saturday wedding cake, so I can focus solely on THAT cake......however about 3 weeks ago I was making my best friends wedding cake and got a call from a lady who said she ordered her DD bday cake 6 months ago and the bakery called her the day before the bday party and told her they were closing up shop because the economy was just too bad and they weren't turning a profit and they wouldn't be doing her cake!!! She called me crying, so of course I agreed to make the cake, just an 8" round w/ mmf polka dots and a choc. "13" on top, oh and 24 cupcakes....well, I was so stressed w/ my bff's cake and that cake plus cupcakes that I swore I'd never do that again when I have a wedding cake order (I talked the lady out of a cupcake tower because I'd have to repaint my tower and buy ribbon for it)
So then 2 weeks ago I had booked a wedding for Fri (after much begging from the bride who was the daughter of a friend) and a wedding for Saturday.....now that would be enough right?? So what do I get?? A call for that VERY same "13" cake and 12 cupcakes...and what do I do?? I took the order!!! Then I got off the phone and said well, at least it wasn't a cupcake tower.......so guess what happened next?? Yep, someone called and begged me for like an hr. to do a cupcake tower w/ a 6" topper cake and 65 cupcakes! I agreed.........then some lady emailed me to do a 1/4 sheet cake w/ no icing or dec. she just wanted my cake and was carving and dec. herself!!

Trust me, if you know your limits stick to them.........I had a week like yours 2 weeks ago and I promise you.......I WILL NEVER NEVER DO IT AGAIN!
Now, read that and tell me God doesn't have a sense of humor LOL However, I didn't have even ONE cake order last week and my 3 kids were visiting the grandparents...so I guess I got my reward too lol

You'll get through it....take it one tier at a time and if you have to ...take it one TEAR at a time.. I'll be prayin for ya.........you'll make it through!!!

Just take a deep breath. Everyone has those days, and tomorrow will be better. Just keep plugging along and try to remember what you enjoy about doing cakes.... when they see how wonderful the cake is and tell you how beautiful it is, you'll forget all about this.

The other thing you might check is your table. Is it level? I've read posts here on CC before where someone did everything right and the cake still wasn't level. They checked, and turned out the table was slightly off.

You will get through this. Think about the other side of it, when it's all done and the brides are so happy, and the cakes tastes good!

I'm sure you know this but I just wanna say--cut all your dowel the same height.

I mean you already have a job job but this is where working at a big box store or a bakery where you gotta put it out comes in handy. You never regret learning how to ramp it up and go fast. But you do have a job job so that's out of the question at this point.

So here's an idea for going forward~~put you a bakery manager on your shoulder--your imaginary friend--better really if they were an imaginary kinda mean friend who is watching the clock--who says Dude you go faster or you're outa here--

NOT to beat yourself up--no no no no--but so you have to start answering for each minute.

Also another idea is to set a timer to go off every ten minutes. I have a timer that if I set it for 30 mins it beeps half way through then it beeps again like at 5 mins to go.

You can work more efficiently--experience will get you there. Work at it.

Five cakes a weekend thoughts for you.

One weekend I had 15 x 6" centerpiece cakes on top of 10" dummies, one 8" cutting cake on top of a 12" dummy (all the dummies were decorated accordingly) PLUS 1 birthday cake AND a bridal shower cake. I had a bad case of "Sure, I can do that! No problem!" Never again!!!!

As far as some tiers not being entirely level... just make sure that your dowels/supports are level and then hide the gaps with icing and boarders. As a great person once said, "Cake decorating isn't about how perfect your cake is, but how well you cover up your mistakes!"

Best of luck! You can totally do it!

Your cakes are gorgeous. Like anything else, it takes time to pick up speed while maintaining the quality work that you do. Follow BeeBoos advice, Breath and relax AWAY FROM THE CAKES. It will do wonders for you!