Please Please Help! Ugly Cake!
Decorating By hollyberry91 Updated 25 Aug 2009 , 3:14am by hollyberry91
A friend of mine asked me to make a camo cake for her husband. I looked all the cute ones on here and they all said it was soo easy, so i figured I could do it. Mine came out terrible : ( I made a 9 inch round 2 layer cake. Then i made 2 colors of buttercream: tan, brown, and green. I crumb coated the cake in tan. Next i piped on side by side patches of the different colors using a large round tip (i think i used #12). Then after it had crusted i used to viva method to try and smooth it out. The problem is the colors didn't seem out even and pretty like they did on the other cakes on here. Also, I used wilton gel colors and the color looks likes its separating from the BC or something. It looks cloudy and wierd like it wasn't mixed well but I thought i mixed it in well. I don't know how to fix this or cover up the uglyness. Im at work so I don't have a picture to post and I only have about an hour to fix it when i get home before she comes and gets it. Any ideas would be very much appreciated! Thanks
I should really proofread my stuff before i post.. I used 3 colors of buttercream. Sorry for all the other grammar errors.
i am sorry you are having so much trouble and wish i could be more help. i think the wilton colors are notorious for doing this, reading threads on CC i realized it wasn't just me when the colors did that. i use americolor now and i really like it. BUT i don't know if i have solution for your problem at hand. you said the colors didn't seem out even and pretty... do you mean there is a gap between the color patches? if that's the case, I would try to fill in the gaps with the appropriate colors (if you have more buttercream) wait for it to crust, then try smoothing it out with your finger dipped in cornstartch.
HTH good luck
Hey sorry i mean to say smooth out evenly. I made the outline of a patch with a color then filled it in with lines of the same color and it didn't smooth out flat and even. Thanks for the americolor advice im gonna have to get some of that! : )
darn a pic would really help here! make up a sick excuse and go home! I did my son a paintball/camo cake this past march and I used wilton gels and BC and did the camo on the sides of the cake. i wasnt as please with mine as others on here, but it wasnt bad. but i did exactly what you said you did. but when i freak out and think the cake is ugly, i usually cover it! Did the client request camo? can u just cover over it with another design?
i don't have a pic on here, but i did a camo cake for my stepson's birthday a couple years ago. i remember having to remind myself to look at the "whole" cake and not just the separate colors. my brain kept trying to make too much sense of it although, it was just family, so i wasn't as worried about how it looked--they just wanted the chocolate!
maybe some dusting powder the same color will hide the separation of color from buttercream
a hot spatula will probably help to smooth the patches.
these thing never appear as bad to others as they do to our selves. the client only sees the cake, not like us who can compare the cake to the image in our head.
as to the colour, not much you can do now, id say its part of the dirty camo look! if you have the appropriate petal dusts, that might help to even things out.
xx
oh, so you made an outline for each patch of color and then filled in? i just took a tip (cant remember which one...I am at work too) and started making crazy blobs of patches. i left space between them cause i knew when i smoothed that it would smoosh together! lol! here is the link to my cake. BTW - not my best cake! and you cant see the sides very well. if i had to cover it, i would take the same colors and use a star tip and just go up and down over the camo to cover it. alternating colors to give it camo colors without the patches....
http://www.cakecentral.com/cake-photo_1334965.html
oh! what about putting just a solid color on the sides of the cake? then it will give the eyes somewhere to stop when looking at it?
That cake you posted looks cute! She specifically asked for buttercream camo. I would just cover it in fondant if she hadn't said that : (. Im thinking about making some leaves out of fondant and putting them on there, that way its still BC just will have a little fondant decorations. Do you think that would help? If I can't improve the look of it im thinking about giving her like half the money back or something. Im sure it will taste great but im embarrassed of it. I hope she doesn't think all my cakes are ugly b/c of this one : (
I use a tip 3 to make the outline and fill in. That way, I only have to smoooth out the lines. The bc is already even. I think with tip 12, you can't even it out because it's too thick. There's nowhere for the excess to go.
Oh, and I don't crumb coat first. I just pipe the blobs directly onto the cake.
One way to smooth it a bit more might be to put a piece of waxed paper over it and then rub your hand over it. It really depends on your butter cream if that would help or not.
If you have some fondant, you could make some shotgun shells...just make a cylinder shape and then paint one end gold...and throw them on top. I'm assuming if he wanted a camo cake he's probably a hunter and would like shotgun shells. That way you'd give the eye something to focus on other than the camo pattern, which probably looks fine if you step back and look at the cake as a whole.
I think the waxed paper on it, then smooth should help, or get a paper towel with no pattern on it. Put it on the icing and use a fondant smoother, it makes the icing very smooth once it's crusted over. Rub with good pressure, build up your pressure until you know what works, and so you don't overdo the pressure. With such little time, it sounds like even a paper towel with a pattern might be ok, just try a small spot first.
If the icing is wet, I dip my finger in water and dab at the icing. It has always given me a perfect finish. I doubt that will help with the icing crusted, but you can try it in an inconspicuous spot if nothing else helps.
Please let us all know how you make out. Good luck. Keep in mind, we are always more critical of our own cakes than other people are.
Ha! I was just about to say this is one of those designs I would never attempt with BC, but then Diane posts a kick a#$ pic of one she did. Nice!
Thanks ya'll! Im definately gonna try to smooth it out more, hopefully that will hellp. Im gonna try those shot gun shells too if i have time. That pic you posted is soo good! Mine looks pretty much like the opposite of that ha. Im gonna try my best to fix and get a pic up .
I just did a camo cake on Tuesday. I didn't pipe on mine. Well, I did, but then I started over because I just couldn't see how I would get all of the lines out. DH wanted me to outline a pattern, but I didn't, and I think it was easier that way.
I just used an angled spautla, dropped a blob toward the center, spread it out a little (without making it perfectly smooth), wiped off the spatula, picked up color #2, dropped it next to the first blob, spread it out, repeat with color #3. Soon, I was working with one color for a while before having to switch to another color. I used toothpicks to help the icing get into tight spots. It was not smooth once it was all covered, but the buttercream was mostly even. I then used the Viva papertowels to smooth it.
Oh, and I used Wilton Gel Colors, too. The only Americolor I used was black (yellow and black, med. green and black, med & dark green and black.
http://www.cakecentral.com/modules.php?name=gallery&file=displayimage&pid=1440387
Have you finished up your cake yet? I've been waiting to hear what, if anything you did to it, and how it turned out.
I also want to let you know that it happens all the time that I'll be picking apart my cake because I know all the mistakes, but by morning when I'm looking at it as a whole, I find that I like how it turned out.
it happens all the time that I'll be picking apart my cake because I know all the mistakes, but by morning when I'm looking at it as a whole, I find that I like how it turned out.
me too! when it's 3am and i have been looking at the cake for waaaay too long, it's hard to be objective
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