I don't know how those of you that decorate for a living do it. I was helping a friend out do a baptism cake for her little girl. It was one cake for the week. although it was an 18" x 18" and had to make 4 batches of batter for 3 cake pans. I really didn't think it was going to be that hard. Well it was too hot in the house and the Cream Cheese Swiss Meringue icing was melting while it was on the cake. My buttercream which sat over night somehow was too stiff even though I made it as usual. Then my fondant was stickingeven with all the powdered sugar I could put on it. To top it off I was running late because of the problems and then it hit me, an anxiety attack. I was standing in front of the fan feeling like I ran a mile and was getting dizzy. I'm never late for anything, let alone me bringing a cake to someone that was depending on it. That was when I called it quits for future cakes. I finished it up and had to shower b/c I was disgusting from the running around in the kitchen and the attack.Luckily I was only an hour late. But I couldn't imagine if I had more than one cake to do or if I was doing this as a full time job. Before this I was thinking of a few years down the road of doing business out of the home but you know after that I don't think I could handle it. So for now, it'll be a hobby and I'll be making cakes when it really doesn't matter how they are or if they are late. I made an awesomely delicious cheesecake the other day maybe I'll go into that. No decor needed. On the bright side my friend sent me a msg that night saying that everyone loved it and that even though she got way more servings than the amount of people it was all gone. Even though I know how much work and time each cake gets all those who do it day in and day out all year long have even more of my respect.

Bless you, sweetie! All the best in your future endeavours!
I couldn't believe that my daughter's shower cake took me over 10 hours of time in total. I'm so glad that I baked it one day, then made the icing and fondant ahead of time, and decorated it another day, and broke it up a bit. Otherwise, it never would have been done all in one day!!

oh I didn't do all of it in one day. The baking, leveling, and filling went fine the day before. It was everything after that. I guess between the stuff I listed above and all the small stuff like a food coloring leaking, bags popping holes, running out of paper for the board, etc. Just made it a little but more frusterating. You know I didn't even take a picture of it. I don't think I could have handed the cake off to my friend fast enough. But it's done with now. Lessons learn. I guess maybe I'll have to work my way back into it to get my confidence back up.