Just need a bit of a rant and a short break...

I love caking, really I do, but it's trying my patience right now. I had a wonderful experimental technique cake last week, and even though there were a few moments of "Arg!" it was pretty much stress free. I've been working on another cake most of the day today and it seems like everything has gone wrong! The request was for a German Chocolate cake (9" Round) and a (7") white chocolate cake. The German chocolate is supposed to have the coconut pecan filling and chocolate buttercream while the white chocolate has a white chocolate buttercream. Then there's the white and black chocolate fondant and some scroll work. It's due tomorrow night at 6 to be delivered.

I meant to do baking last night, but there were too many people visiting and I tend to make a bit of a mess... so I didn't. Instead I did baking this morning from scratch. The German chocolate stuck horribly on one of the rounds, but came out beautifully in the other so I had to remake half a batch. Then the white chocolate came out like a pancake! My family said they thought it was cornbread! It tasted great, but it was not usable at all. I had to go to work for 4 hours, so I ended up doctoring a box mix when I got home which left me with a warm tier when I wanted to ice.

The icing was the next issue. I almost forgot to make it the right flavors, dropped some of it on the floor when I was folding in some ingredients, it wouldn't stick to the cakes, and didn't make enough to cover one of the cakes. I wanted to cry so badly, but there was no time! This was even one of my tried and true recipes! My family offered to help, but they don't know much about cake, so I really couldn't accept in good conscience.

I finally got them iced and the bottom tier is shorter than the top! My cake jacks are about a quarter inch too long to be put in the bottom tier for support too. Normally I would have put some more icing on, but there wasn't any left so I have to go out to the store in the morning so I can stack these suckers with dowels! I'm hoping that the fondant may make it just barely tall enough to work, but I'm not holding my breath.

I'm just so frustrated right now. I needed to get away from the cake before I decided to smash it. This is probably the worst time I've ever had with a cake, and it's one that I was so excited about too! Some close friends asked for this cake for their wedding. It's my first ever wedding cake and nothing is going right. I'll be doing my scroll work in royal just so I can afford to make some mistakes and break them off cleanly. Unfortunately I'm not licensed and there are no home bakeries allowed anyways, so I can't have them pay even if I wanted them to. To top it all off I cannot attend the wedding due to a prior commitment so I don't even get to eat it and pretend I am punishing/killing the stupid thing!

I just need the strength and the patience to get this one done. I'm sure it will be lovely when it's finished, but I am honestly hating this cake right now for all it has done to me.

Welcome to the wonderful world of cake decorating. It's nothing that most of us haven't also gone through, it's just your turn.

You'll be fine. And who knows, it may turn out to be one of your best cakes when it's done. Fingers crossing for you -

Theresa

Hang in there. Walk away from the cake for a bit and it will help. Good luck.

i can relate to your frustration. some cakes i sail through no problems. and others-like cakes that should be easy give me the toughest time.
i know for me, i can only do cakes at night.
every time i try during the day-the constant interuptions and people in my kitchen, ugh!! i cant get anything done.
keep the faith-you will get the cake done, and it will be awesome!

How did your night go? I was in that place last week for a wedding cake. It was one of the most stressful days of my life but the cake ultimately did turn out beautifully.

Wishing you all the best today...

Thanks for the support. Unfortunately things didn't get any better.

The fondant ripped and wasn't entirely smooth in places, it took forever to make, but at least the colors turned out (black and cream). I ran out of red to color my royal icing and had to run to Michael's this morning. Of course because it needed to be bright red it tasted horrid, but I had already warned my friends about that. The tiers are much closer in size than I thought they would be, so I'm thinking I must have used the wrong pan to bake. Of course it's way too late to change anything so I have to offset the tiers to give any kind of decorating space on top of the bottom tier. It is not my best work at all. The scroll work isn't as smooth or pretty as I would like, but I can't do much more. I really can't take the stress this cake has caused. I even almost dropped it once (accidently hit the stand) while I was decorating and ended up with a big dent in the fondant.

I will be forever referring to this cake as the Murphy's law cake. I have never had so many issues in one cake. Hopefully this is the storm before the calm. I know my friends will be happy to have a cake, especially a tasty free one, but I am not proud of this cake.

I'm going to upload some pics soon, but first I plan to enjoy some cake scraps since I can't have any of the real deal.

I couldn't get the attachment to work so here is the link to my cake. It's not a disaster, but it wasn't up to par for me at all.

http://cakecentral.com/modules.php?name=gallery&file=displayimage&pid=1897234

My last cake had disaster moments also, but the end result was all that mattered! Funny stories to tell later!

Your cake looks great!

It looks great and they should be thrilled!

Thanks for the kind words everyone.

The delivery went smoothly, which was a big worry for me so I was driving like an old lady. They were very appreciative. I had also made a mini cake for their anniversary and had it all frozen and wrapped up for them so they don't even get to see the cake until they open it. It was a surprise for them since they weren't planning on having an anniversary tier and I had just enough extra supplies to make it. My fiance said that everyone enjoyed the taste. Supposedly the groom thought it tasted better than the cake his German grandmother makes. I guess grandmas don't just magically acquire good recipes when they turn 80. I'm still not proud of the job I did, but I feel better about it knowing that people enjoyed it.

Thanks again for the support guys.

I seldom post on the forums, because of the negativity that is usually encompassed, but thankfully didn't see the usual bashing on this one. I too have had truly bad cake days & I could empathise with you on your experience. Your cake turned out beautifully & I'm glad it was a success. Continued best wishes on your caking