A friend came back to town to celebrate her birthday & ask me to make her cake. I was excited & super ready to give her a great birthday cake. I changed the decoration on the cake 3 times. Finally got it to a cake I would be proud of. Left my camera in the car so I took a couple of quick pics with my cell phone & boxed it getting ready to take it to the party.

As I was caring the cake the weight shifted & I couldn't figure out why ... so I put the box down & the whole cake had slid. For some reason I put a smaller cake board under the bottom layer & than sat it on top of the cake drum. I've never done that before & not sure why I did it this time. It was a 3 Tier covered in fondant with some buttercream accents on top.

There was no saving the cake. I had already left the Kitchen & no else was left at the building. I tried to put the cake back in the center & it just slide back. I couldn't do anything but cry . This cake took so long to make & decorate. I was at the kitchen 6 hrs today let alone the 5 hrs from yesterday.

Every time I talked to someone about it I just broke down even more. My friend and her sisters kept saying we just gonna eat it don't worry about it. One said she couldn't tell how it was messed up....I think they were just trying to make me feel better. I didn't want them to even put the cake out. I'm just glad it was in a dark corner. I'm sooo mad at myself I can't believe I did something so stupid. I think I would have felt better if I had dropped the cake who knows.....

Sorry so long I pray this never happens again

I'm sorry this happened to you. Remember, we are our own worst critics. Maybe it's really not as bad as you think.

I know how you feel! I dropped a two tier cake completly down the steps on night after it was finished. I had to remake the entire thing that night. I was crying the entire time. It was HORRIBLE!

I don't quite understand about the cake board you put over the drum. Do you mean you just put it there without any icing to ''glue'' it down? I am so sorry you had this problem and you are so upset.

sandeeb yeah I decorated the cakes on their own circle Then I put then on top of the cake drum to assemble them ... I normally just put the bottom tier on the cake drum with nothing underneath it. so the cake board was touching the cake drum not the cake. I didn't glue it down...the thought never crossed my mind. I had never done that before & still trying to figure out why I did it that way. I'm chalking it up to stupidity

Dear platinumlady
Don't be so hard on yourself. Cake decorating is hard work and long hours, usually at night! Sometimes we just don't think straight anymore.
The next one will be beautiful!

So sorry, I have had about 3 disasters in my cake making hobby. I drive so slow when I deliver, but the friends that took their cake didn't and the cakes suffered. I was devistated each time, so much work for nothing. I know how you feel about making the mistake with the cake drum, you get so involved in decorating, some things are forgotten, done it many times. Since I started using the sps system for stacking, I don't worry as much, the cake is so stable, it works great, I would think about going back, always use it now.

Thanks everyone for the words of encouragement

I guess one reason I'm so upset is the fact that there were tons friends there that I hadn't seen in years (elementary, middle school and high school) & it would have been my chance to get my name out there.

Cake decorating is not a hobby for me it's my business & I can't afford to make mistakes like this. I rent a Kitchen to make my cakes & I no longer work late hours in the night... It's all daytime decorating.

I didn't expect to make anything from the cake because I give family/close friends a 1st order discount. I didn't even go back to the party after making the delivery so I don't even know how everything tasted. This was just a horrible day from the start.

I don't have any orders this week so I will be making checkoff sheets to make sure I don't repeat this mistake.

I always put my bottom tier on it's own cake board, ice, and then place it on the cake drum.

I use heavy duty glue dots to glue the board to the drum.

Doing it this way, I have almost no issue with having to clean off the cake drum and nothing slides.

Rae

BladesCakes what do you use for glue ... do you use like a hot glue gun?

I will say that was a plus I didn't have to clean around the cake drum & it was on a white drum so that was a plus

I like to use double sided carpet tape Nothing's going nowhere!

Remember these are all lessons learned and a new adventure in caking.

To those of you with tons of experience... I use piping gel between the board and the cake. It has never moved. BUT... am I asking for a problem?

Thanks Rae I appreciate your help.

Thank you everyone. The birthday girl says she not angry with me & will use me in the future.

Oh hun.. I am soooo sorry this happened.. I can only imagine the nauseating disappointment you felt I am unsure if I'm invisioning what went wrong correctly. I use a cardboard drum to sit all my cake tiers on to set up with and ganache.. then I attach the bottom tier to the masonite display cake board using ganache which will stick and dry firm (it aint going no where). Am I correct in thinking that you did not secure the bottom tier cardboard drum to the main display cake board?

If so, I did this a few weeks ago with a couple of cake dummies that were going on top of cupcake stands.. I didn't attach them to the masonite boards for this reason, and was using non-slip matting inbetween just so I could use the masonite board to rotate it for decorating purposes. However, my DH didn't know this, and I had removed the rubber mat and he proceeded to pick them up and place them in my delivery box.. bless him lol.

On the way to deliver, I heard something sliding around! EEEEK.. the penny dropped and I quickly, yet carefully, pulled over to inspect. Thank goodness my cake dummies were intact and undamaged.. Pheeew.. could have been nasty!

Again, I'm sorry for your grief. At least this cake was for a good friend, if it were for a random client it could have been a whole lot worse. Chin up.. and back to the caking board for you Sending you good vibes! xx