That Other Kind Of Day...

Business By EnglishCakeLady Updated 12 Jun 2011 , 4:19am by Bonnell

EnglishCakeLady Cake Central Cake Decorator Profile
EnglishCakeLady Posted 9 Jun 2011 , 7:51pm
post #1 of 23

You know sometimes you have a cake day where everything goes right? Every cake is perfect, every bowl of frosting is delicious, your fondant neither sticks nor tears, your stripes line up perfectly and that logo you cut out looks more like the logo than the logo? You can't believe how talented you are and you're pretty sure you'll be asked to cater the next Royal wedding and that as soon as Zac Efron tastes your cakes he'll want to marry you?

Well, I'm having the other kind of day. The one where NOTHING goes right and you wonder why I ever thought you could do this and you curse the friends who said, "you should go into business!" Fools.

I have had every cake-related disaster known to man happen to me today. Usually, when a dropped spoon becomes completely submerged in a bowl of hot ganache, I look on it as an opportunity to lick it clean and start over with a new spoon. Today, it almost made me cry.

I'm posting this in the hopes that someone will tell me they also have days like this and make me feel a bit better. I'm scared to start the next phase of this bake as I'm pretty sure it's jinxed. Maybe I should just have another spoonful of ganache and a bit of a lie down.

22 replies
VaBelle Cake Central Cake Decorator Profile
VaBelle Posted 9 Jun 2011 , 8:09pm
post #2 of 23

I've never had one of the perfect days so I feel ya. The cake I just finished came out beautiful and my friend was ecstatic, but I was having a problem getting my buttercream to crust and it's just the standard recipe using hi-ratio shortening. So I can completely relate. Have an extra spoonful of ganache (or two) and it will get better. Good luck!

prue23 Cake Central Cake Decorator Profile
prue23 Posted 9 Jun 2011 , 8:19pm
post #3 of 23

awww i"m so sorry your having such a yucky day! but believe me I have been there as well.....I had a rough morning just last week when it took 5 tries to get a 6" round cake covered in fondant; it either ripped before i got it on the cake, after i got it on the cake, it kept getting stuck to the board, it was too soft....I was ready to cry! but my mom suggested I take a break, go for a walk or drive then come back and keep going. And it worked! sometimes all u need is 5 minutes to recharge and then you'll be all good.....Hope the day turns around for u! sending u good cake vibes icon_wink.gif

TexasSugar Cake Central Cake Decorator Profile
TexasSugar Posted 9 Jun 2011 , 8:55pm
post #4 of 23

I did a cake this weekend, and I had that kinda of day, the one where you want to sit in the middle of the kitchen floor and cry. Mine was for my SIL's Sister, and I had seriously considered calling and saying sorry ain't gonna happen today.

Because of some things that cake up, I was late getting started.

Figured out the ganache a made ahead of time, wasn't sitting up like it should be and was oily.

Mixed up the white batter, 10 and 6in pans, put those in the oven and baked.

While getting the chocolate batter ready I realized that I did not use enough water in the white cake. You know that moment where you are like did I or didn't I? So I cut a bit off the top of the 6in, tasted fine, but texture was off. Okay, fine I can redo this.

Get the chocolate cake in the oven, 10 and 6in pans and came next door to talk to my brother, with out the timer. Get back and realize that the 6in was past just a little over done. Okay fine, I had left over batter, get that in the pan and re-bake while I'm mixing up the second white batter.

I will say thankfully after everything got baked, this did go better. I did end up remaking the ganache and I did stay up until 4am painting spots on the cake, and yes there is a point where I did walk out of the kitchen and cried for a minute (blaming that on hormones) but I did get the cake done and I received reports that it tasted good.

I say have another spoon or two of that ganache and then walk away from the kitchen for a while, even if it is only 5 mins, but would be better if you can escape longer. And just chill for a bit.

You can do it!

jenmat Cake Central Cake Decorator Profile
jenmat Posted 10 Jun 2011 , 1:23am
post #5 of 23

ah yes, the sucky cake day, er week. Mine always come in weeks. I just usually pray that they don't happen on the BIG weeks.
When those weeks hit, I hunker down until I can feel the curse is over, knowing that whatever I do, I better take it slow, think it through, or else I'll pay later.

KalisCakes Cake Central Cake Decorator Profile
KalisCakes Posted 10 Jun 2011 , 3:15am
post #6 of 23

I think it's related to the new moon. On full moons people go nuts, on new moons, cakes go nuts. icon_smile.gif Actually, I've found people go nuts on new moons too.
I'm having one of those WEEKS English (on the business side, not the cake side *knocking on wood very very hard*)
There was one time I was working a cake, and the fondant just would not cooperate. At all. It refused. I think it even laughed and mocked me a few times. I got so angry I balled it all up and quite literally threw it across the kitchen into the trashbins. About mid air is when I realized that was the last of the red fondant on hand... oops!!
Take a BIG BIG spoonful of that ganache, go back and look at pics of some of the amazing cakes you've already done, crank up that angry girl music and have at it!!! (Tossing fondant across the kitchen does help, btw.)

indydebi Cake Central Cake Decorator Profile
indydebi Posted 10 Jun 2011 , 5:39am
post #7 of 23

I think my worst was dropping a warm 12" red velvet cake on the floor at 10:00 at night. I'm tired and now I have to clean up a mess AND rebake. Any idea how long it takes to get the pink coloring out of your floor after dropping a warm red velvet cake?

3 days. icon_cry.gif

KalisCakes Cake Central Cake Decorator Profile
KalisCakes Posted 10 Jun 2011 , 7:07am
post #8 of 23

Ahhhh... maybe it's the red that's the culprit!!! lol
The "dropping on the floor" reminds me of one cake I was doing. Ahhh, this was going to be a really spectacular cake. It was a lifesize spiderman bust/torso. ALL cake, even the head. I'd spent about 7 hours carving it just right and dirty icing it. My sister help and I then moved it from the stainless steel work table to a lower wooden table I had placed in the walk in. We set the 100+ lb sucker on that table, let go, turned around, and BOOOOOMMMM!!!!!! the table broke. Let's just say my lil sis very slowly and very quietly just backed away from me...

cake_architect Cake Central Cake Decorator Profile
cake_architect Posted 10 Jun 2011 , 7:26am
post #9 of 23
Quote:
Originally Posted by KalisCakes

Let's just say my lil sis very slowly and very quietly just backed away from me...




isn't that the funniest?! when someone steps into the kitchen with you and disaster strikes- they always freeze! the person never knows what to do lol. aww, poor bystanders, all they know is they're about to see the wrath of a verrryyyyy angry caker!

mumof3 Cake Central Cake Decorator Profile
mumof3 Posted 10 Jun 2011 , 8:15am
post #10 of 23

I feel all your pain ...here's my story....

On tuesday did 30 graduation caps all on sticks, (and for once they were beautiful) for my daughters KG3 graduation. I live in Saudi and CANNOT DRIVE icon_cry.gif My husband couldn't drop me at the venue but booked a lush taxi....we sat in the taxi carrying the choclate caps. My kids and I watched, as one by one the caps just melted. The cab was lush but blowing hot air icon_surprised.gif

I wanted to pick up the tray and smear it into the seats, seriously i nearly lost the plot icon_mad.gif ...the thing that stopped me was watching my kids mouth drop wide open as they looked with disbelief. icon_eek.gif They did all they could...fixing the air-conditioning vents onto the tray, asking if the caps would firm up, not complaining that they too were almost melting in the taxi. BTW They are only 11, 8, and 5

It is amazing how kids can act real mature when the going gets tough!!!

Thankfully the main cake arrived in good shape!

FACSlady Cake Central Cake Decorator Profile
FACSlady Posted 10 Jun 2011 , 9:49am
post #11 of 23

Oh yes, those days! Last 4th of July I made a cake for an outdoor concert. One of the attendees had Celiac, so I made a "cake" I had made many times before - almond meringue with apricot filling and French buttercream. Made it the day before, naturally, and when I got it out of the fridge to put on the fondant and decorations, I dicovered that it had pancaked and was lopsided. No way I could decorate that. So I made another cake that afternoon, fool that I was. It was 90 degrees and sticky out, and warm in my kitchen despite the AC, but I finally got the cake together and it looked fine. DH took it out to the HOT car and out it on the SEAT. As soon as I got out there I moved it, but it was, of course, too late, and the second tier slid off. What a mess! Two ruined cakes! Well, at least it was a party of friends and they understood.

jakip Cake Central Cake Decorator Profile
jakip Posted 10 Jun 2011 , 10:09am
post #12 of 23

I've had one of those days this week, after 5 attempts at a well used receipe for a carrot cake and I finally have a cake, all stupid errors, but still anoying!!, wrong flour, wrong flour and two much rising agent, so small, and finally burnt! fell asleep and missed the buzzer, only woke up when hubby said " is that cake meant to be in the oven still!", deep breath... " no honey, I was going for the charcoal flavour!" and walked away to start again the next day.
Silly thing is the cake is for my Mum & Dads 46 year wedding anniversary, so I think was trying to hard!
Touch wood all ok for tomorrow when i take it to them for the gathering!!

beenie51 Cake Central Cake Decorator Profile
beenie51 Posted 10 Jun 2011 , 10:33am
post #13 of 23

This last weekend my buttercream did not crust also. It must have been something in the air this weekend.

LoveMeSomeCake615 Cake Central Cake Decorator Profile
LoveMeSomeCake615 Posted 12 Jun 2011 , 12:54am
post #14 of 23

Oh my gosh, it's so funny you should post this now, because we have totally had this kind of weekend with our cakes! We had two cakes this weekend, one for a Christening, and one for a Wedding.

The Christening one went fine- had a small issue with the FBCT not looking right, so I ended up just painting it on, looked fine. So we deliver it and she loves it, all good. We are driving down the road to get lunch, just left the place 5 min. before, and the lady calls and says she found a hair on the cake. icon_surprised.gif

I am so embarrased, told her I'm so sorry will be right there. When we get there we look at the cake and see it, I think it must have been one of mine. She was really nice about it, and said she could just meet us somewhere later to get it. So we go home and fix that.

THEN- today I was finishing up the Wedding cake- doing a cascade of BC roses, and the roses start falling off the cake! icon_cry.gif I feel like I am going to pass out at this point, because we really needed to be leaving soon to get the cake there on time. I start frantically running around making RI to try to make the roses stick better, piping them directly on the cake, etc. On the way, the bride calls us asking where her cake is (we told her we would be there at 5 PM, it is about 5:25 PM at this point) We get to the venue and a couple more roses fell off in transit. icon_mad.gif

So we get it into the reception hall, and the bride is sitting RIGHT THERE getting her hair done! We really did not want to fix the cake right in front of her! Thankfully there was a kitchen. We brought the cake into the kitchen, fixed the roses, and then popped it into the freezer for a few minutes to make sure it was good and cold! (The reception hall was hot!) We finally get it to the cake table (Bride is STILL THERE, now getting makeup done) and then we leave, praying everything stays intact!

PHEW! That was by far the worst cake weekend we've had yet. So glad it's over!

fedra Cake Central Cake Decorator Profile
fedra Posted 12 Jun 2011 , 1:23am
post #15 of 23

I feel ya sister: I made 16 full bloom gumpaste roses (which took hours to do!), let them dry, petal dusted them and placed them on my work counter to have ready for the cake this afternoon. Well, wouldn't you know that my two year old got a hold of them and broke every single one of them into z million pieces. I had to make an emergency run to my local specialty bake shop and buy some premade from them! Life has it's ups and downs but you just gotta get thru it! Hang on there!!! icon_smile.gif

LoveMeSomeCake615 Cake Central Cake Decorator Profile
LoveMeSomeCake615 Posted 12 Jun 2011 , 1:49am
post #16 of 23
Quote:
Originally Posted by fedra

I feel ya sister: I made 16 full bloom gumpaste roses (which took hours to do!), let them dry, petal dusted them and placed them on my work counter to have ready for the cake this afternoon. Well, wouldn't you know that my two year old got a hold of them and broke every single one of them into z million pieces. I had to make an emergency run to my local specialty bake shop and buy some premade from them! Life has it's ups and downs but you just gotta get thru it! Hang on there!!! icon_smile.gif




Oh my gosh, I would have probably just burst into tears!!! Glad you had a place nearby that had them on hand! thumbs_up.gif

Kitagrl Cake Central Cake Decorator Profile
Kitagrl Posted 12 Jun 2011 , 2:02am
post #17 of 23

Murphy bothers me A LOT when I'm trying to do cake. A LOT.

MamaDear Cake Central Cake Decorator Profile
MamaDear Posted 12 Jun 2011 , 2:12am
post #18 of 23

If that perfect cake day ever came along I would just hafta quit making cakes cause I would be so surprised I would have a heart attack right then and there. My most worstest cake disaster would have to have been when I was making a heart shaped, tiered cake for my best friend's 20 year vow renewal about ten years ago. I did all the flowers (6 boquets, 12 boutineers, 2 arrangements and several corsages) for this event and I was tired anyway and it was the day before the ceremony which I was also "directing".

I had baked off my FOUR 14 inch layers and filled and dirty frosted them when something went wrong with the cake board and I had to carefully transfer it to another. Well I had my husband flip the cake over into my outstretched hands (dont have a clue why I didnt use a rack or something) and everything was ok. I took two steps and as usual my graceful self stumbled and down to the floor went all four layers, except the parts I had my hands under so it looked like I was holding two giant chocolate mittens. Had to rebake and redo the whole bottom tier. It turned out okay in the end and my friend loved it so everything was good but I slept for 24 hours after it was all over.

I think the key to having less stressful and better cake days is to stick with one part of the ceremony unless you take two weeks off beforehand!!!!

ajwonka Cake Central Cake Decorator Profile
ajwonka Posted 12 Jun 2011 , 2:15am
post #19 of 23
Quote:
Originally Posted by fedra

I feel ya sister: I made 16 full bloom gumpaste roses (which took hours to do!), let them dry, petal dusted them and placed them on my work counter to have ready for the cake this afternoon. Well, wouldn't you know that my two year old got a hold of them and broke every single one of them into z million pieces. I had to make an emergency run to my local specialty bake shop and buy some premade from them! Life has it's ups and downs but you just gotta get thru it! Hang on there!!! icon_smile.gif




Ah, kids! My 2 year old grabbed a fist full of a totally finished cake while i grabbed a box for it. I wish i could say i handled it in a manor i'm proud of!

sebrina Cake Central Cake Decorator Profile
sebrina Posted 12 Jun 2011 , 3:01am
post #20 of 23
Quote:
Originally Posted by cake_architect

Quote:
Originally Posted by KalisCakes

Let's just say my lil sis very slowly and very quietly just backed away from me...



isn't that the funniest?! when someone steps into the kitchen with you and disaster strikes- they always freeze! the person never knows what to do lol. aww, poor bystanders, all they know is they're about to see the wrath of a verrryyyyy angry caker!




icon_lol.gificon_lol.gificon_lol.gif
Been there, done that. LOL! Everyone in my house just vanishes. They all look at each other & everyone exits through the door closest to them! LOL! God love 'em, I would leave too...

flourjuice Cake Central Cake Decorator Profile
flourjuice Posted 12 Jun 2011 , 3:35am
post #21 of 23

I think anyone who has been doing this a while has had one of those days. Unfortunately, I've had several. There was the wedding cake that totally slid off of it's base in the back of my car. On of the hottest Texas days on record.

There was also the tiered cake that had the rkt cupcake on top. I didn't have time to let the buttercream iced cake to set up in the fridge before delivery. When taking a turn, the weight of the cupcake, "secured" by dowel rod, pulled the dowel rod through all tiers and AGAIN, all over the back of my car.

The successes have outweighed the disasters, but those disaster REALLY stick with you. Hang in there!

LoveMeSomeCake615 Cake Central Cake Decorator Profile
LoveMeSomeCake615 Posted 12 Jun 2011 , 3:43am
post #22 of 23

I'm just so glad to hear that I'm not the only one that has had cake mishaps! Today was one of those days where I was thinking to myself, "Now what in the world makes me think I am qualified to do this professionally???" Major self-doubt going on! icon_sad.gif

Bonnell Cake Central Cake Decorator Profile
Bonnell Posted 12 Jun 2011 , 4:19am
post #23 of 23

This totally describes my week-end. I've always struggled to get my cakes iced totally flat & smooth on top so I finally tried the upside down method of icing. Being a little unsure if it would really work or not I tried it on a 4" smash cake. Well, it turned out great - the top was totally flat and smooth! I was so excited and pleased with myself. I had the cake sitting on the counter, reached across it to grab the kitchen scissors and - you guessed it - dropped the scissors onto the top of the cake! Fortunately I was able to repair the damage and it still looked pretty good. I think I just had a bad case of the dropsy last night because I also knocked over a glass of water onto a board of gumpaste decorations waiting to be put on the cake I was decorating. I don't have to tell you what the result of that was.

Why do these kinds of things always happen in the wee hours of the morning when you just want to get finished so you can get a few hours of sleep.

Quote by @%username% on %date%

%body%