I couldn't have done it without you! And I didn't even cry! Sighed a lot, but didn't cry...
Back in April my co-worker asked me to make cupcakes for her daughter's baptism. I said I would love to! Well, the baptism was today and many, many things changed between April and now.....She and her husband decided they wanted a cake instead of cupcakes. We talked about how big of a cake they would need and they decided to go with a small cake and several other desserts. Ok, no problem...Then her husband started sending her in with pictures of stacked cakes, lots of flowers, sculpted teddybear toppers...and decided last week that thye wanted a slightly bigger cake. I was very open about what I thought I was able to do - I am not a professional baker! This is my hobby and I am still learning every day. We agreed on a cake and I got to work....and I never thought about the fact that the baptism was in the middle of AUGUST!

Well, I got to face a lot of challenges with this cake and THANK YOU for everyone that has experienced them before me and shared so that I had some idea of how to work throught them!

I got to experience condensation on my crumbcoat, bulging filling, airpockets in my fondant, baking challenges of larger sized cakes, different qualities of hi-ratio shortening, heavy flowers, working with bubble tea straws (love them!) my first dowel all the way through a stacked cake and traveling with a stacked cake. I also got to see what can happen to a cake after you deliver it, no matter how careful you have been with it all week.

They really, really liked it and I am pretty happy with the results. I'm going to keep reading and keep practicing. Thank you ALL for you sharing and teaching!

Just got the update on what happened to the cake after I dropped it off...

Apparently, the 6-year-old brother pulled one of the big flowers off and a cousin broke off part of the bow. Then the cake sat, and sat, and sat outside in the heat (thank God it wasn't a peishable filling!) and the buttercream under the fondant started melting and the fondant slipped some and sagged on the bottom tier. I do notice that the Fondx fondant on the top tier seemed to stay ok, but the Duff fondant on the bottom was the one sagging....again, another lesson learned