I need a large drink.
Yesterday I created a 3 tier square wedding cake with hand painting on it. It was inspired by Bayshore Cakes at the bride's request. I toiled long and hard getting the corners straight, and getting the fondant on. It was finished, I was pleased, went to bed.
Woke up, worked on another cake all morning long, finally took a break to start getting ready for delivery and I see that the whole side of the bottom tier has bowed out! I poke with a pin and tap the fondant down, but it won't go. It has stretched out and dried that way, and now it is folding and cracking.
I use my smoother to straighten it out by pressing downward toward the board, with creates excess fondant at the bottom. I use my exacto to cut it off and try to fix the cracks with royal icing.
I can't get it smooth for lovin' or money! I have to deliver at 4:30, and it is 3pm. I decide I have 2 choices: refund her money for a crappy looking cake, or fix it. So I take a deep breath and slice off the fondant from the bottom tier, re-ice it, and stick the whole thing in the freezer for 10 minutes while I roll out fondant. Then I wrap it around the cake, cut it to fit the naked area, and smooth some RI at the joins (bride was adamantly against a bottom border, so I had NO options here. I did finally decide that I absolutely had to have something around the bottom, so I put a very thin ribbon around the base.
I then had to repaint the design and since I had no time to cut out the message again, just hand painted it on there. I rushed to the venue and hand painted the silver part of the design while there! Then the food and bevereage manager tells me that the table won't be staying there! I express my dismay and he does his best to calm me down, but there is literally NOTHING I can do about it, as they are short on space and have to re-arrange everything once the ceremony is over, so the cake table MUST move. I set it up, took pictures, had the wedding planner sign, and I boogied. She said it was pretty, so I guess it turned out ok. But I've still got 2 other cakes to finish and my hands are shaking!!!
You did an awesome job! What a beautiful cake--no one would ever believe there was a thing that didn't go as planned. Go and have that drink!!
Any ideas what caused the fondant problem? This has happened to me before and its always an awful sinking feeling you get when you're trying to work out what you're going to do about it.
The cake ended up looking beautiful - well done and good save!
I have no clue! I had frozen the cake for about 20 min while I rolled out fondant and covered the top 2 tiers, but it wasn't frozen through.... I wish I knew. I've done this plenty of times before with no issues at all!
I had this happen once when I was working on a charity cake. I thought I would lose my mind. I still don't know why it happened. I worked on this cake until 2:30 in the morning and woke up for work at 4:30 and the whole side had slid right down the cake. I had to be at work at 6:00. I'm glad there was no video camera on me that morning. I had to have been a sight. But, relax now, the cake looks fantastic.
Wow, you did an amazing job with the repairs. I would have never guessed that there had been a problem. The cake looks beautiful. Thank you for sharing your story. I have recently started decorating cakes for my family & friends only and become discouraged sometimes when things don't go well. Yesterday was one of those days. Somehow it helps to know that someone who makes such great looking cakes sometimes have issue too.
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