Hello everyone, I am new to the cake world and self taught one everything so far....I am a little scared I have a four tear cake that I have to make by sunday, and now the mother wants it to smoke from the top of the cake and have each tear off set.  My thought was to yuse pvc pipe down the center of the cake with cap at the bottom so the water would not come out.  what does everyone think.  I am freaking out :) each layer is also different. one other thing what is the trick to very moist cake from scratch

I know i have put a lot in my post but I really need some help. Moist cake is a big thing my cake was dry and I dont want that... any help on that

AIf your cake is dry it is probably overbaked. Simple as that. I only have a few decades of cake experience and I don't think I would agree to make smoke come out of a cake.

Just say no to the recent changes, especially the smoke requests.  If you don't think the offset change will stress you out you could go along with it, but if it complicates it for you then say no to that also.  Don't try a new recipe now, it is too late in the game to try something new, use your tried and true recipes.  Also beware of taking order changes from the mother, your customer should be the bride and groom....what if they don't want smoke and offset tiers and it is just the MOB's idea????  The order is in and paid for, just do what you had planned on and relax.
 

You could try adding about 1/8 cup of oil to your recipe to make it a little more moist and try not to over bake. Maybe add dry ice in a small container on top somehow for the smoke....but I don't know.... just a thought.

My son suggested smoke coming from my halloween cake caldron and I did research. You need gallons of hot water and 10 lbs of dry ice. It only lasts 10-15 minutes. HTH

yeah i am not real excited about it, but i have looked on line and found people that made volcano cakes and it worked well Im going to try it out today to see if it works before I make this huge cake

it is a birthday cake for twins that are 7 and they have never had a birthday party before, and not a great mother that they have to live with. the step mom is doing this for the girls and I really want it to be great for them because it is like their first bithday, or at least their first birthday party.

What is the best way to stablize the cake when I off set it?

Hi there, I have been making cakes for many years now - firstly for family etc and professionally since 2008. The main bit of advice I would give to anyone in the early stages is to be aware of your limitations. I don't anything derogatory by this but it is sometimes easy when you want to please to agree to something which is beyond what you can comfortably cope with.  

As Leah s said with all my years of experience I would be very reluctant to make a cake with smoke coming out - even less so when the request is so late.

Know what you are happy to create and be clear with your clients from the off. You don't have to do this in a negative way but instead can think about how you design the cake in terms of the work involved.

Hope this helps

Amanda xx

Truly, I've refused designs when I didn't think I could do it.  Especially at the last minute.  I recently refused a carved cake from a long-time client.  She revised her design.  You can make a great cake for the girls even if it doesn't have smoke.

The best way to stabilize/support the cake is with SPS.