AI need to vent to others that would understand me, everyone else says no big deal the cake looked great!

I prepped so much for my brothers wedding cake and made sure dotted all my "I's" and crossed all my "T's". At the beginning of June I asked the bride to clear it with her mom that I could construct the cake at their house. I was nervous and excited to do this cake, it was my first wedding cake. This was also a wedding gift so I over planned!!!

To make a long story short I didn't have access to the kitchen and was only provided a small round table to so ALL my work on (torte, fill, frost, and stack!). Someone turned the a/c off and it got really humid (it rained a lot for about an hour and a half) and I'm sure you could imagine what happened to my buttercream and cakes that were once firm due to refrigeration before I got there. I could add another coat and had to present a cake with...CRUMBS! How tacky! In addition I had to frost the tiers stacked. My mom made a small spot for me on their dining room table which was being occupied by a lot of stuff, but I only had the area for a few minutes before guest started sitting there to get out of the rain. Even though I had stuff sitting there, yep, some lady sat right by one of my fillings, leveler, and other items I was using. Here's the crappy looking cake that tasted awesome! The middle tier was filled with lemon curd and raspberries and the bottom was cream cheese and strawberries. The cake itself was a white cake with LorAnn champagne flavored oil. The anniversary tier was the same minus the fruit and I added creme bouquet.

[IMG ALT=""]http://www.cakecentral.com/content/type/61/id/3281746/width/350/height/700[/IMG] [IMG ALT=""]http://www.cakecentral.com/content/type/61/id/3281747/width/350/height/700[/IMG]

BTW...the cake was suppose to be decorated way differently but I was so through that I threw the flowers on there and called it quits. AND YES, the table that the cake is on was my work space!

This was the original design... [IMG ALT=""]http://www.cakecentral.com/content/type/61/id/3281749/width/350/height/700[/IMG]

If you read this...thank you for listening to me vent! :)

A

Because they had no portable tables or anything else that I could use. The table that the cake is on was the only space I had. The remainer of the furnature in their living room was a chair, sofa, etcetera. Items that I could use to hold the cake. There was also suppose to be a small refrigerator for me to use for the cake, but that didn't happen either. It was a disaster for me! I started to fill and frost before leaving? But it was over an hour drive and I didnt have much space in my car to transport 3 tiers put together.

Sometimes it's so hard to predict what the situation might be when going to a venue with a cake!  Disasters are never fun, but we all have them!

 

Thankfully it was for your brother and it tasted good.  Take the lessons you learned and sleep well knowing it won't happen again because of this experience.

 

I brought a cake without a box to someone's house once, tripped, and the cake went flying…it was awful, the cake had been so beautiful…now I know to always transport in a box and make sure I wear sneakers to deliver.

AOkay, a couple of things here.

1. There is no way you were going to get a clean finish by icing the cake all stacked already. That is already asking for a disaster. 2. while your were filling the one cake, where were the other cakes sitiing. 3. what did the bride think of the cake?

I've read on here that it's the family ones that go awry, I guess because things get forgotten about when you're not paying £££ for the cake! Very sorry this happened, but I admire you for hanging in there and presenting something very pretty, even if it's not what you intended. And all those wedding guests have at least gone away thinking 'Damn, that tasted lovely!'

I think it turned out pretty good! When I glanced at the pic before reading your post I thought maybe it was just more of a rustic cake...probably guests thought the same, but I know how frustrating it is to have a vision and then it ends up looking nothing like that :/

AYou do what you can in that type of situation. If it makes you feel any better earlier this summer for my husbands uncles reception after their destination wedding I was asked to do the cake. It was a casual backyard event, and we were told to bring our dog (a bichon) to the reception. Because we could spend the night if we did we said suuuure why not. I typically clip the dog to the back seat, but in our hatchback that is the safest spot for the cake once we fold the seats down. So my husband clipped the dog to the headrest in the front seat. I asked him to make sure the dog couldn't jump in the back, but I bet you see where this is going! The dog tried to jump directly into the cake, thankfully he didn't damage the fondant, he just broke all the gum paste orchids on one side of the cake. We were an hour late and I had to hot glue, yes, hot glue the gumpaste flowers together. I figured since I was serving the cake I could make sure it was not eaten! Everyone thought it was fine and looked great, but all I could see were the fine lines where hot glue was.

I know just how you feel.  It is always hard  (very upsetting) when things go awry but you did a rather nice job considering the unexpected problems.

I remember one time I had to decorate a stacked cake on site because of the design.  It was outdoors at a cow farm.  There were several BIG dogs running around. One of them got one of the tips I needed to use and chew it up good! :(  

Non-cake people have no clue how much time, space and mess it takes to put together a three tier cake. The literally think you slap it together in about half an hour.

 

I know you've learned your lesson, but next time, you need not just to 'clear' it with the bride, but actually talk to the homeowner, and say, "I'm going to need about three hours, and access to the whole kitchen for that time. And the AC needs to be running. Is that possible?" And work from there.

 

I think I'd have said, when given a small table, "Look, that's not going to work. I need X,Y and Z to make this cake," and just waited until someone made it happen.

 

Why couldn't you have access to the kitchen? And why when 'someone' turned the AC off, didn't you go to the homeowner, and say, "I need the AC going so this cake doesn't collapse"?

 

Last time I made cake away from home, I had a discussion with the bride about what facilities I needed, and she even took photos of the kitchen to check with me that it would be sufficient.