hi everyone!

i have unfortunately had my first negative comment regarding the taste of my vanilla cake - it is a recipe I have made a number of times with very positive feedback.

i made the attached hamburger cake for a friend and heard yesterday that the vanilla cake inside the hamburger was "too wet". Not moist, but wet, which I am interpreting as soggy. 

most of the cakes I make are buttercream, not fondant covered, and that is the only thing I can come up with. There was also chocolate cake (the hamburger patty), not fondant covered, which was fine. 

has fondant covering ever caused soggy cake for anyone?

thanks so much!

kerry

If it was a friend, ask her to be more specific. If the cake was soggy then the fondant would be slouching, and that isn't slouching or doing anything out of the ordinary at all. Get some more details and you might find out that she's not describing the problem correctly.

Sounds like it could have been undercooked?

Do you syrup your cakes before filling?? Maybe you put too much syrup on the layers?

i don't syrup before filling, and it definitely was not undercooked - i had to cut directly through the middle of the top "bun" to layer and all was good...

@costumeczar - what other details would you be looking for? I'm a bit stumped. 

Was this a regular customer or a new one? Some people are more reliable sources of correct feedback, right? Were they looking for a refund?  Moisture doesn't come from nowhere - especially enough to make a fondant covered cake soggy!

Was the vanilla cake in the freezer?  This could be the only way a cake can get soggy.  Frozen cakes are the best but they need to be thawed thoroughly before frosting and decorating.   Fondant definitely doesn't make cakes soggy!!  That is a really fantastic hamburger cake!!   

I do love your hamburger cake!! It looks so cool!! I have never used fondant so I will let all the experts help you with that question!! 

I'd tell her that you're kind of stumped about what she meant, and just get her to describe what she experienced further. Was the cake actually soaking wet with some kind of juice from the filling? Was it all the way through the cake itself or just next to the filling area? Maybe the filling separated and some liquid came out of it and made part of the cake near it wet. Tell her that you want to figure out exactly what happened if you can to avoid the same thing in the future.

Keep in mind that this could be totally her perception of the cake, and that there may have been absolutely nothing "wrong" with the cake itself. Sometimes people are used to one kind of cake (usually grocery store cake) and anything else seems wrong to them. If you get her to really pinpoint what she didn't like about it you might figure out that it was fine, but not what she was used to.