I made a Tigger cake for my neighbour's son's first birthday this past Sunday. I'm sure that nobody has ever been so close to tears over a Disney character. I baked the cake, let it cool completely, leveled the bottom and put it on the cake board. Then I left it to decorate after my kids went to bed (trying to decorate with a two year old trying to scoop icing out of the bowl with a spatula if you don't give him some - not good). Even the decorating went fine. I tried the technique where you smooth the icing with a hot spatula and it didn't turn out perfect, but it was the first time and it looked ok. I should have just gone to bed when I dropped the decorating bag and the tip took a chunk out of the bottom of the cake. But I patched it with buttercream and went on. None of the colors turned out the way I wanted, but I decided that Tigger's colors aren't set in stone and I forged on. When I finished piping the stars on Tigger's hand, I saw that the icing was getting too hot and the stars weren't as defined as the first ones, but I was almost done. So I put the bag of orange to one side and finished the black stars. Then I did the piped shell border around the bottom. The orange had cooled a bit and wasn't as runny and the shells looked fine. By the time I finished (just a couple more to go ) the buttercream was overheated and the shells were turning into little more than orange globs of icing lying around the cake. That's when I put the cake away and went to bed (at 23:30). So the next morning, I scraped off the orange globs, mixed a new batch of orange buttercream and re-did the shells. Then I put the cake away 'till they came to fetch it. I stacked a couple of empty platter covers on the freezer and put it up there so that my son couldn't dig into it in the fridge.

My neighbour came over and got the cake. I just handed it over without even looking at it and only saw it at the party later. The first thing I saw immediately was that the black outline had bled color into the surrounding icing. Large parts of the Tigger was a sickly mix of yellow or orange and grey!! I later told my dh that I would have been very upset and asked for my money back if someone handed me a cake like that! The strangest of all was that they LOVED it! Some of the party guests even want to order cakes from me! And no, I didn't spike the cake with something.

Did the color bleed because there got too much heat to the cake on top of the freezer? I thought that the platter covers would lift it high enough from the freezer's surface to protect it from the heat. This has never happened to any of the cakes that I kept in the fridge! Any ideas?

Black will bleed on any color next to it. Your tigger is adorable!! You did a great job and I think you're being way too critical on yourself!!

Being a perfectionist myself, I feel your pain! I had this same experience a few weeks ago with my first "paid" cake. I was attempting to decorate the cake with piped buttercream in a kitchen with no air conditioning. I thought the cake looked terrible and didn't even want to charge for it, but people at the party loved it.

Your Tigger cake looks great in the pictures, and the party guests were happy, so, good for you! No more holding cakes on top of the freezer or working in 100 degree kitchens from now on. Lesson learned!

Honestly, I think he is SO adorable! just love it. You are being too hard on yourself.

That cake is adorable. You should be proud!

I think it looks good too! Honestly, the bleeding looks more like shading in the pic. I think it actually gives Tigger more depth and helps the design. I know things looks different in person, but that's how it looks from the picture. Chin up! They loved it, and so do we!

Oh the Tigger is really cute! You did a nice job and I can understand when it comes to melting icing. Before piping place your bags in the fridge for about 30 min or so, so you icing will set some and be nice and cool, another idea is use couplers and make two bags of each color you are using and keep one set in the fridge, if the one you are using gets hot just change out the tips and get the cooler bags. The 30 min interval will also give you some time to do some extra clean up ( I always have a messy kitchen when doing cake and juggling kids at the same time ). You might want to consider using merigue powder added to your colored icing, it helps to prevent the bleeding and it also adds a little thickness, really good to help making flowers too. I hope that these ideas help you! Good luck next time TTFN.

BC

You did a really nice job on that!

I love Tigger! He looks amazing.

I've never done a character cake--only small wedding cakes! (Talk about inverted logic--things just happened that way.)

I'm sure they LOVED him, I sure do!

--Knox--

try using a black food color powder. i find that i doesn't bleed at all. i've had trouble with red and royal blue bleeding as well, and the powder seems to do the trick!

I am often way to critical of my work. I can pick it apart like crazy. The thing that you have to remember is that the people that we make these cakes for are not professionals. Most of my clients would not have a clue where to even begin other than the basic baking of the cake and using canned frosting. The things that we see as "imperfections", they either don't notice at all or think is there on purpose. Your Tigger looks great and you should be very proud.

A little off topic but, whitgent - what is food color powder and where do you buy it? Thanks in advance!!

you can get it at cake decorating stores, that's where i've always found it. there are a couple in my area. ck south has a very good one.

oops, didn't read the whole question...its just icing color, but in a powder form, it can be a little messy when a cloud of it goes everywhere, but it doesn't bleed, which is wonderful! sometimes the ck south kind is under the name "candy and cake"

Tigger looks good. I'll bet they just thought that was shading, it does look like it.

I think he looks great!

I think your cake looks great. Good Job.

The same thing happened to me with a Teletubbies cake. The black outline bled into their "tubbies", as it were. I was really upset, but my mom and sister poopooed me. I can understand how upsetting this was for you, but Tigger looks great. And since the customer loved it, you're golden.

I think he looks great. I had a friend who wanted me to do a Tigger cake for her boy a coule of years ago. She brought me the cake already baked, the pan as payment & two cans of icing. This little boy is deathly allergic to milk or milk by products. This was a cake & icing approved for him. I looked like this when she handed me the cans of icing. It was the Aldi brand. I explained I could do the all crisco icing. Hey, she said that's what she wanted. The icing was melting faster than I could pipe. I even tried to freeze it. I . Her family loved it. Go figure.

omg!! its adorable!!

your cake looks wonderful! Where the black ran into the other colors looks like showdows, more natural if anything- don't be so critical about your work! Tigger is one of my favorites to do. 3 simple colors, and lots of stars!!

I'm with everyone else! I think it looks adorable!

I also agree with everyone else ... you are being way too hard on yourself. That Tigger cake is absolutely adorable, and I can understand why everyone loved it. Rest assured that you did a fantastic job!!!!!

Looks super cute! Remember that when most people look at a cake they take in the whole cake, and if it's a character cake, their eye sees what they expect to see -- a super cute Tigger. They really will not see most of those little imperfections that you see, even if you point them out. I have trouble taking my own advice when it's my cake, but I know the saying we are our own worst critics is true.

Sarah

i can feel your pain...but it looks great and I've learned people never see the "flaws" we do. you should be proud

I think that if there is is a therapist or psychologist out there reading these boards you might have a cottage industry in treating bakers and their obsessions to be perfect!

How many of us have gone through what brooke has gone through and come out with "flying colors" (pun intended!) in the end? We see things that A. no one else sees or B. no one cares about.

Ask any artist and they will tell you they are never happy with their finished product.

Brooke-- your Tigger is amazing; better than anything I can do in the cake department. Be proud, go forth and keep on bakin'!

cookiezandcakes ... you are so right! We always see flaws/mistakes in our cakes that no one else even notices! Cheers to the happy people who eat our lovely and delicious creations!

maybe its because ive never made a cake, but i see nothing wrong with it at all. looks great actually!!

You did a really good job. I hate working with the color black. It does bleed, but in your photos you cannot tell at all. You did a great job. You shouldn't be so hard on yourself!

It turned out REALLY cute. I can't tell it bled at all. I'll have to try the powder black. I've only used black once but it was for cookie monster eyes. I thought they turned out cute but in about 20 min. the black had bled pink onto the white eyes and Cookie Monster looked high on something. Live and learn - have to find the powder.

I think your cake looks great!