Ok, so my husband's work asked him if I'd donate a cake to their christmas party (he's a police officer). He said I would, and told them it'd be chocolate or white cake w/buttercream. They wanted half and half, so I said fiine. THey wanted to see pictures of christmas cakes I had done, but since very few of my cakes are for christmas, I chose a few easy cakes from here and e-mailed them as choices (noting that these were not my cakes, but basically a jumping off/starting point). THey chose this cake:

http://cakecentral.com/modules.php?name=gallery&file=displayimage&pid=1167621

Which I thought would not be a problem, but then had issues with the bow. I haven't made this type of bow before, but read up on wilton.com and the bow tutorial here, again didn't think I'd have a problem. I think my problem is that I am cheap, lol. Since it is a free cake, and I'm a stay at home mother of 4, my goal is to produce a beautiful cake that is realatively easy and yet looks and tastes great.

Sooooooooooooo, I made the mmf for the bow, and added wilton gumtex to it instead of using a fondant/gumpaste combo. I started 3 days early, first day just colored it, added the gumtex. Second day rolled it out, shaped the bow loops, left to dry. Day three made royal icing, glued bow together with it...ran into trouble. As I was "gluing" the second row of loops ontop of the first, they literally began to break and crack. They were still soft...dry, but soft. They never reached that brittle phase that gumpast would. So, I had to improvise. I chunked it. I used what little mmf/gumtex I still had, and made loops for a simple bow (and called hubby at work to let him know, he understood the bow would be different and reminded me that he had told me to buy the wilton fondant to use, I just wanted to save $$).

Then left that to dry while I baked, leveled, iced cake. Applied the green fondant ribbon. Had to cut fresh red fondant ribbon. When applying the snowflake stamp I realiazed my cake was too short to fit an entire snowflake on the sides (my cake was one layer, just baked to overfill pan then leveled). So, I thought it would look cute if instead of doing the snowflakes as the original, if I just stamped the imprint and left it allover the cake, to look like an elegant wrapping paper.

Long story short, I was up until 2 am, my husband looks at the cake this morning and informs me that it's crappy, why didn't I insert the loops of bow into the center instead of just laying the center on top? (because I didn't think I could do it w/out them breaking - remember this is soft mmf/gumtex we're talking about). So I'm crying and just needed to vent. Here's a pic of the crappy cake, it's not a great angle but he took it under protest and in the box. You can see some royal icing (white) peeking out from a bow loop, but I wasn't able to fix that b /c he had to go to work. His closing remarks were " I'll never volunteer you for a dadgum cake again!" ugh...sorry to vent, i was just shocked because he's usually so supportive of me, even when something doesn't turn out as planned...

ugh - when I try to attach it says "request entity too large..." so i don't know how to show you my pic

first here is a website to resize your photo

http://www.shrinkpictures.com/


second it is a free cake, they can get over themselves.


third : I never have luck with big loopy bow without making a week in advance. Also I buy wilton fondant at walmart or use a coupon and get at hobby lobby or micheals. at hobby lobby you can print one from there website almost every week. Just don't have alot of luck with homemade fondant and bows. I use wilton for anything people aren't eating. Also I have had the best luck with bows and using a dow to drape over. I usually let it hang for a day then move it a little on the dow so it doesn't stick after 2 or 3 days, then I remove and lay on its side on a cooking sheet. Then at least a day before going on cake I will put together with royal iciing, but have to use fiberfill or papertowels to position and let this stand until going on cake.

hope this helps

Post it in your pics.

I think your cake looks nice, The bow looks good, Those bows CAN be a PITA! sometimes! Keep up the good work!

Sometimes we (and close family and friends) are hard on ourselves because we know what we are capable of. But sometimes stuff happens and we have a diaster cake. Everyone has had at least one cake where it seems like nothing goes right and it usually happens on an important cake not just the practice one you're having after dinner that night.

missrobin - that pic isn't mine, it's actually the inspiration for mine, I'm still trying to resize mine so I can upload it (sorry for the confusion)

ThreeDGirlie It's processing to upload to my photos, but taking forever - not sure if it will work

sltoklahoma - thanks for the link! I knew there was a site for that, just didn't remember what/where it was! I'll check it out. thanks for the bow advice, I'm doing another present cake for brothernlaw's wedding shower, and I don't want to screw it up!

sfaith - thanks, that's how I feel...but I know I'm always hard on myself when other (non-cake) people think my work is gorgeous, I see only the flaws...

wheres the cake?? I wanna see!!!

I've seen this before - it's classic male chest thumping. "me have wife bake good" - he wants the wife with the best cake.

- Not saying all men do this, of course, please don't take offense -

Here's a story to cheer you up.

My sister was married about 3 months when her husband finally told her that the wives of his co-workers send cookies and cakes in and he's the only one who doesn't. So she's on the hook to bake cookies but doesn't know poop about baking.

First misunderstanding - you don't pack flour when you measure it.

Second misunderstanding - there is an enormous difference between vegetable oil and olive oil when you're dealing with chocolate chip cookies.

So now, much like my sister, you'll never be on the hook for baking for your husband's co-workers again! Have some cake to celebrate, and if he dares to ask again after insulting your cake, you can tell him to go learn to swim.

yay!! the link to resize worked! it's in my photos in all it's sad little glory, but I'll try to attach here as well:

It seems to me that your husband is proud of you and wanted to show your skills to his co-workers. He also had imagined a very specific cake. As the cake was not exactly as he expected he was dissapointed. On the other hand, he volunteered and YOU made the cake, so it was your time and your money (as it seems from your post) and I think, therefore you have the right to choose the flavours and the design. He does not have to be rude to you because you worked hard on this cake and you were doing it as a favour to him. He could also have offered some help seeing you up at 2 am.

This has happened to me before. My husband wanted a cake for his friends (a very simple sachertorte) and he saw me decorating it. As one line in the icing wasn't perfectly straight he thought the whole cake was worthless. Now I don't let him watching me decorating and he thinks my cakes are perfect! As I don't sell my cakes, I always tell people I want to surprise them with my design (sometimes I discuss very general things, such as colour or kind of flowers), and that way they don't have a picture in their mind and they all love the cakes. I know you can't do that if you are selling your cakes, but as this is not the case, you have every right to decide how your cake is going to look.

Don't worry about what happened. BTW, I don't use marshmallow fondant with gumtex. I use Michelle Foster's fondant with CMC and it works great.

Your cake looks great, it's just different from the original photo, that's all.

Well I think I like the impression in the icing. I actually have been on the look out for stamps for doing that exact thing.

And I know I have seen it said many times here, if people are getting free cake, cake designer gets to pick design.

People at work love my cake and think they are great, I have not shown them the photos from the tulsa cake show, that way they continue to think my cakes are great.

and that's generally my rule of thumb - if it's a free cake, they get what I give them (lol). I usually ask generic questions like theme/colors, etc - but the design is up to me - if he didn't have a picture in his head, I'm sure he would've thought it was great, as he usually does and i'm usually the one dissin' it. well, in my hurt and the heat of the moment (and sleeplessness) i told him it was a cute cake and he was being a jerk...was that bad ?

Honestly I think it's a cute cake, I just am not happy with the bow, but when you're in a pinch for time, you do what you can, ya know? (he's lucky he didn't just get a cake with ribbon on it, lol).

thanks for the kind words and perspective everyone

I had a similar experience this week with my first topsy turvy cake..for my dd 17th b-day. They were gorgeous until I stacked and then it turned into a big pile of...(well..you know)! We do beat our selves up more than we should. As far as DH he wont volunteer you anymore, so look at the bright side!

I'm confused, that cake looks awesome!

I love the two tones on the ribbon........did you lay a smaller red ribbon on top of a green one?? I understand you didn't make a big loopy bow, but I mean seriously........I was expecting a cake wreck and this is far from that! You should be proud of this cake! I mean, yes it looks different from the original but I guarantee you if you had just written out suggestions (instead of sending pics) and mentioned gift box cake with edible bow.......there's no way anyone could be disappointed!!! Including your hubby. I don't see anything wrong with the cake. Besides, I would have your hubby stand there and smile and if someone says "oh that's a little different than the pic" have him say "well yeah, I mean if you just wanted her to COPY someone else's cake that would have been a cinch.......my wife does custom designed ORIGINAL cakes!" LOL

gotta tell you, after your DH's remarks, he would have had the cake, but he would have been wearing it. One thing I have learned in 53 years of married life, don't volunteer your husband or kids, and don't let them volunteer you. On the other hand, your husband is proud of what you do, and this cake just didn't match the picture he had in his mind. The cake was very nice, and I bet no one complained when they saw the cake, at work.

If my husband had said that, I would have thrown the cake in the trash can and made him go in with nothing. But, I have anger management issues with morons. Hehehe.
I will try to make you feel better. First off, give your husband the evil eye and make him watch the kids tonight (if you have kids). Second - here is a picture of a cake I made this summer. It was for my husbands godsons birthday 5.5 hours away. Needless to say, it didn't make the trip. LOL. So, tell your husband at least he had a decent, finished, complete cake to take to work. Keep your chin up. Men just don't understand us sometimes (or anytime, really).