Hello everyone! I have been making cakes for about a year and absolutely LOVE it. well I was watching Food Network challenge one day and saw them using spray air cans to dry their fondant and RI creations faster, so I got the bright idea to get me a few of these for when I am making my cakes, hoping it will speed up some of the smaller pieces that I do. Well this particular weekend I had to make a birthday cake for a friends daughter, and its a good thing I got the dates mixed up!
Well I worked on the cake, which was a three tier number with dots, stipes and square cut outs with a fondant bow on the top. This is the first cake I had made that I used my new air cans on.... well I got the dates mixed up (we all laughed about this) and ended up having a huge cake for the family. Well I cut into the top part of this and took a bite.... I nearly threw up!!! It was horrible, I mean HORRIBLE!! I was trying to figure out what it was that made it so terrible, was it spoiled? No. OMG what was that? well I cut into the next tier to see if I yielded the same results, sure enough this was the same. I began feeling lightheaded and had to sit down. I racked my brain trying to figure out the mystery of this cake... then it hit me! The air can!! I picked it up and read it, well my idiot self got a BUTANE GAS air can!! The whole time I was decorating this cake I was spraying GAS all over it! Needless to say I threw that cake out, and have been letting my fondant dry the old fashioned way since then! Thank goodness I didnt give that cake to my friend, they would have all gotten poisoned!
******* UPDATE*******
Well I guess I have a few things to clear up...
The first being yes, I did just join yesterday because I was told about this website through my Wilton instructor last night during my VERY FIRST EVER cake decorating class. I have seen Bakarella, and Cake Journal, but for some reason never ran across this one (which I liked, until the claws came out)
Secondly, some of you may think it is not a true story, but yes, I hate to say it but it is all true. The dates got mixed up because I was suppose to make the cake for March 8th, last Sunday, but I made it for March 1st... It was my error, I read the email wrong because i was at work and trying to do five things at once, I jotted "cake" down in the wrong sunday box on my dayplanner...
Next, as for the air can, call me silly (or worse, as some have) but I never even considered anything other than AIR being in an air can... I had never used these before, never thought they would have any chemicals (again, I had seen them being used on Food Network and figured it would be fine, which I definately will be more careful next time) I also have made maybe 10 cakes in the whole 11 months I have been doing this. I am very much an amature and what I know is learned by watching TV (I am a visual learner, if I see you do it I can do it) also by trial and error. I didnt get angry when I found that I had messed up the dates because for one CAKE FOR ME, and two I love making them, so to me it was another chance to do what I love.
I didnt eat two whole pieces, I took two small bites, one from each tier, and the reason I cut into the second tier is because I used a different fondant to cover that one, so I was trying to figure out if something had gotten mixed in with just the fondant from the top, or if it was all over. Curiosity killed the cat and i was meowing!! I just started my first class last night, and I love it. This is something that truly makes me happy but I am the first to admit that I have alot to learn, which is why I am here for one, and taking classes for two. I do appreciate positive (again, I repeat positive) feedback, advice and any help. Hopefully I will be able to learn alot from you regulars. Thanks for reading... hope this cleared some stuff up
While we're on the subject, they use the air cans to cool off chocolate and hot sugar not fondant and royal icing creations.
Are you for real about this?
...Thank goodness I didnt give that cake to my friend, they would have all gotten poisoned!
All of them? Maybe person #2 woudla noticed that person #1 was gaking considerably on the cake and in so doing more or less alerted the rest of the folks that the cake might not be too cool kwim. I mean you know the crowd--maybe all of them woulda wanted to try a bite to be sure it was as bad as person #1 seemed to think it was.
I think if you're gonna write a weird post somewhere the emotion you want to go with is that you woudla been embarassed that you served poison--most of the folks woulnd't have eaten it after the first person croaked.
Not to mention that you poisoned yourself.
I'm totally doubting yah on this one, sounds so made up.
Well I cut into the top part of this and took a bite.... I nearly threw up!!! It was horrible, I mean HORRIBLE!! I was trying to figure out what it was that made it so terrible, was it spoiled? No. OMG what was that? well I cut into the next tier to see if I yielded the same results, sure enough this was the same.
You ate two pieces? Nobody would be that dumb.
k8memphis, why I are you being so hard on her?
Not everyone knows everything. Who would think a can of air has something besides air in it? Who would think it's not safe because they did it on a Food Network show? People make mistakes.
Plus, she didn't eat two pieces. She only ate 2 bites. Geez.
Well I cut into the top part of this and took a bite.... I nearly threw up!!! It was horrible, I mean HORRIBLE!! I was trying to figure out what it was that made it so terrible, was it spoiled? No. OMG what was that? well I cut into the next tier to see if I yielded the same results, sure enough this was the same.
You ate two pieces? Nobody would be that dumb.
Maybe I'm the only one who unintentionally lives on the I Love Lucy set, but I don't get why you are questioning the truthfulness of this post. She never says she ate 2 pieces of cake. She simply says she took 2 bites, one from each of 2 layers of cake. I can totally see myself doing just that, in an effort to figure out what I did wrong.
I am glad anytime someone tries to teach me from their mistakes. If for some reason that I cant' figure out, this is not a real situation, I don't see any harm in it. Don't use butane gas on your cakes. 
k8memphis, why I are you being so hard on her?
Not everyone knows everything. Who would think a can of air has something besides air in it? Who would think it's not safe because they did it on a Food Network show? People make mistakes.
Plus, she didn't eat two pieces. She only ate 1 bite. Geez.
It just didn't ring true with me and it's his/her first post and she said she cut into the second tier--I mean why would you cut into another tier? It seemed as if to say one could not tell by looking that it was horrid so they cut another piece? Like you couldn't tell without another taste? Like you would need assurance somehow that yes this is not tasty.
I may be a complete dweeb and I will stand corrected but it doesn't ring true to me.
And the fumes would make you sick before you ate it? No?
What if they lit candles on top of the cake. Sorry, I'm just sadistic like that. 
i'm with k8. if you don't know exactly what you are doing, stop. Do research, use your head. never just assume that something is food safe. you could have killed someone including yourself!
I'm not usually so harsh on people new to decorating but damn! Use your brain.
_ROYALTY_--- Omg! So glad the dates were mixed up!!!! That would have been a terrible bday party! lol
I agree with ziggytarheel, lesson learned - Don't use butane gas on your cakes ! 
k8memphis- Just take it easy, maybe it is legit, no reason to be so hard on someone...
We can give the gal a break...
I am also about a little over a year into the cake business and mistakes are so easy to make. I would probably misread the label too. LOL
I am so glad that you got the dates confused! And most important that you didn't get sick!
We just can get wiser learning from our own mistakes. Keep the good job, and welcome to the family!
I guess I have to hope its not true. If something like that did get out it that a home decorator (I'm totally assuming she is a home decorator, I don't know that for sure) did indeed poison someone using something that to me seems incredibly stupid, we would all (home decorators) have even more issues than we do now. I certainly don't mean to be hard on anyone, but using your head is something you need to do as a person serving actual food. I would never spray any kind of canned air on anything I planned to serve. I also have no idea what kind of canned air they use on Food Network, but I would hope you would research pretty well anything you planned to use on your cake. Lesson learned and try to only use FDA approved things on cake. A fan maybe?
Danielle
Royalty, accidents happen. Luckily you caught it and didn't give the cake to anyone! But typically the air cans are used for Chocolate and Sugar sculptures. And of course you wouldn't use ones that contain butane! since the chocolate sculptures pieces are typically glued together with melted chocolate the air cans shoot out cold air to harden and set the chocolate faster. The same goes for sugar. For sculptures that are not going to be eaten, you can use inexpensive Computer Dusters. But since these shoot out some chemicals in gas form, you don't wan to use these on anything you will be eating. You can purchase air cans that are food safe, but they're much more expensive.
A tip for if you're putting Fondant pieces onto fondant, instead of using water to attach them, try using Vodka or something with a high alcohol content. alcohol evaporates faster than water therefor drying faster.
Better luck next time!
Pieces, bites, same same--no distinction. Me? I would not take a second taste. hello
Hey, I'm sorry, OP, that you almost poisoned everyone but only got yourself as a result.
However, I do have my doubts despite everything.
It sounds like something you would day dream and not really do, then write about somewhere.
You think someone could get all the way to finished on a 3-tier cake then notice oopsie, it's butane. You would be figuring out a way to save that puppy for the later date--few of us would laugh about that--it would not be funny to me. I would be pissed. I would not be happy if someone laughed about a huge error like that.
Maybe it's true.
I've never tried it so I guess my bad for doubting still yet I do.
It seemed as if to say one could not tell by looking that it was horrid so they cut another piece? Like you couldn't tell without another taste? Like you would need assurance somehow that yes this is not tasty.
And the fumes would make you sick before you ate it? No?
Um, let's see. 1) No, it wouldn't discolor the cake or make the fondant look weird. 2) I often taste something twice before determining that it's bad. 3) I use them to clean my keyboard in an enclosed room all the time. No, it does not make you sick. Especially if it's in a big house. Otherwise, you would never be allowed to use it inside places.
Also, the cake itself should have been fine. Just the nasty tasting fondant could make you sick (it would act like a barrier and protect the cake I would assuem. 
Oh, and the poster has posted lots of cake pictures. Check her gallery. I truly doubt she's a troll.
i probably would have even tried the third tier.....lol....you know its like when something really stinks and you know that it stinks but you just have to keep smelling it anyway...well i do anyway 
You do know any can of compressed air contains small amounts of butane, right?
It's not like she confused a can of butane with a can of air. That's the little known fact that people don't think about with compressed air. That stuff is super bad and super flammable for being used to clean out stuff.
no I wouldn't keep trying it! eeewwww! I would give it to hubby and say here...does this taste funny?
seriously... read the labels on everything first. Yes sometimes we use non conventional items to make a cake but we always investigate first...
K8, I tend to agree with most of your posts but sorry, I'm pulling a yellow cake card on you for this one. Do you need a hug today?
I can totally see checking a different tier to see if it's the entire cake that is messed up or just that top tier. What's weird about that? Disaster investigation.
I can understand doubting the story - it is extreme - and thinking we need to be smarter about things (please do your research before trying something new!) but dang sister, chill. If it's false, it will come out...they usually do. lol
I guess I had no idea that some of those air cans contained butane. If you come back OP, where did you buy these???
i probably would have even tried the third tier.....lol....you know its like when something really stinks and you know that it stinks but you just have to keep smelling it anyway...well i do anyway
hehe shelly
I probably would have taken a second bite. I'd be confused as hell and would have been trying to figure out what went wrong. When something unusual goes wrong you don't always assume it's deadly! It's cake for goodness sake! And while it doesn't always take more than one bite to decide that something is BAD, it might take more than one bite to figure out what that taste is. My first instinct would probably assume I got a bad batch of fondant or something. There are some fondants that taste HORRIBLE with chemical flavors. Just taste the stuff that comes from Wilton!
The only thing that needed to be dried is the bow--the stripes & stuff didn't need to be sprayed with anything. She said she got the spray to dry stuff.
????????????
She joined yesterday.
Like I said, I'll gladly stand corrected for possibly being an idiot but still it seems flukey to moi.
I'm sure she sits around all day thinking up BS stories to post on Cake Central... and quite frankly with the way you're reacting, it's amusing. I wouldn't be surprised if more people started doing it to get a rise out of you.
I missed the parts on the food Network Challenges where the professionals sprayed fondant and royal icing with canned air.
I need to watch closer next time.
She made a freaking mistake. EVERYONE makes mistakes, and we learn from them! the whole point of these forums are to help her. Constructive criticism, not to put her down and feel like a moron.
Pieces, bites, same same--no distinction. Me? I would not take a second taste. hello
Hey, I'm sorry, OP, that you almost poisoned everyone but only got yourself as a result.
However, I do have my doubts despite everything.
It sounds like something you would day dream and not really do, then write about somewhere.
You think someone could get all the way to finished on a 3-tier cake then notice oopsie, it's butane. You would be figuring out a way to save that puppy for the later date--few of us would laugh about that--it would not be funny to me. I would be pissed. I would not be happy if someone laughed about a huge error like that.
Maybe it's true.
I've never tried it so I guess my bad for doubting still yet I do.
Gosh, I can easily eat two small bites of cake, but two pieces would be way too much. Isn't there a tremendous distinction between a bite...maybe just a taste...and a whole piece? Maybe my imagination just runs wild while I live with Ethel downstairs, but I can think of many reasons why I might take a bite from two different layers of cake. I mean, perhaps they were different flavors. What if you were trying to determine what ingredient was bad...do you need to throw out all the left over ingredients, or could it just be the chocolate from layer one or the banana in layer 2?
And, why can't mixing up a date mean feeding the cake to the family and rebaking later? I read about people doing this all the time. I dont' think she said how wrong she was with the date. Yeah, if it was just a day or two, maybe she'd save the cake, but a week or a month? Totally possible.
And, again, maybe because I live in that accidental slapstick world, but I laugh at my mistakes on a daily basis and I entertain my friends with them often. And I always want to share things that can help out others, especially if it is potentially dangerous.
And if this is all bogus, why would we need to call anyone out on this? I don't see it as a post that needs such treatment, do you?
I'm just feelin' awfully bad for the OP. I appreciate her post. If nothing else, she reminds me to be careful with my assumptions and to slow down at everything I do.
Oh come on K8. So what if she just joined yesterday, maybe she just found the site yesterday. Maybe she wanted the whole cake dry so she could transport it better... who knows. I'm sure she had her reasons. Ease up a little will ya. Yeah it is a huge story but if she saw it done on TV then she probably thought that it was safe to do at home. She made a mistake, haven't we all?! I think that it is horrible and funny.
Quote by @%username% on %date%
%body%