Okay, I live in Florida and it's extremely hot and humid. This past weekend I made my daughters birthday cake which came out okay. I only had to transport it about 5 blocks away and ran the ac in the car before leaving but the buttercream still started to slide off the cake and the top tier started to loosen and wobble.

It made it to the party fine enough but I was wondering if I had refrigerated the cake before moving it would it hold up better or would the icing have sweated? Would the icing sweating...for lack of a better term have caused the same problem in such a short time?

I am wondering because I have a friend who wants me to make the cake for her daughter's b-day in August and I'll have to drive a bit farther and don't want a disaster. Thanks in advance.

I don't know what recipe that you used but we also have very high temperatures and very high humidity and I use Indydebi's buttercream recipe and even with outdoor events have never had a cake to melt or even sweat.

I certainly wouldn't recommend refrigerating a cake then introducing it to the heat and humidity. That will only make matters worse. A 'room temperature' cake will not suffer the same 'shock' as one that has been refrigerated. Found this out the hard way...LOL..

An all shortening based buttercream rather than one with butter will hold up to heat and humidity. Indydebi's also has Dream Whip...which must also be a factor in ability for it to hold up to these conditions because Wilton also has a high humidity icing that calls for 'powdered whipped topping' as well.
You can find her recipe in the 'most saved' recipes here on cc.

Hey, Gertie! So sorry to hear this happened to you. I hope you posted a pic in your gallery of it (I'll go check it out in a minute).

So, I use a buttercream made of a mix of both shortening and butter and I ALWAYS refrigerate my stacked cakes a good hour prior to moving them (longer on hotter days). I don't have any issues with sweating (and it has been horribly humid here in OH these last couple of weeks and I've been doing 2-3 weddings every weekend all summer). I'm thinking it could have helped a bit. Did you use a center dowel / skewer down through the cake too? That helps alot to avoid slippage during transport too. Maybe you could allow the car to cool off even longer in August...I allow mine to cool at least 20 minutes before I transport a wedding cake.

Not sure if any of this is helping. Good luck and let us know how you make out!

-Michelle

Gertie...Edna (tonedna...'design me a cake) also lives in Florida and you guys have humidity issues like we do here in Arkansas. She has said in numerous post that she NEVER refrigerates a cake and humidity is one reason that she doesn't. She has more experience than any of us and you may want to read some of her post on these issues. You can go to her screen name 'tonedna' and read previous post that she has made on the subject. I'd encourage you to read what she says is the best for you in the area that YOU'RE in...like I said she is in Florida also.

What works for some in other parts of the country will not work for others. I know that Michelle can use butter and refrigerate her cakes without any issues. I however cannot. Our temperatures here have been over 100+ degrees with 100% humidity and heat index of 115 the past month. I know that Florida's temperatures and climate is much like ours. What works for some just will not work for other. Location IS a factor in this type of situation. Edna explains that in more than one post on this subject.

Good luck to you and I hope everything goes perfect with your next cake.

Sorry for interjecting. Clearly I am out of my league on this one.

I refrigerate my cakes too. The heat and humidity are a huge reason why I do it. I also don't use any butter in my buttercream in the summer. (I use Indydebi's recipe and it actually tastes better without butter.) I used to use the Wilton recipe and not refrigerate, and even with the AC running in the car, I'd watch the frosting fall off the cake as I drove across town to my parents' house. I haven't had any problems with the cake sweating.

Thanks for all your responses guys. I'm definitely gonna try Indydebi's butter cream (assuming I can get that dream whip stuff) which according to the Kraft website is available near me but I haven't looked yet. I have to say after taking the Wilton classes and making that all shortening frosting for class I am very turned off by the idea of making an all shortening buttercream and I have been using 1/2 butter. That may have had something to do with my frosting problem too. I'll definitely be checking out Edna's posts as well.

I live in Louisiana and where I work, we transport about 12-14 wedding cakes every saturday....fully stacked and they come from our cooler to the (cooled) deliver truck. After watching 100% success rate with them....that is now how I deliver the ones I do at home....they go from frig....to (cool) truck. It's all what works for you, and what you are comfortable doing.

[quote="ddaigle"]I live in Louisiana and where I work, we transport about 12-14 wedding cakes every saturday...

WOW....that's a LOT of wedding cakes....Is that just the average for this time of year or do you do that many wedding cakes each weekend all year long?

Well...I am not the wedding cake designer...my nerves couldn't take that...but, it is a little busy now, but regardless of season, our designer is very busy every weekend. I just look in awe. I had to deliver a little 2 tiered today and needed valium. I know our roads are bad here, but I don't know how people deliver cakes. My stomach was in knots!

ASame as mine. I had to put buttercream on top of the chocolate cake that i just cooled down 5 minutes ago. It turn out that when i put the buttercream on top of the cake, the butter started melting from the butter cream wich i just placed in the fridge to cool. My cake was great except that the buttercream that i just made was a failure when i brought it to my aunt's house because it was her birthday. I think i should had cooled down the cake from the oven so that the butter wont start melting haha atleast i learned my mistake.:-D:D:-D:-D:D

I recently transported my daughter's birthday cake about 50 miles in very cold weather, yet in the car the buttercream flowers still slid off :(

So I am also looking into a new frosting recipe! :)