I've been making cakes for fun as a hobby since I took my first Wilton course last year. Last month, I volunteered to make a cake for a fellow church member's surprise birthday party that was being held at a local community centre.
My biggest nightmare is dropping the cake before it gets to its destination, so I never thought to think of anything else that could go wrong.
Well...I guess I should never assume it, but the community centre where the party was being held was a SMALL room (for 150 people!) and it wasn't air conditioned!!! I proudly set up the cake and then went into the washroom to change into my party clothes. I get back and of course look over at my cake again and stop and stare at it. It looks kind of odd, but I can't figure out what it is. Shrug and then head off to talk to some people and then look over at my cake again and again it looks odd. I finally walk up to it and finally I see it. The beautiful ruffles I worked so hard on my cake are ripping from the rest of the cake and sliding down. I look even closer and I realize that EVERYTHING seems to look kind of...melty!
My cake was MEEEEELTING. Okay, melodramatic, wicked witch impersonation aside, the fondant really was melting off the cake!!! I got there in time to reach out and catch the bottom, ruffly part of the cake and I kind of just stood there holding it with one hand and holding the other bottom part of the other tier because that one was starting to slide off too. So I'm here holding up pieces of my cake and crying and some man comes up to me and he's like, "oh, the cake is melting." And in my head I'm thinking, "no, REALLY!?!?!?!?!? I didn't notice!"
*sigh* Thank goodness I thought to bring a piping bag full of royal icing (here I was thinking that the worst that could happen was my little cabochon balls would plop off the cake and I'd just have to royal ice it back on). So I applied globs and globs of royal icing on the cake, kind smacked the fallen fondant back on and then stood there with a big piece of cardboard and fanned the cake until the birthday girl got there.
As soon as she came in and was surprised, I grabbed her and had her blow out the candles and slide the cake and then grabbed tiers of the cake to take it back into the kitchen to slice up and have ready for dessert time.
I haven't been make cakes all that long, but definitely the worst cake experience ever. 
Next time I make a cake, I will scout out the venue and inquire about air conditioning. *LOL*
When it gets hot enough, even a crisco buttercream will fall away from the cake and then the fondant does strange things.
How were the ruffles and drapes attached? Was it with buttercream? I think you'd have better luck with gum glue.
hmmm . . . I've never had anything like that happen in all my decades of cake making. What type of buttercreme under the fondant? What type of fondant?
Leave it to me to find a way *LOL* The first disaster was probably how I made the ruffles. I didn't really know how to do them, so I just cut out thin rectangles of fondant and gathered them together on one end until they...ruffled (kind of like how I learned how to do draping) and then attached them to the cake which was already covered in fondant.
After I had set it up, because of the heat, the entire cake got really soft and then the place where I had attached the ruffles held, but it started pulling on the rest of the fondant until it stretched and started slopping off the cake.
Used Wilton buttercream that I learned in my first Wilton class.
Sooo I guess I should be fair and not blame it all on the heat. My ruffles were probably pretty heavy and made it easier to pull down the rest of the fondant when it got hot!
My guess is too, that the ruffles were too heavy, next time, roll them out thinner, it might be easier to make them if you add a bit of gumpaste or CMC into the fondant, makes it easier to roll out thinner, but won't set up as fast. Also use gumglue to attach
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