Bonehead Moment Of My Cake Decorating Week

Decorating By DebbyJG Updated 8 Mar 2013 , 2:44am by kakeladi

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DebbyJG Posted 4 Mar 2013 , 2:15am
post #1 of 26

I just needed to share this here. I'm sure everyone has those moments, when they've been standing up caking for 10 hours and then they do something that just makes you go UUUGGHHH at yourself. I've had more than a few of those. This weekend I had another one.

 

I had been using my KitchenAid pasta attachment to make piece after piece of fondant strips for a large baby shower cake I made this weekend. (Which I *love*, by the way. Previously I had a hand crankin' pasta roller and I hardly ever used it because I'm just not coordinated enough to crank the pasta roller, feed the fondant through, and catch it on the other end. Let alone trying to secure it to the counter top....anyway I just had rather used my rolling pin. Until I got the KA one. Zip, zap, nice smooth strips of fondant. Lovely. But I digress.)

I had to stop and clean it out quite frequently because I was using shades of pink and green fondant. 

Toward the end of my project, I was cleaning it out to prepare for my last go at it, when I got the bonehead idea to just let it run and wipe my slightly damp kitchen towel over the rollers. Nope, not a sensible paper towel, as I usually use, but I picked up a cloth kitchen towel. As I was just starting to use it, I had the thought "you know, I probably shouldn't use this. It might get caught in the rollers and get stuck." Not two split seconds after that thought crossed my mind, guess what happened?

 

It's stuck. I've now tried to pull it out, cut it out, poke sticks into it to push it out, everything. It's stuck (on the widest setting - 1 ) and the rollers now won't budge either.  

 

Like I said, my bonehead moment of the day.

 

I'm sure it won't be my last, but I felt the need to share.

 

Don't try to clean your KA pasta roller attachment with a kitchen towel. Just say no.  ;)

25 replies
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Carrie789 Posted 4 Mar 2013 , 2:32am
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I recently read an article in a science magazine that your brain is never totally awake nor totally asleep. When you have overused a particular part of your brain, that part shuts down for a time. So,  you are not a bonehead. A part of your brain was just taking a quick nap. By the way, mine seems to like lots of naps.
 

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DebbyJG Posted 4 Mar 2013 , 2:39am
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LOL! Mine too. But especially after standing for 10 hours looking at little cake details. :)

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Annabakescakes Posted 4 Mar 2013 , 2:47am
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Oh man! I hope it comes out! My ice maker in my home kitchen now has a Kroger bag wound up in it! We never connected the water line to it, but there is a lever to turn it off and on, and we keep hitting the lever. And my DH does the grocery shopping, and comes home and just sticks the whole bag in there. It turned on, and is the king that makes the half round cubes, and when the trays empty, they turn...Sucked it right up!

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scrumdiddlycakes Posted 4 Mar 2013 , 2:48am
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A quick brain nap, I love that.

You can take the pasta roller apart, using the screws at the end. Mine jammed up once, I got a dragee stuck in it :/ Not quite sure how it happened, lol.

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DebbyJG Posted 4 Mar 2013 , 4:52am
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AOoh good to know! I will try dissembling tomorrow. :) ...I'm having trouble visualizing how a dragee would get stuck! :)

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nikki4199 Posted 4 Mar 2013 , 5:33am
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Quote:
Originally Posted by Annabakescakes 

Oh man! I hope it comes out! My ice maker in my home kitchen now has a Kroger bag wound up in it! We never connected the water line to it, but there is a lever to turn it off and on, and we keep hitting the lever. And my DH does the grocery shopping, and comes home and just sticks the whole bag in there. It turned on, and is the king that makes the half round cubes, and when the trays empty, they turn...Sucked it right up!


LOL  I have a plastic bag in mine!  Same story the metal bar always got pushed down and turned on. Never connected the icemaker.

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ellavanilla Posted 4 Mar 2013 , 8:16pm
post #8 of 26

I try to never think about the "what if" because it's a guarantee that it will happen! 

LOL

 

sorry about your machine. i would cut the towel and try to push, but the suggestion to take it apart is probably better

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DebbyJG Posted 4 Mar 2013 , 8:25pm
post #9 of 26

Oh, it's cut up. Only fragments remain at this point! I need to find the energy to take it apart now. Something that's hard to muster on a Monday. (The caker's sabbath.) ;)

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Annabakescakes Posted 4 Mar 2013 , 10:09pm
post #10 of 26
Quote:
Originally Posted by nikki4199 


LOL  I have a plastic bag in mine!  Same story the metal bar always got pushed down and turned on. Never connected the icemaker.

LOL! The dumbest thing is it has happened before!

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shebaben Posted 5 Mar 2013 , 2:47am
post #11 of 26

I like that - the caker's sabbath!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!  I've surely been a waste today!!

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Annabakescakes Posted 5 Mar 2013 , 4:37am
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Quote:
Originally Posted by shebaben 

I like that - the caker's sabbath!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!  I've surely been a waste today!!

Yep, me too! I have been nursing my boo-boo shoulder. I hurt it from my white knuckle grip of death on the steering wheel yesterday, delivering my 4 tier cake. No kidding! The last 4 tier I delivered by myself fell over and died, and my husband couldn't come with me to baby-sit cake yesterday. The last one made it a mile from the bakery, while I drove 45 miles with the one yesterday. I was literally praying and about to cry, puke, or mess my pants, or all 3! It seriously took it out of me, and I fell asleep sitting up, with all the lights on last night, slept good and woke up exhausted.

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shebaben Posted 6 Mar 2013 , 10:24pm
post #13 of 26

Sounds familiar! At least I had a cake sitter for the delivery, with both middle seats taken out of the van. We had to roll it from the van into the venue on my husband's wheel chair because the only cart they had was so nasty dirty and virtually un-steerable! icon_confused.gif Finished putting the jewels on as the first guests arrived.By the time we got home, I don't think I could have stood up for 10 more seconds - everything hurt from my toes to my nose! 
 

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Annabakescakes Posted 7 Mar 2013 , 2:50am
post #14 of 26

I have my own little stainless steel cart, I bungee cord it to the back seat, to make sure it doesn't slide into the cake thumbs_up.gif

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LKing12 Posted 7 Mar 2013 , 3:33am
post #15 of 26

I bought an old audio/visual cart at a school surplus sale. I put it in the middle seat of the van and then I am off to deliver.

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Ducky316 Posted 7 Mar 2013 , 5:14am
post #16 of 26

LOL I think we've ALL had those bonehead moments!!!

Not too long ago I was making Bavarian cream..it was really late at night and I had no choice but to make it considering I needed it for the next day. If you've ever made it, you know it's temper mental, and time consuming....and you have to run it through a strainer. Well I ran it through the strainer all right, right down the garbage disposal! I forgot to put a bowl under it!!!!!! I had to start all over...

So, I can sympathize! I hope you get it worked out icon_smile.gif

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Annabakescakes Posted 7 Mar 2013 , 5:54am
post #17 of 26

A

Original message sent by Ducky316

LOL I think we've ALL had those bonehead moments!!! Not too long ago I was making Bavarian cream..it was really late at night and I had no choice but to make it considering I needed it for the next day. If you've ever made it, you know it's temper mental, and time consuming....and you have to run it through a strainer. Well I ran it through the strainer all right, right down the garbage disposal! I forgot to put a bowl under it!!!!!! I had to start all over... So, I can sympathize! I hope you get it worked out :)

I groaned out loud when reading this! I have done the exact same thing! Doesn't it make you feel like the dumbest person on the planet?

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Ducky316 Posted 7 Mar 2013 , 7:18am
post #18 of 26
Quote:
Originally Posted by Annabakescakes 


I groaned out loud when reading this! I have done the exact same thing! Doesn't it make you feel like the dumbest person on the planet?

HAHA YES! But I just stood over the sink trying to grasp what I had just done while shaking my head and then just got started on another batch....I really wanted to cry. LOL Which I have over a cake, but that's another story!! icon_biggrin.gif

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DebbyJG Posted 7 Mar 2013 , 6:36pm
post #19 of 26

ASo an update on the poor abused pasta roller: I was pleased with myself on Tuesday evening for figuring out how to get the thing apart, and I triumphantly pulled out the last pieces of kitchen towel that I couldn't cut or pull out. Then I started putting the machine back together again. It just won't go back. I can't get some of the screws back in. I thought I had it back together correctly, but then I put it on my mixer and tried it out, and the rollers won't budge.

UGH!

Expensive lesson learned.

No kitchen towels in a pasta roller. You'd think I would have known that before doing it, but brain waves stop waving so quickly when you're on hour 12 of decorating. Maybe I need to make a sign to post over my mixer reminding me not to do something stupid. :)

Now to go order a new one....

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ellavanilla Posted 7 Mar 2013 , 7:45pm
post #20 of 26

before you order a new one, look online and see if you can find a troubleshooting guide. I once put the "brushes" in backwards and the machine didn't turn on at all. perhaps something is turned the wrong way? it can't be broken. it's a simple machine. 

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Annabakescakes Posted 7 Mar 2013 , 7:57pm
post #21 of 26
Quote:
Originally Posted by ellavanilla 

before you order a new one, look online and see if you can find a troubleshooting guide. I once put the "brushes" in backwards and the machine didn't turn on at all. perhaps something is turned the wrong way? it can't be broken. it's a simple machine. 

^^^^^^THIS^^^^^^

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DebbyJG Posted 7 Mar 2013 , 8:59pm
post #22 of 26

I've tried to turn it around every way  I can figure. I have looked online for a troubleshooting guide, and have come up with nothing. The only thing close I've found is a "care and use" guide, and it just says how to use it. Nothing about how to take it apart and put it back together again.

 

And even if I do have all the gears and such put back correctly, I also can't seem to get the screws back in. I'm using the *same* screwdriver I used to take them out, but for whatever reason, there is NO getting them back in. Specifically I mean the tiny ones that are on the side with the settings knob. The only way I got to try it out at all was when I, in desperation, tried to put the screws in backwards (in other words, pointy part of the screw facing back out, instead of in). Doing that kept the knob on, but obviously not as securely as it could have been. Those screws around the knob are really, really tiny, and one of them is practically underneath the knob itself. 

 

I've probably already spent about three hours trying to get it back together. Those screws just _won't_go_in. 

If anyone has actually done it, or can find an illusive troubleshooting guide, I'd love to know about it!

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Rosie331 Posted 7 Mar 2013 , 9:27pm
post #23 of 26

AI did the very same thing several months ago. My husband tried to fix it but was unable to and I ended up getting a new one. Won't make that mistake again!

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Annabakescakes Posted 7 Mar 2013 , 9:51pm
post #24 of 26
Quote:
Originally Posted by DebbyJG 

I've tried to turn it around every way  I can figure. I have looked online for a troubleshooting guide, and have come up with nothing. The only thing close I've found is a "care and use" guide, and it just says how to use it. Nothing about how to take it apart and put it back together again.

 

And even if I do have all the gears and such put back correctly, I also can't seem to get the screws back in. I'm using the *same* screwdriver I used to take them out, but for whatever reason, there is NO getting them back in. Specifically I mean the tiny ones that are on the side with the settings knob. The only way I got to try it out at all was when I, in desperation, tried to put the screws in backwards (in other words, pointy part of the screw facing back out, instead of in). Doing that kept the knob on, but obviously not as securely as it could have been. Those screws around the knob are really, really tiny, and one of them is practically underneath the knob itself. 

 

I've probably already spent about three hours trying to get it back together. Those screws just _won't_go_in. 

If anyone has actually done it, or can find an illusive troubleshooting guide, I'd love to know about it!

I have no idea, but I'll pay shipping if you want to send it to me, and if I get it fixed, I'll keep it, if I can't fix it, I'll pop it in the recycle bin ;-) 

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ellavanilla Posted 7 Mar 2013 , 10:45pm
post #25 of 26

that really stinks. sorry :(

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kakeladi Posted 8 Mar 2013 , 2:44am
post #26 of 26

I haven't read the replies but I have to say I did that too (   Broke the thing completely :(  $90 down the drain :(  Sure miss it!

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