Took Me A Week To Realize The Mistake

Decorating By KateCoughlin Updated 13 Sep 2014 , 3:19am by kakeladi

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KateCoughlin Posted 12 Sep 2014 , 12:47pm
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Let me preface this cake by saying it took me an entire week from start to finish!  I don't bake professionally but I enjoy making cakes for my family - usually the kids birthdays.  This time my nephew and niece (combined bday party) wanted a basketball themed cake.  I did a lot of research and watch a lot of tutorials considering I'd never made a ball/sphere cake before.  I worked really hard on 'staining' the board to look like a basketball court.  Covering the base cake and making the hoop were at the final stages and nerve wracking.  But I did it!!  I was so proud of myself.  I transported the cake to the party (already late of course) and my whole family (about 30 people) ooh'd and aww'd when I brought it out.  My husband took these photos before it was brought out and even he didn't see it.  A week later I was admiring the photo on my cell phone and all of a sudden it popped out at me - I spelled BIRTHDAY wrong!  It was probably the final touch I made to the cake - 40 hours of labor into it - and I messed up the very last detail!  I had to just laugh it off!  While most people had no idea until I told them later I'm sure I showed the pictured to quite a few people that were too polite to mention the error.  Now when I look at it all I see is BIRHTDAY glaring at me like a neon light.  The ironic part is I'm always paranoid of spelling errors with any cake inscription/messages and think to myself 'don't spell it wrong' while I'm doing it.  Guess the complete lack of sleep and nerves took over on this one.  But hey, I did it - right?  

11 replies
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Daisyblue002 Posted 12 Sep 2014 , 12:57pm
post #2 of 12

It's a great cake, try not to beat yourself up too much. Put it down to a lesson learnt :)

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remnant3333 Posted 12 Sep 2014 , 1:32pm
post #3 of 12

 Don't beat yourself up too bad. Everybody makes mistakes sometimes. The cake itself was very nice!! You did a great job other than the spelling part.  

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dukeswalker Posted 12 Sep 2014 , 1:55pm
post #4 of 12

It looks great! Usually, when I screw something up it's because I'm trying to squeeze something in too early in the AM (not awake enough) or too late at night.  Once my eyes start going bugging I make myself stop for the day or I end up making dinky little mistakes like that.

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cait1219 Posted 12 Sep 2014 , 5:39pm
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The cake looks great!  The way that our brain plays tricks on us (knowing what the word says regardless) not many people may have even noticed.  If you didn't and your husband didn't there's a good chance no one else did....right?  How did you stain the cake board to look like that?  It looks really cool!

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vldutoit Posted 12 Sep 2014 , 7:29pm
post #6 of 12

AHonestly I am one of those people that never actually reads an entire word. I read the first couple of letters and last few and go on. Most folks probably never realized it. It is a super cute cake. Don't beat yourself up over it.

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MBalaska Posted 12 Sep 2014 , 7:57pm
post #7 of 12

@KateCoughlin Your cake is super! Far beyond my skills.

 

Proof reading is something that I've had to do for documents, long before the 'typing with thumbs' era and 'auto-correct' by some machine that changes things while you type.  If you look at enough peoples cake websites you'll see that even the cake business owners will post photos of cakes with incorrectly spelled "Happy Birthday"s.

 

So here's a little tip for checking your spelling. Do it backwards.  look at things from last to first.  if you have 'Happy Birthday' written correctly on a piece of scrap paper in front of you.  compare it to your gumpaste letters by going backwards from the 'y" to the 'a' to the 'd' etc. 

 

You'll catch the mistake because you brain does not automatically fill in the blanks when you go backwards.

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Dayti Posted 12 Sep 2014 , 8:05pm
post #8 of 12

Good tip MB on doing the spelling backwards thing. Whenever I have to make stuff with letters, I set them out correctly in front of me after cutting them out, spell check spell check spell check, and then I actually start glueing with the middle letter of the phrase to get it centred on the cake/board, and then add the letters either side ;)

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Pastrybaglady Posted 12 Sep 2014 , 10:17pm
post #9 of 12

AI totally get why you would be upset because the cake itself is such a work of art! I was especially amazed at how you made the net a real net. Don't be hard on yourself, just like you, most probably didn't even notice the writing because the cake was so spectacular :)

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bubs1stbirthday Posted 12 Sep 2014 , 10:30pm
post #10 of 12

I honestly doubt that anyone that noticed the writing actually cared - being family they would have just been so impressed with the cake that the misspelling wouldn't have mattered.

 

I did this once (and only noticed when I took a photo in the car on my phone on the way to my MIL & FIL's house) but I actually left the H out of Birthday lol. The effort was appreciated, no one would remember it now only a few years later and it was before I got into any real effort with cake decorating - it was just a 6 layered rainbow cakes that I filled with white AMB and didn't even ice the sides lol.

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jchuck Posted 12 Sep 2014 , 11:09pm
post #11 of 12

AYour cake looks great...you did a wonderful job. No one noticed...so there you go. Everyone was more interested in the cake!!! Gave you a good chuckle...and you can be śure your not likely to make the same mistake again....:)

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kakeladi Posted 13 Sep 2014 , 3:19am
post #12 of 12

You certainly are not the only one who has made a similar error!   Just a few days ago - yesterday? - someone posted about entering a contest (I think in Australia) and only once she had it entered did she realize she also had misspelled birthday.

I remember working at a bakery.  The owner - retired but overseeing our work - was asked to write on a cake and when finished whoever was originally working on the cake noticed that he also had left out the 'h'.  He still had the pastry bag in his hand and he swung around and threw it at the wall then went over into the corner and screamed! :)

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