On request from Chixbaby27, I shall regale you with a frollicking tale of a cake calamity.
While taking the Wilton classes, my sister and I each would show up with a real cake for each class. Well, one class I hadn't had the time or perhaps just the forethought to bake my cake before the day of class. I work until 5 so I called my boyfriend and asked if he would get out a mix and just put it all together and get it in the oven so that it might be ready by the time I got home. That was at 3:30. I got home at 5:15 and he hadn't done anything. So while I yelled at him, I did the cake. Class was at 7 and it takes at least 35-40 minutes to bake the thing. While it was baking I did the icing. It finished baking and I got it out and set it out to cool. Well, time was growing quite small. I think I put it in the freezer for a little while, hoping that it would help. Finally I simply could not wait any longer as I had already called my sister and told her to tell the instructor I would be late. So I iced a more than a little warm cake and stuck it in the box and left. Wellllll...when I got to class I opened the box and the buttercream had...traveled...downward. The majority of it had melted down the sides of the cake and it was just awful. I was so ill, but it wasn't a major decorating day anyway.
But at least no cat butt...it would've burned.
Darci
If you're wondering about the cat butt remark, see my previous post about the cake signature no one wants.
Okay, so I have to find that post and read it now!!! I loved it when you said you were making the cake while yelling at him. I can so see myself doing that! Oh man! Is it funny now? I'm pretty sure it wasn't funny when it was happening!
Thanks for the heads up though!!!! That'll teach me patience that of which I have little of! 
Amy
Hi Muse,
I never ice and decorate a cake on the same day I baked it.
Cold chilled cake is always much easier to handle. It is not too soft and it won't fall apart easily, and it's guaranteed not to melt the frosting.
When I went to to California Culinary Academy taking pastry classes, this is what we were told. Always ice a cold cake, unless it's one of those cakes that stays in the pan and you want the icing to go thru the cake. 
Placing a warm cake or a hot cake in a drafty area can cause the cake to shrink more than it normally would.
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