I am attempting for the first time a topsy turvy cake. 3 tiers. Bottom tier is white cake with raspberry mousse, middle is yellow cake with chocolate ganache and top tier is (my first scratch cake) orange butter cake with orange mousse. I've done sculpted cakes before and I know i'm not suppose to use mousse and such as filling but I figured I'll make it work. The cake is just for fun anyway. My family is Senecan Indian and the senecan president is coming down from the reservation for a meeting/party. I always make the cakes. ANYWAY

I've been making cakes ALL DAY! My feet are on fire, I've been standing in the same stupid spot for almost 8 hours. First I had to make the scratch cake, never made one before (sucessfully anyway) that took forever, measuring all the ingredients. I made 3 of those, then the cleaning, then the orange curd, then the cleaning, chill. Vanilla cake, 3 of them, chocolate ganache, turn the orange curd into orange mousse, make the white cake, 2 of them and I STILL have to make 2 more white cakes, IMBC AND Raspberry mousse. I left my other mixer at my BFs mothers house so I only have one and I have to use it, clean it, use it, clean it, use it, clean it!!! Driving me crazy

THEN

Fill, Cut, shape, carve, frost..... MAKE marshmellow fondant, roll out enough to cover tilted 8, 10 & 12 inch cakes. dowel, stack, dowel, SLEEP!!

I was hoping to have it covered in marshmellow fondant by the time I went to sleep but I'm thinking thats not gonna happen. I'll be happy if I even get them carved. I have scrapbooking class with my mother tomorrow at 9 a.m. then a full day of decorating the cake. Its midnight right now and I just want a magical cake fairy to come and clean my kitchen and bake my cakes and make my frosting and just have them ready to decorate tomorrow at 11 a.m. sharp!! Too much to ask? I don't think so.

Do you all go through this too? I don't make many large tiered cakes so I guess i'm just not used to it.... My feet hurt so bad!!! sorry this is long, just waiting for my cake to finish so I can pop another one in

This is why I am so glad I have kids . My 9 year old wants to be a chef and she is AWESOME in the kitchen. My 12 year old would do anything for me. I feel for you girl, keep your chin up and go to bed early tomorrow night!

Yes it does....and yes my feet were KILLING me today! All day in the kitchen yesterday and all day today!
cleaning, baking, cleaning, cleaning, cleaning....
Yes THEN...you decorate....AFTER you made frosting. This is a time consuming monster BUT...It was all worth it for the looks on their faces and the nice compliments
Sorry you aren't done yet If the cleaning fairy shows up to clean my kitchen, I'll certainly send him/her your way

Good luck it's almost over!!!!

I too am in the "Hate to Bake" club!! Especially since my oven isn't the most reliable one on the planet!! If only we could just magically have them there and ready to decorate!!

let us know how the topsy turvy goes for you....I have only tried to make one of them and it was not successful. I ended up even throwing one tier in the garbage!!

Oh, been there done that.......a thousand times! lol When I did my daughter's wedding cake--8x12 and 4---count em 4 side cakes each with a 6 inch round and 8 inch square!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! I was baking and cleaning and baking and cleaning and.......oh sorry.....lol for about 10 hours. That was just the baking of the cake and cleanup!!!!!!!! I so know what you mean. Good luck gal and be sure to post pics.......

yikes! that's alot of work. I'm sure it'll all turn out fine! Hang it there!

I had only a birthday party for my one year old to throw as well as a baby shower cake for 100 to make. Why does it seem like I am always doing the part I love (decorating), at midnight?? I am wiped out from head to toe right now and can't sleep. The only differnce with the wedding cakes is that I start to make everything 2 weeks in advance and freeze/refridgerate it all until the last day when I put it all together.

So, yes, I feel your pain, quite literally right now. Take care of thoes achin' feet, I am pretty sure you deserve a pedicure...

Yeah, we probably all do this ...... all the time!! Plus, my time table is always WAY optimistic! Almost never get to decorate when I'm fresh, always when I'm wiped out! Guess its a miracle any of our cakes turn out as good/great as they do. This is the life of an 'on the side' cake baker

One thing I can offer is a way for your feet and legs not to ache and feel like they're gonna fall off.....I bought a pair of knock off crocs for an over nite hiking trip and they were the most comfortable things! I got another pair for fun to wear to work (teacher, on feet allllll day). These things ROCK! I have a bad back (ruptured disc - not supposed to be able to walk) and I can get thru a whole day on campus and come home and bake till the wee hours. They are Airwalk brand and you can get them at payless shoe source, great support for the whole foot, sorta 'cushie', so glad I found these....I can't even begin to tell you!

As for your cake, you'll find a way to get it done! We have faith in you!

I'm sooo buying those shoes Eme!!!

As for the original topic.... it's 3 am right now and I just got the crumb coat on my daughters birthday cake......her party is tomorrow at 1 pm!!

Yeah....can we say NO SLEEP tonight?!

Guilty of being in the "hate to bake" club as well. I have an awesome oven but I'm really in this for the decorating part.

My feet were always sore from having to stand for so long then I thought "Duh, use your bar stools silly!" So I sit when I can.

Good shoes wouldn't hurt either.

TrinaH You'll love them! And the colors they come in ..... some are nice and loud....really can keep you awake if you find yourself dozing off

Good luck on your cake, too!

I hope things get better for you and you feel more rejuvinated to finish the cake. Love to see it when you are done...better yet, I'd love to taste it!

Yes the decorating "fun" part, isn't much fun when it's done at midnight or in the hour or two BEFORE the cake is due! AHHH TIME CRUNCH! I think I actually heard my heart beating

My hubby is learning how much work all of this is too. Because when I'm stuck in the kitchen for two days, he's doing everything else! He even stays up with me- he's awesome!
I wonder how long that will last before he is like "forget this"

I definitely understand the whole "1 KA" part...it's frustrating to have to clean and use and clean and make etc. But I'm sure that you will feel great when your cake looks amazing tomorrow. Don't forget to post pictures, you have such talent!

Let me know if you find that fairy to clean up your kitchen. I love to cook, but hate to do dishes, lol!

Andrea

Ahhh the 3am push to get a cake done before morning at 8am for delivery. I have felt your pain?! ALL OVER!! hahaha. With a large tiered cake like you have been working on, with so much detail, you really need to take breaks and spread it out over a couple days, or you will go batty. Although, I'm a glutton for punishment as well. I just cant walk away from something unfinished. I think its a compulsion!!! Good luck, it will all work out in the end. I've seen your cakes and your very talented!

10pm next day and.... just now making the mmf! partially my fault... i took a break and went shopping and out to eat and had a four hour scrapbooking class I went to with my mother (she's trying to be crafty like me) Scrapbooking was so much fun!! I think my mother really loves it so thats nice, she's always showing off my work and its nice she can finally take her crafts into work and show em off..... anyway....

So then there was the DISASTER. Remember that orange mousse that I knew wasn't going to work? well........ it didn't. I fill, layered, carved one tier. it slipped, fell over and split in half! My whole body lost all feeling. haha. I had such a migraine from staying up until 4am! waking up at 7, I was frustrated I needed sleep! I didn't get any sleep but Wonderful BF made me lunch and hung out with me for a few minutes. Then my brother called and talked to me (he's been away for a month) and I totally forgot about my frustration and then when I got off the phone a half hour later I was fresh and ready to go. I fixed the broken cake (now two layers smaller then it was suppose to be) sculpted all the cakes and they look great! I've never made a topsy cake before so i'm excitecd to see how they turn out........ will post pics. Won't be finished til 2morrow morning but maybe when I stack I can take some.

Thanks!

Okay... so heres the picture. I didn't wake up until after noon! I was suppose to wake up earlier to make the white chocolate animals and hiawatha belt and seneca seal so I didn't have enough time to really make them look nice and to me the cake looks kind of unfinished. SAD thing is I had to go to class so I couldn't deliver the cake or go to the party so my mother took it. I'm not sure if it all arrived the way it left, no one appreciated it and no one ate any of it!! I spent ALL that time making the orange butter cake and all the raspberry and ganache fillings and no one ate any. My father was the only person who ate one piece. ONE PIECE of this whole cake! I didn't make any chocolate cake because I knew my grandmother was going to make chocolate eclair cake. well her and her sisters are very jealous of each other so they all tried to out do one another and each brought like 4 desserts... there was a whole table of desserts. Brownies, cupcakes, muffins, sheet cakes. I was like......uh.... hello!? no one even acknowledged the cakes exsistence. My mother forgot to take pictures with it all set-up, which is okay because i got a few OKAY pictures and I heard someone say the cake slid or something but they were hushed and no one would tell me anything else. Must just be one of those days.

At least I get to add it to my portfolio, and thats secretly why I make cakes anyway

Ohhh.. I´m so sorry to hear this, I read your post a couple days ago and I could tell how excited you were... (((BIG HUGS)))
Your cake turned out beautiful, amazing detail! Did you use cutters for the bottom tiers decorations? Looks amazing!! I love the belt.... really, amazing work!
Cheer up girl, as you said, one more cake for your portfolio and a whole lot leftover, yum!! (did they bring you a piece back home for you to enjoy?)

I think it's great and they didn't know what they were missing if they didn't get a piece!

The animals on the bottom are white chocolate. The animals are the eight clans of the senecan tribe. On the top tier is the senecan seal with the clans and reservations on it. I blew that up and printed out the animals, place parchment paper over the picture and traced it in white chocolate. Let them dry, airbrushed them and put them on the cake. You can't really tell in the picture but the white chocolate is thick on the back of the animals so they are popping out a little bit. looked nice.

The seal on the top and the purple hiawatha belt is also white chocolate, did the same thing as I did with the animals.

Did they bring me any home? yes..... The whole cake haha.

I'm so sorry that you didn't get the rave reviews you were hoping for. That is so dissappointing especially when you put all that work and effort into it. Well, I think it came out beautifully and you should be very proud of yourself!!!

P.S. My next door neighbor told me about those croc shoes also (raved about them). She said they were great for tired feet and sore backs. Haven't tried them yet myself, but I plan to.

Uhhh, I love my crocs! They are great, I wear them when baking!

OK, so now.... Cake Balls and freeze them! You´ll have cake balls for a year!

haha Thats what i did with my wedding beach cake. I had SO many cake balls. The only problem with cake balls is...... I eat them. All of them haha. I like them for breakfast , lunch and dinner....... and dessert.

What are croc shoes does anyone have a description or picture of them.

Are they those plastic no back multi colored sorta sandals I see a lot of people wearing?

Kathy

Sorry, this happened. Your cake is wonderful and should have gotten the oohs and aahs it diserved.

They are the MOST comfortable shoes you can ever wear when baking/decorating for hours on your feet! Maybe not so good looking but really comfy!

You know I always said crocs were ugly, but they are so comfortable that now I want more so I can have different colors, lol!

haha... yup! This is why I make all my cakes a week or so ahead of time I just did 8 cakes (for a 4 tier double layer cake) and my oven was on from 8:00 am to 4:00 pm. It's not that I need another KA... I need another oven! I also got my electric bill from that day and ugh!