This past weekend, I wanted to bake some cupcakes for the kids at my church; they were ending VBS with a carnival and I wanted to treat them but with temps over 100, I knew I wouldn't be able to make any stable buttercream. I thought about using Pastry Pride because it's been known to withstand even 102 degrees...but then ANOTHER PROBLEM stopped me...ANTS!!

So far, I have ants in two of my bathrooms. I don't know WHY they're there~I think it's because I had some sweet baby wash & shampoos...
I removed them but the ants remain. Earlier today, I went to OSH and got Grant's Ant Control Stakes...so far useless~ I'm keeping them there but a few hours ago, I went to Safeway and bought a plethora of other ant killing products.

I am SOOOOO afraid that these pesky ants will come into my kitchen. THEN it'll be game over and I won't be able to bake until the weather cools down and these ants leave!!!!!

I wanted to make some chocolate monograms in advance for this weekend's cupcakes but...realistically, I don't see it happening because it's TOO HOT and everything will melt~~~~~~~~~~~~~

How is everyone else getting around the hot weather?

OMG! I hear ya! I had two cakes I had to have done and delivered to two seperate places (55) miles apart and it was 108 degrees. It was on that day I experienced my first cake disaster!

I went through all the precautions when transporting a cake, i.e., started up the car and got the A/C going full-blown, I brought my repair kit for "just in case" and I hit the road. It seemed like no matter where I put the cake in the car, the sun was shining directly on it! I was bummed about that. Then, when traveling, a large truck towing a boat pulled right out in front of me and I had to slam on my brakes. Freaking out at this point, I pulled over and checked on the cake. It was in one piece but the buttercream was literally dripping off. I figured, well, I will get it to the site, (which was an outside venue, mind you!), and fix it there. When I get there, I notice that the bottom layer of a 5 tiered cake was pulling to one side and the other tiers were going the other way. But, alas, figured I could fix it, right?

I start carrying the cake to the table when the clients son insists that he needs to carry it because it is soooooooo heavy. Well, he does just fine until he reaches the table. He missed the table and ended up bumping it with the cake and the four top tiers slide off the bottom layer.

Needless to say, I was devastated. We removed the bottom layer the best we could and placed the cake on a decorative doily. Holy Havana! I was mortified. I tried to patch it up the best I could but....it was, as I stated, 108 hotter than heck degrees out there.

The best ending to this story is that the cake was for a 50th Wedding Anniversary. The couple of 50 years just starting laughing their heads off and I had mixed emotions of what I was experiencing. As they finally regained control of their hysterical laughing, they related the story of how someone bumped into the cake table at their wedding and knocked their wedding cake over. They said, "Well, it brought us good luck 50 years ago maybe we are in for another 50". Phew! I was relieved.

I told them that they didn't have to pay me all the funds as the cake wasn't , ahem, in exactly the shape they had ordered and they, instead, insisted in paying me. They were actually pleased with the whole ordeal.

Now those are clients we could all wish for, eh??

Otherwise, it is hotter than you know what and at this point, I am actually looking forward to seeing snow! LOL!!!!!!!

Deb

WOW, first, congrats on finishing the cake AND transporting it despite the heat!

Sorry to hear what happened to the cake AFTER you drove 55 miles to get it there safely and in one piece~~~ But it's good to hear that your clients didn't freak out.

In San Jose, we were dealing with temps. at 105 today...at the coast of San Francisco, it was only in the 70's! ...maybe I should have moved there~

Good luck on your next cake order! Hopefully it'll get A LOT cooler for it!

Sorry to hear about your fiasco! I am also in California, although thankfully it isn't as hot in the East Bay. Still we have unseasonable temps in the 90's. Last weekend I did a birthday cake for a friend and brought it to Castro Valley. It wasn't horrible, and they were all impressed, but the frosting was bulging out where I had layered the cake because it was so runny. I tried to do a cake today just for fun and the although the piping went fairly well, the actual frosting of the cake was a lost cause. I'm going to have to say, it's just too hot for cakes....at least those frosted in buttercream!

YES! Temps are going down and the ANTS are leaving my house! ...well, I killed the ones that were here~ THANKFULLY, new ants aren't coming in so I'm thankful! let me just say that Grants Ant Stakes' don't work! Neither do stakes from Raid...but Grant's canned spray work!

Right now, it's only 63 degrees! 63!! wow! at this rate, I'll be able to bake my cupcakes for this weekend! tomorrow, it'll be 84...that's workable! wahoo!

Happy COOL & ANT FREE baking to everyone!

holy moly is it hot out!! I had to bake for a 3 tiered wedding cake and a ccc and of course do I have 2 each of my petal pans... NOPE!! So this just extended the heat in the kitchen.... UGH!! It was terrible.. Then I have the bf just rambling and groaning about the heat and blah blah blah.... I finally asked him if he liked the sound of his own voice cause by this point I wasn't listening!!!! lol:

Thankfully now that i switched to sweetex the frosting is absolutely wonderful about staying together and on the cake!!!! It's great!!!

I'll keep you posted on how the cakes travel... I have to deliver them tomorrow 35 miles away!!!! Hopefully there is A/C!!!

bo

I feel your pain! I'm in Florida where there's about 5,000% humidity on any given day in the summer. The temperatures have been mid-90's which is normal, but the humidity is what kills you.

EVERY day at about 3:00 pm it will rain for about half an hour then stop. The sun comes back out and turns the entire state into one big sauna. Yay.

I did a cake a few days ago for some people, and thankfully I only had to transport it about 3 miles, but even then it was bulging by the time I got there!

Shoot, it's been so hot here that the thought oifr turning on the oven was sickening! I had to take my husband to the hospital for a procedure this morning and we left at 7 o'clock and it was laready 73 degrees...... anyway, dropped him off (3 kids, no babysitter, simple outpatient procedure), came home and just finished baking my daughters birthday cake. I have to bake another cake Sunday and then another for next Saturday..... I hope we don't have an indian summer this year!

my sister's birthday was a couple of days ago and i made her a cake. well the table, my hands and clothes, well actually everything was stained in frosting. i also made some chocolate decorations and they melted as soon as i took them out of the fridge. it was horrible. i wanted to throw the cake out the door. but she loved the end result not knowing how the cake came to be. i hate hot weather. the temperature that day was 104.

yowza - I've just been crumb coating and throwing the whole cake in the freezer - I'm working on one for a church 'old time country picnic' on sunday - to my dismay when we got the invite it said to bring blankets and chairs to sit on - sounds like it's going to be outside! I should have just made a sheet cake, but NOOOOO, I had to make this Colette 2 tier dealie with ri plaques on the sides....I bet they slide right off the cake!

CakesUnleashed,

..the client's son unintentionally recreated the exact scenario of his parent's original wedding cake mishap! (shades of the Twilight Zone here)

Glad it all worked out in the end.

heystopthatnow--

If you wipe your counter with orange oil, that keeps ants away--but it is short-lived. You have to keep doing it.

We used to have trouble with the ants--pharoah ants (I think that's what they are called. I call them piss ants b/c they pissed me off when I couldn't get rid of them). Anyway, we had the exterminators spray for them--shortlived. So my DH got on the internet and found out that to get rid of them and keep them away, you have to get rid of anything that attracts them OUTSIDE (ie: bird seed, hummingbird feeders, bread that you throw out for birds). We got rid of everything outside and in less than a week, no more ants and we have been ant-free for 2 years...YEA!!!

Hi Mac,
Thanks for telling me about orange oil! If ants become a problem again, I'll try that! So far, after going crazy with Grant's ant spray, they ones in the bathroom are all gone & no visitors~
Now I need to get rid of the pesky one or two ants that managed to crawl all the way from the bathroom to my guest room BED@@@

I wish we could be ant free too!

Okay, for ants I totally swear by Terro. It comes in a few different forms now, but the original was just a liquid bait. You would put a few drops on wax paper and set it near the ant trail. For 2-3 days you'll see a large amount of ants because they all come in for the food. But, they take it back to the nest and after a few days you'll see just a few wandering ones and after that they're gone for good. Terro works when nothing else does! They make some neater things now like little bait traps with the liquid already inside. They're great if you have kids or pets!

I love the stuff so much that when we lived in Houston and I couldn't find any anywhere, I had my dad mail me some from Indiana LOL. Seriously, the stuff works!

I certainly feel your pain on the heat! I'm in Mississippi and like Florida it is the humidity that will get you! I guess I am used to it somewhat--never known any different. Unlike Florida, we have been in a drought this summer and have seen rain I think 3 times now in like 10 weeks!
We don't get snow much, but I am certainly looking forward to fall (which we also don't get much of--