The Humidity Killed My Cake! *pout*
Decorating By treys_girl04 Updated 18 Sep 2006 , 10:56pm by Price
ugh..this weekend, its been about 85 degrees and 90% humidity here in my part of texas, positivly sticky! And so was my bc..even sitting for hours, it wouldnt crust enough for me to papertowel it smooth. then today on the car ride to the party, the bc started to pull off the cake where the mmf cutouts were. i was horrified! i had to pull over and poke the icing back on! then by the time i got it to the party, the shell border on the top layer had melted into a runny mess. do you have a special recipe for bc that you use when its humid? or how else can i combat this problem?
this is kinda off topic, but have any of you ever gone through some burn out? i dont do that many cakes, maybe 3 a month, but i have three kids and two jobs, and im finding it tough to get motivated to do my cakes. i didnt finish this one until 4 hours before the party..i kept putting off working on it. sometimes i feel like my creativity is just zapped. how do you deal?
No solution for the humidity, but I've been there where the weather is not making my frosting cooperate. Cake looks great! Let me give you some moral encouragement!!! You are talented and even if the cake doesn't look as perfect as you want, it always tastes good!!!!!!!!! Our art is but a moment in time, so if I can get a good picture out of it, mission accomplished. People understand, show the picture around and feel good about your talents!!!
Do you have air conditioning (I don't!), that should help while you are in the house. Before you transport go turn the AC on in your car for awhile and get it nice and frosty! That way it should at least ARRIVE in one piece, after that... mother nature have at it!
I have found if I use a shortening based recipe I have better results in the heat and humidity. I also turn on the air and back van vents in the van before leaving to help with transport. Also, refrigerating the cake if possible before I go seems to help.
OMG!! 
I sooo know what you mean! My wedding cake that I did this weekend screwed up on me because of vibration and humidity, too!
I'm just convinced that the bigger cakes have a LOT more issues than the smaller, single layers do.
I used the recipe that has dream whip in it for the buttercream on it. BIG MISTAKE...HUGE! I should have just used regular old shortening based buttercream. 
By the time I got them "smooth," (yeah right) and left the house, they looked ok. When I got to the wedding and got them set up, the icing had slightly "cracked" under the "crust," and looked kind of shiny, but not wet really. It didn't "separate," it just kind of cracked where the crust is.
I was ready to cry.
--Knox--
I understand that "Alpine" hi-ratio shortening has the highest temp tolerance. I'd use that with some butter extract. Keep the A/C on home and in the car. Some decorators also use a de-humidifier while baking and decorating when the humidty is really bad.
Your cake was really cute. sorry you had a problem, but I'm sure everyone loved it. I am fortunate to have central air, and I'm only about 5 minutes from work (which is where alot of my cakes go!). So luckily I haven't had the humidity issue. I agree refrigerate the cake if you can before transporting (I learned that the hard way) It helps to make the cake more stable (IMO)
No burn out yet! I am still having fun experimenting with new techniques.
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