What A Disaster, And I Still Don't Know Where I Went Wrong!
Decorating By flowers40 Updated 11 Sep 2007 , 11:16am by mgdqueen
O.K. my 1st clue should have been when I filled the biggest layer with strawberry filling and it kept coming out of the sides of the cake. I did a dam of BC around the outer edge to hold in the filling, but it didn't work. I chilled it and stablelized it with BC and it seemed to work. My next huge problem was getting the MMF on the biggest tier a 14 by 5 inch tier. Didn't work. I don't know why, but my MMF was extremely stiff, except when it pulled and tore. So I did the sides then the top which was not the look I was going for. Then the cake began to settle, WHY, I wish I knew. So in order to camouflage all these problems I piped a lot of scrolly patterns all over my cake. This seem to distract the eye from all the problems. I probably would have not been so disappointed if the cake had tasted better. When I leveled the layers, I was extremely happy with the taste, but when I tasted the cake at the reception, I thought it tasted mushy and too sweet. I don't understand this because I made sure my BC was not very sweet to offset the taste of the fondant. I also use a lot more cornstarch when making my fondant to offset the sweetness as well. All I can figure is that the filling was too runny (I use the strawberry filling you get a the store for strawberry shortcake/in the plastic bag) Any comments or suggestions. Then to top it all off, the bottom layer fell smack into my back set, smashing one side. I did a 2 hour repair job and the picks are what it ended up like. Make me want to stop making cakes for a while! Thanks for any suggestions.
when I do strawberry filling, I use an all-fruit jam.
I heat it to make it more spreadable, then slather it on and let it cool. Stiffens up really nicely and is very sticky like any jam so it glues the top and bottom together. Still do the dam about a 1/2 inch in from the edge to allow for gravity's dirty deeds.
Cornstarch is a drying agent, and most likely the reason that the fondant was so uncooperative and tore easily. I'm also guessing that the sleeve filling soaked into the cake, making it mushy. I use jams most of the time and I put a thin crumb coat only under it to prevent soaking, but also to avoid slippage.
HTH
Rae
I think the strawberry ooze (what my kids call it!) is one of your major culprits. It is just like putting a slather of piping gel between your layers and you know how slippery that can be. I agree that the cornstarch probably dried out your fondant a little too much. Overall, I think the cake looks nice. You covered up any problems well.
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