Near Disaster. . .kind Of Long. . .
Decorating By cholmberg Updated 12 Sep 2007 , 12:36pm by vdrsolo
Well, I've stressed over this cake for over a week. My DH's best friend and wife are expecting and she asked me to do the cake (gratis of course, I'm fairly new to doing it), and I said I would be happy to. We were looking through the galleries here on cake central and she saw one of Boween's cakes and asked me if I could do one similar to it. . and I told her that it was a bit ambitious for me but I'd give it my best shot. Mostly she loved those little feet on it, she just flipped over them.
I've never worked in fondant much, so I thought I was doing the right thing by making a stencil and cutting them out and drying them on a flat surface. . until it came time to put the cake together yesterday. . I hadn't measured them and compared them to the size the cake would be. .. 
the feet were way too big and I forgot they'd need to curve!
I couldn't use any of the ones I'd already made. And I couldn't find the fondant I'd made!! It disappeared. All I found was a lone piece of plastic wrap in my daugher's room. I can't believe she ate over a pound of white fondant w/o me knowing it. . but I have no other explanation, it just vanished. Which meant the DH had to run out and get some ready made Wilton fondant (yick).
The cake was very
pretty as it was, it was blue and white with big fondant pearls, but she had her heart set on those footprints. . . but I'd had a -terrible- time with the top tier. It was WASC and baked up fine. but when I went to crumb coat the top tier, it wouldn't stick. The cakes for that tier had been cooled, wrapped and chilled, the entire first crumb coat peeled off. I had to really thin the frosting and got a crumb coat on it, chilled throughly and frosted it and chilled it again. It was just ridiculous watching me wrangle with that double 6" tier, how do people manage those little suckers? It was sliding around on my turntable (I had it on a 6" cake board). I felt like an idiot.
At six pm last night I was cutting new 'feet' and putting them on the cake without drying them and praying they'd stay. I made a fondant bow for the top, which I'd never done before either and the third try finally turned out okay and didn't get put on til 8am this morning. That dratted top layer was trying to peel again, Just in one spot, but why was it doing this? One layer out of four was just refusing to let the frosting stick and I don't understand why it was doing it or how to stop it. TGIH it held for the entire shower without peeling. . although it did face perils. . one little boy dragged the entire tablecloth to get that cake close enough to start plucking the fondant pearls off and eating them. . (Ick!) but he was awfully cute when we discovered it. He was only two and had been trying to get to that cake for two hours before he finally slipped under the radar.
it -wasn't- a disaster, our friend was thrilled with her cake. but I'd love to know if there is a way to prevent that from happening again because if that had started peeling again, I would have just cried.
I never chill my cakes before frosting (I don't use perishable fillings, only buttercream or sleeved fillings), so it could be that the cake was so cold that once the icing hit it it started to firm up a bit and not allow you to spread it on there.
As far as the 6" cake slipping on your turntable. Just take a piece of non skid mat and put it under the cake, no slipping!
I never chill my cakes before frosting (I don't use perishable fillings, only buttercream or sleeved fillings), so it could be that the cake was so cold that once the icing hit it it started to firm up a bit and not allow you to spread it on there.
I really like the IMBC, but with those eggs I am afraid to leave it out for
more than a couple of hours. . .. and everyone loves it. Three of the layers
did perfect, it was just the top six inch one that just refused to let the frosting stick. Sleeved fillings? What are those?
As far as the 6" cake slipping on your turntable. Just take a piece of non skid mat and put it under the cake, no slipping!
Wow, for some reason that didn't occur to me. I just kept thinking to
myself 'How do pros keep these little buggers still w/o putting fingerprints in them?!' 
Thanks for the input!! I appreciate it! 
It could be possible since your 6" tier was slipping on the turntable that you were not able to press as firmly against the cake while icing and it didn't adhere well.
Sleeved fillings are pastry fillings made just for cakes, you can get them from any cake decorating supply business, comes in tons of flavors...raspberry, strawberry, bavarian cream,plus many more. I prefer them because they not only are they room temp safe but they do not seep into the cake. I ran a test one time with Strawberry preseves, strawberry jam, strawberry all fruit spread, and strawberry pastry filling. The next day, everything but the pastry filling had started seeping into the cake, causing the cake structure to fall. Some people will sandwich their jam by a thin layer of buttercream frosting, but since I torte all my layers, I only a very thin layer anyway (less slippy, especially with the fillings).
I only use nonperishable frostings and fillings for wedding cakes. You have no control over how long the wedding cake will sit out, and if people take some cake home, you don't know how long it will be before they eat it. I don't want anyone getting sick.
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