My Worst Disaster, I'm Not Doing Wedding Cakes Anymore!
Decorating By loree001 Updated 30 Sep 2007 , 3:40am by CarolAnn
I lost a wedding cake this weekend. It was a 'free' cake for a friend, and in the transport, the groom's top cake slid off the top cake, and fell on the bottom bride's cake. The bride's top cake slid off the middle tier. It was salvagable for pictures, but the back side of the bride's cake looked like it had been badly damaged. The groom's cake should have had a screened hunting scene, but I lost the scene and had to cover it with chocolate ganache and dipped strawberries, it looked fine even though it wasn't what they asked for...I feel SOOOO BAD! Then, they weren't there to explain, only the caterer was there, so I had to explain to them...they helped me a lot salvaging the cakes, but It was SOOOOO horrible! I felt like crying all night long, still have a not in my stomach and haven't heard from the bride or her family, I just feel so bad! Thanks for listening.
Hi Loree001,
I'm so sorry to hear this happened to you, but you have no idea how much better I feel knowing I'm not the only one! A very similar experience happened to me this weekend on my 4th wedding cake 
I had a four tiered cake, 2 layers chocolate with cherry filling and 2 layers white with lemon filling, to deliver on friday for 5:30. I finished the cake on Thursday night and it looked fantastic! Friday morning, woke up, cake still looked great. 1:30, got home from work, "where's the cake?" I found it on the floor! All four layers all across my dining room carpet! I don't know what/how it happened! Maybe the filling? But the cake looked fine in the morning! Can it really happen that quickly?
Anyway, I baked my little butt off with the help of my husband and remade the whole cake in 5 hours, which was clearly not enough time (and late!). Obviously this new cake wouldn't stay up, which became so much clearer less than 2 minutes from my house. We ended up taking the cake apart and I decorated a 4-tiered white fake cake I had at home with the decorations meant for the real cake, and plated the top tier of the real cake for the bride and groom to cut.
I emailed the couple and tried calling, but I still haven't heard back from them. It's been 3 days and I just want to throw up every time I think about it. How do you get over this?
I'm sorry to hear about these stories. I do not deliver assembled. I find much less stressful to show up a little early and setup on site. The caterers or sites are usually setup for the cake at least 1hr ahead of time (around here at least). I also (and I know the time doesn't work out for everyone) plan to have the cakes completely finished and in the fridge the night before delivery. It gives me a much more solid cake for transport and setup. I realize not everyone's fridge allows that much space, but maybe at least the largest, heaviest tiers could be squeezed in. I use a mid-size SUV for delivery and all the boxes fit back there without having to stack anything and I just freeze my rear off while driving with the air on full blast.
Just some ideas Don't give up, just learn from what you did wrong and keep trying. At least it wasn't a paid cake!
This is totally why I always deliver unassembled. I know a lot of people have good luck with SPS, etc. and take 3,4&5 tiers stacked, but I always take all my tiers seperately. Sometimes this means I have to add borders or flowers, etc. on site, but I find it's definately worth it for my piece of mind. I also box every layer so they are somewhat protected from little things in the car, rain, you name it. I actually had a pretty serious car accident 3 1/2 years ago with a wedding cake in the back of my van. An old man t-boned the drivers side, knocked the door skins off, almost put me up on the curb and totalled the van. The cakes came out virtually unscathed. I had to fix one small ruffled garland on the side of one layer, but everything else was fine. Since they weren't already stacked the supports didn't shift or anything. I was a mess, but managed to keep it together until I got the delivery (and the 2 more after) complete.
-Just what works for me! -Lori
I always deliver assembled. I think it would be too hard to decorate a intricate design cake, then stack it at the site. I would worry about the design getting messed up during the stacking/doweling process. I would also worry about not getting done the design in time. I always find myself decorating and saying, " I should be done in a half an hour". An hour and a half later, and I am finally finished. I guess I just work slow. 
But everyone does what works best for them. 
Like Lori I always transport and deliver in seperate boxes and assemble on site. And that foam shelf liner stuff is invaluable for transporting cakes. Put a box on some of that and nothing is moving, short of rolling my Expo. One wedding I did I thought getting there 1 1/2 early, was my niece's wedding, would allow me plenty of time to get the three tiers assembled, do the borders and arrange the flowers. What I didn't plan on was having to do all this in the kitchen with lots of family and friends milling around. What stress that was, oh my gosh. I can't even imagine transporting a multi tiered cake already assembled.
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