I am so tired of staying up past midnight. *sigh*
Anyway today was NOT a good day at all. We are having company for the weekend so I did some cleaning and my husband is helping ALOT. Well after church tonight I came home to do a small but detailed "Lamborghini" cake. *sigh* again.
What a disaster! First, the cake looks more like a hatchback than a ritzy sports care. Then, and worst of all, I was airbrushing some highlights on it. First I added some orangy yellow to the yellow fondant. Then I was going to just touch some black on it. UGH. My airbrush was not blowing very smoothly and they looked like dots. So tried to smooth that out and the black started bleeding and I ended up with a car that looked like a dirt racer instead of a sleek Lamborghini. I'm SO upset. My kitchen is a pit and we are going to the airport tomorrow morning to pick up my company. My husband said he'd finish the house early in the morning so that is so sweet...he is usually a really good encouragement in my cakes but even HE came in the kitchen and exclaimed "WHAT HAPPENED?!"
So this is probably the FIRST time I"ve ever done this, but I actually sent a small picture to my customer and told her I was not going to charge her the other half of her price. And I'm seriously thinking about never taking another car order. I do NOT enjoy doing them, vehicles are not my speciality...they have the perfect lines and the details that I just can't get right.
Days like this I feel this cake decorating stuff just isn't worth it, ya know? Neglecting my kids, making my husband do the housework...for what? Giving someone a cheap messed up cake. *double sigh*
*sniff*
I had no trouble identifying your cake a a Lamborghini, albeit one that just finished racing.
If I was your customer, I would be thrilled to serve this cake to my family & guests.
Think you have such such high standards for yourself that any deviation from absolute perfection is seen as "unworthy."
You're just overtired and stressed.
Hopefully (with your DH's help) things will fall in place tomorrow and you can enjoy your company.
I'm sure your customer will enjoy her cake!
(If I've been too familar or any of my remarks are offputting, please excuse me.)
I had no trouble identifying your cake a a Lamborghini, albeit one that just finished racing.
If I was your customer, I would be thrilled to serve this cake to my family & guests.
Think you have such such high standards for yourself that any deviation from absolute perfection is seen as "unworthy."
You're just overtired and stressed.
Hopefully (with your DH's help) things will fall in place tomorrow and you can enjoy your company.
I'm sure your customer will enjoy her cake!
(If I've been too familar or any of my remarks are offputting, please excuse me.)
Thanks for your post, I took every bit of it as encouragement (and laughed at the "finished racing" part LOL)
Well I am going to give her half off because I'm sick of this cake and the photo she gave me was a sleek gorgeous thing and mine is all black and smeared. Actually they won't be serving this. A coworker of hers ordered a Mustang cake (red one in my photos) and her boyfriend put the thing in his freezer and kept it to show his friends. I do not know that they ever did eat the thing. So believe it or not, now this lady's boyfriend wants a cake for HIS freezer. 
So I don't even know if they are going to eat it....but since its for "show" it surely should be alot more yellow than black.
I know its like a HUGE no-no to send a photo ahead of a pickup and I've never done it before, but she's driving up a half an hour to pick it up and I don't want her disappointed...I'd rather her be happy she doesn't have to bring any more money with her.
My husband noticed it was a lamborghini. He says he can barely see the smudges, but if it were for him he would be very happy to recieve it. Maybe they won't notice it, I think it looks better than any wm cake so why underprice yourself fully. Maybe offer a discount. You did really well carving it and we all have off days, so don't beat yourself up so bad. Take a nap and try to go over it in the morning, i'm pretty sure that with your talent you can fix it! Happy caking! 
Well, my Daddy says that cake is not important, relationships are important. I feel the same way about my disaster-zone house. So I didn't vacuum and the kids' toys aren't all put away, and fobid that I didn't get around to dusting, I'm SUPER happy to see you, and I will pour you a drink and chat and laugh with you, and make YOU my priority. Thankfully my DH feels the same way about our house (He's a little too lax, if you've read about his underware in a different post!!!!)
Your car shape is AMAZING! in the future, is it possible to make black fondant and cut out the windows instead of risking the air-brush??? I know Geoff does that on Ace of Cakes.
My husband noticed it was a lamborghini. He says he can barely see the smudges, but if it were for him he would be very happy to recieve it. Maybe they won't notice it, I think it looks better than any wm cake so why underprice yourself fully. Maybe offer a discount. You did really well carving it and we all have off days, so don't beat yourself up so bad. Take a nap and try to go over it in the morning, i'm pretty sure that with your talent you can fix it! Happy caking!
Thanks! The car really should be flatter....the photo she sent me is very sleek and low riding. And the photo is small and at the right angle to minimize the smudges as best as possible. 
I really can't fix it, other than redo it, which I don't have time as we are going in the morning to pick up somebody at the airport and then we'll be out all day long. And I can't stay up all night because I've pulled too many late nighters and my brain is starting to shut down.
Anyway thanks for the encouragement! I think I better just go clean up the kitchen and try to grab a few hours of sleep. (1:30am here...)
Well, my Daddy says that cake is not important, relationships are important. I feel the same way about my disaster-zone house. So I didn't vacuum and the kids' toys aren't all put away, and fobid that I didn't get around to dusting, I'm SUPER happy to see you, and I will pour you a drink and chat and laugh with you, and make YOU my priority. Thankfully my DH feels the same way about our house (He's a little too lax, if you've read about his underware in a different post!!!!)
Your car shape is AMAZING! in the future, is it possible to make black fondant and cut out the windows instead of risking the air-brush??? I know Geoff does that on Ace of Cakes.
I do skip housework, all the time LOL but my husband is somewhat of a neat freak and gets tense about it. So he does help.
Well I did handpaint the windows and they looked fine...I indent them first so they are more realistic. However I wanted to airbrush the highlights on the car (the photo showed varying shades of yellow, yellow orange, and black) and its then when the disaster began.
Other than the black, it looks great! Can you paint over the smudges? It wouldn't take that long to do.
No because the car is yellow, I tried airbrushing the entire thing yellow and it only made the black wetter and more smudged. Oh well.
I know this is probably too late, but could you have pulled off the black (and yellow beneath it I guess) with a damp washcloth? I've done that before when I've made mistakes painting something. If it's a very small area, I'll even use a damp Q-tip to rub away the color. Then, once it dries, I go back and re-do that area.
At any rate, I think the car looks great. I completely understand your feelings though! I just went through a bad cake night and was upset with how it turned out. But, it was still well received and enjoyed. Remember, you look at and work with cakes all the time and your standards are much higher than most anyone you will do a cake for.
I'm glad you feel better about giving the lady a picture ahead of time, it's good to finish in a way that makes you feel better rather than always wondering if she REALLY liked it. Even though she probably did!
Thanks! I did actually try the wet washcloth thing but due to some texture/drying (I guess???) in the fondant or whatever, it wasn't working, it just made grey smudging and made it look worse!!!! So then I had to blend that in!
The lady did NOT get the photo and email ahead of time (I should have updated you all!) so I took her cake out to her and as she was pulling money out of her pocket told her she didn't owe me any more due to the dud paint job...she seemed pleasantly surprised and said the cake looked fine. I don't know if maybe after she had time to think about it if she got upset, because I never heard back from her, but at least the initial reaction was more like "Yay I don't owe the rest" than anything else.
((((((((hugs)))))))))) to you my friend but your cake looks sooo professional... don't make me come over there and smack ya around LOL
I think you do a tremendous job on all of your work. So it's not as perfect as you think it should be...cake isn't perfect hun! But yours are awfully close!!!!!
BTW how much did she pay you for this masterpiece? (if ya don't mind me asking)
So she got it for free?? I think you way over reacted. The cake is GREAT except for the black part, which I know you think is really bad, but it isn't all that bad. Was there any way you could've used royal icing to cover up some of the black, or no? She got a great deal! Your cake is professional. But it's better that you can walk away without regrets I guess... 
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