For the last 13 months, I have been planning my DSD wedding cake. The event was to be held 3 hours away. I prepared everything before going and kept it all on ice faithfully. It was to be a beautiful chocolate WASC cake with chocolate mousse filling. Edible pearls on quilting, airbrushed with pearl spray....it was going to be the most beautiful wedding cake ever!

How wrong I was.

Got to the venue at 9 am...wedding was at 3. I thought there was plenty of time to assemble and decorate the cake. It was 94 degrees inside the building and 95% humidity. It's never that hot and humid right off Lake Superior..normally it's 25 degress cooler than inland...not today.

Assembling the cake and one layer totally crumbled..ok I can deal with that. Applying the icing and there was no way it was going to work. The icing was literally melting as soon as I put it on the cake. It was not crusting at all. I was in tears and so ready to walk out! By this time I called for reinforcement. My DIL came to set up flowers and help any way she could. Finally got it all together and stacked on tiers and as we were leaving the guy at the venue finally turns on the air conditioning.

Go back to our hotel to change for the wedding...get half way to the wedding and recieve a call from a distraught wedding guest that the guy at the venue had called the Bride (I had given him my business card) instead of me. He expects me to drive half an hour back to the venue to clean up the top two tiers that had fallen off the cake and were no longer useable. NO WAY!! I am not missing her wedding! The guest explained that the bride did not know about the disaster and no one was going to tell her.

After brainstorming, we decided to go to WalMart ( yes, I sunk Low ) so that there would be a top tier for pictures. Raced back to the venue and did what I could for repairs all before the bride and gromm arrived.

Finished just in time! The guy at the venue berated me that it was all my fault the cake collasped and not his (of course) I smiled sweetly at him, Thanked him and walked away seething. I so wanted to slap him!

Needless to say, everyone loved the cake (It looked like he!! ) but the flabor was excellant so all in all, I guess it turned out ok. I did take my DSD aside and tell her what happened and she was soooo sweet about it and was completely ok with it. She's great!

I have another wedding cake coming up and I'm scared silly over it after this. The cake is to be set up outside in a tent. I plan on delivering it frozen!

In the end it came out okay and she was happy. I know you were disappointed but sometimes one has to pull a rabbit out of a hat and you did and it came off fine.
I can't help on the other one-I always hear fondant is the way to go but I'll give you a bump.

It sounds like you handled this like a pro. Maybe for the next wedding, you can ask to have the cake inside until 'time' for the reception if you are concerned. However, you cannot always guarantee the cake if it's going to be 100 degrees outside or inside for that matter. For 'contract' cakes, you may want to add a clause for situations such as this (venue must be appx xx degrees for cake stability, freshness, etc). I'm glad this time worked out well for you

all i can say, is, thank goodness for the walmart.... it saved your day.... it ain't all that bad anymore is it?

Well done for thinking on your feet and for a great save! Having been through a disaster myself, I always stick to fondant and try to make sure that the cake is kept indoors (and this is in the UK where if temperatures hit 70 degrees it's a heatwave! I don't know if fondant would have helped under such hot and humid conditions but yo can only give it a try

Wow so sorry this happened. Glad it all turned out ok.

Good Luck with the next cake.

Good for you for making the best of it. And good for your DSD. Sounds like you were surrounded by goodness (except for the stupid guy in control of the air conditioning!) What do these people think? Or maybe that's just it - they don't think!? Congratulations on the save and for thinking so creatively.

Was there a reason you decorated it on site rather than decorating the tiers and bringing them to the venue and stacking them there? Or am I reading this wrong and you only tried to ice the tier than fell apart?

Regardless WTG for salvaging it all. Next time I'd try arriving a bit closer to the reception time to avoid having the cake sit out in the heat for too long. ((hugs))

in florida it is so hot and humid ALL THE TIME that i always do fondant, the one time that i did frosting, and it wasnt buttercreme... the whole backside of the cake fell off... and to boot i wasnt the one that did it... it was my engagement cake!

I love the Wilton hidden pillars - Several years ago I had an outside wedding cake with BC - used the wilton hidden pillars & had no problems at all. Is was July 4th weekend in Kansas - can we say hot & humid! I will not do a wedding cake without the hidden pillars.

Oh dear, it sounds like the heat and humidity were miserable, and cakes really hate that.
That kind of weather could have been at my house.
I hope the venue manager didn't withhold the A/C on purpose just to watch you sweat.

It sounds like you had a fantastic recovery.
I think I would have been really stressed after going through all of that. My mother used to have a sign in her kitchen that read,
" Stressed spelled backwards is Desserts". It always made me smile.

-Debbie B.

Thank you everyone. I am still just so sad over this whole thing.

The guy at the venue was a gourmet chef and surprises me that he had the attitude and lack of consideration. That being said, the food was to die for!

The reason I did the cake there was because I had no way to store it for 3 days while we did all the parental responsibilities for a daughters wedding..i.e rehearsal, rehersal dinner, decorating and such. The bride and groom did not want fondant..that would have been my choice with the heat. I did put stabilizer in the icing but I guess it was just too hot to help.

Many guest remarked at how excellant it tasted and I guess that was the main thing. Basically, I was the one let down and saddened, no one else.
I just wanted the best for her day and I feel like I let her down.

oops duplicate post

Congratulations on a great save, you sound like a real pro to have pulled that off, I would've just freaked out.

Do you have a picture of the cake? I think it probably didn't turn-out as bad as you think it looked, since we all judge our work the most... of course there were layers that crumbled, etc... but the man at the venue IS to blame - why in the heck didn't he have the AC going WELL in advance of the reception? If he knows there's an event taking place, he should know that once people & their body heat arrive, it will warm-up a tad (or a lot!), and that there would be a cake. I'm so annoyed at him for you! At least you finished in time & they did love it. Try to shake it off & just know in the future to discuss with the venue in advance regarding AC (I know I am after this story!)

I'm so sorry that happened. You were valiant in your great attempts to save the day and save the day you did.

You are kidding about freezing the cake for outdoor use yes? Because of course if you did do that it would sweat like an iced tea glass in the sunshine. Y'know you have to gradually bring things to room temp.

Again I am so sorry that happened.

that is so sad. But you are so smart for thinking of wal-mart. I will have to remember that for next time that happens.

I'm so sorry this happened to you. Humidity is Killer!

The only time I had problems with icing sliding off of a cake was when the humidity and heat were super high and I had to drive over a BUMPY road in my little car. I was able to put the back part on the back and fix it pretty well when I got it inside and they cranked up the a/c. It was a small wedding cake for a co-workers mom )they were in their 60's) and this co-worker ordered a cake from me at least once a month so she was very forgiving. She said that they ate every single crumb of cake and loved it - so I guess that's the most important thing.

I feel your pain....I did a big circus cake outside last weekend and the heat and humidity almost caused a near disaster for me as well. Thank Godness I was staying for the whole party to take pictures for the customer as well or else the top of the cake would have fell right over. You can see in my pictures it is starting to lean already and thats after it had only been up for 10 minutes. The Satin Ice was just melting before my eyes. It must have been 120 degrees in that tent! We ended up getting it inside, I unstacked it let it cool and harden back up then I reassemble it leaving one tier out sitting it in front and put the seals on it. It all worked out in the end, but how stressful!

Trance

Check with Indydebi, she has a icing recipe that she swears will hold up to any humidity and heat!!

I'm sure she will share!!!! She's great that way~~

Lu

Good thing there is a Wal-Mart on every corner, right next to Starbucks

Girl I feel your pain. I worked 5 days on my best friends 5 tier cake. I hand put on over 9000 pearls. Yes 9000! Went to the hall set the cake up and I noticed it was very warm. Before I left I asked the manager to make sure to turn the air on. He asured me it was on. We arrive at the hall and the wedding planner informs me that the cake is leaning. Did I mention I was in the wedding also. SO I go in and it must have been 95 degrees in there. The cake was leaning because the fondant had melted. I had put a tons of dowels rods to make sure that it would not lean. Well I never thought that the fondant would melt. But I guess at 95 to 100 degress it would and it had been set up for at 4 hours by than. I was so upset. They at least got one picture with it before I had to take it apart.
All that work I was so pissed. The best man than came and got me and escorted me directly to the bar. Where I drowned my sorrows for hours. And my friend never complained she said it was beautiful. She was very gracious about it. I still feel bad even thought It was really not my fault. Oh and it was that hot for the whole evening.

Well I can understand needing the air to be on in a venue for cake delivery, but it's not fair to ask them to turn on the air 6 hours before the event. It's not the venue's fault that you had to decorate it there.. and I am sure they were caught off guard by that unless you told them well ahead of time, but I still can't see how it should be their problem unless you offered to pay them for the extra utilites.

Not to sound like a mean person at all, but that's my thought. I COMPLETELY agree that the ac should be on a couple hours before an event to cool things off.. but ti ask them to have it on for that long before an event is a bit much.

wow that guy was a jerk! i would have slapped him if i was you. nice self controll. lol well all i can say is accidents happen and you did a really good job of fixing what was broken. sounds like everyone loved it so it couldnt have been that bad. anyways hope your next wedding cake does better =) good luck and take care