I am doing a wedding cake for my sisters wedding tomorrow! This is my first wedding cake as I just usually do my kids birthday cakes. Anyhow, I baked the cakes Wednesday, let the dry and froze them, made fondant roses yesterday and got the cakes out today to ice. My new brother in law didn't like my regular recipe so I decided to try Indydebi's recipe. It tasted fine after mixing, but it will not crust! Maybe it is the humidity here as it has been raining all day. Therefore, I am having trouble getting it smooth. I've been at this most of the day and now need to figure out how I can fix it. The theme is harley davidson. I was just doing simple white cakes with fondant roses and a fbct of the harley emblem. The roses are orange, teal, and white as my sisters favorite color is teal. I also wanted to add more teal somewhere, but don't really like the ribbon idea used on so many cakes. What should I do to help add color and hide the unsmooth texture? Should I make little fondant flowers and put on the sides or something else? Oh, they don't like the taste of fondant either so just using it as decorations. I have free range as this is a gift for them and they don't care what is on it. Please help ASAP!!

Did you ice the cakes while cold or frozen? If so, the moisture from the frozen cake (ice crystals) will really slow down the crusting process.

Wow that was quick! The cakes were still cold but not frozen. I took them out this morning and then set in making the icing. So, by the time I got to them they had been out 3 or more hours. So, maybe that is it. Should I just wait a little longer? Would they crust better in the fridge or on the countertop. I have seen posts that say both, so not sure which is better, especially for this recipe. BTW, I really like the taste of the icing. I had to taste test (a few times) while icing them.

I always defrost my cakes overnight as i had a bad experience when i did not give it long enough, your icing will slide off if this is the case and the only way to salvage is to scapre of and wait, then start again (sorry) if it is not the case i would try to work in a cool (airconditiones) room to avoid the humiduty issues, I have the same problem as i live on the gold coast in australia and some days it just goes wrong-I usually take this as a sign and if i can (obviously we are all on time schedules) I call it a day and try again tomorrow as the more you panick the worse it is goingt o get -even an hour or so is a good break and gives you fresh eyes! if the BC has managed to set (even patchy) i would try to do a fix up job by applying a very light over coat to fill in the patches (I call it a spak and fill like plasterers do on holes in walls hehehhe) as for the color thing scroll work pipped on always disguises little faults as your eye is drawn to that not the actual body of the icing, you could always add a border off some kind too. when my clients don't want the standard ribbon edge i usually do fondant ball 'pearl' borders which you can incorparate your colour scheme, or even a single cyilinder of fondant put through a clay gun looks really classy around the bottom, I would pick the main colour to use in this or you could use one of the colours for each tier. hope this helped??

Thanks adatay. I was able to save the top and middle layer. The bottom layer is the one giving me the most trouble. When I iced, I started with the smallest one first and moved to the bigger ones. I guess the biggest one hadn't thawed enough. I'm rethinking my design and may just do a stacked instead of a tiered. Then the not so good icing would be hid. I'm not real worried about it once it is cut as it is a gift anyways. I just talked with my sister and she said I told you to do something simple. So, it won't bother her. I did the fondant balls and my 4 year old helped. Still need to make more though. So starting to come together. However, I told my DH I don't care to do another wedding cake anytime soon. I really need to learn more about this little hobby of mine to keep these things from occurring.

no matter how much you do or don't know every now and then everything just goes wrong i have had one of those days today when i was told my cake i shipped turned up destroyed and besides wanting to crawl under a rock and die, quit and never look at another cake again i must learn from my mistakes and know that tomorrow is another day things happen we are not making buildings it is cake and does not always do what it is told but live an learn and next time you wont make the same mistake, i am totally self taught and that involved many redo's in my time i just can't stomach (nor anyone else i imagine) when someone else suffers the consequences like my delivery disaster. you on the other hand have it all under control now by the sounds of things! well done to you for not throwing your hands up! there is usually always a way to fix these things! congratulations, would lov eto see it when its finished

Thanks to both of you! I finally finished the cake and cleaned everything up. It isn't my original idea, but it works. However, I was wishy washy about the cake from the beginning as I had trouble with the color scheme and theme. I didn't want anything that screamed Harley, and still had some elegance. I ended up putting it in the refrigerator as I keep my house at 77 degrees which I thought would be too warm for the cake. Hopefully it doesn't sweat too much. Now the real test comes...getting it to the reception and setting up. I will try to post a picture afterwards, but have had trouble uploading pics.

well done you persavered (can't spell!!) and you got there in the end!

Next time this happens, like adatay suggested, pipe some scrollwork on it to hide imperfections (& in the same color as the base color wouldn't be too much contrast & show imperfections there either).

Another tip. When you take out of the fridge you can put the cakes in a cardboard box & the box is suppose to absorb the moisture instead of it beading up on the cake.

When you get can post the pics. It's usually not as bad as WE see it.

Ok, cake pic is posted under my photos. Also, can do a search for harley davidson and you will find it. Sorry, but I tried adding an attachment here, but it didn't work. My mom took the pic from the side which makes the cake look crooked. Plus, the FBCT isn't visible as it is on the second tier. Should have used taller pillars or put it on the bottom. Oh well!

You did a nice job on the cake. I'm sure it was enjoyed by all