So I had to do a cake that is four letters of the kid's name, done in buttercream, like sports balls. I had the WORST trouble with this cake! Its done, but I think its awfully tacky. I had trouble making it look neat. Plus by the time each letter was 10 servings (actually I think I ended up with 15 each, it was very hard to judge servings while cutting letters out) this cake is HUGE, its on an entire sheet of foamcore! And now today it got really humid and it kinda snuck up on me, so my previously cold cakes which are now assembled on the foamcore and sitting out, started sweating SO bad that it looks like I misted them with a spray bottle! *sigh* I shut the house and turned on the air, hopefully it will be dry by tomorrow morning and no spotting on the brightly colored icing.

To add insult upon injury, I also was working on a pretty fondant cake with gumpaste flowers (that I ordered to save time) and some other delicate girly stuff, and it looks so pretty (except the straps are coming off the shoes, I have them propped up with paper towel, hope the royal icing gets nice and hard by pickup time tomorrow am!!!) and other than that issue, the cake is so pretty and my buttercream cake is so UGLY I can't believe the same person made them!

Oh yeah and as much as I cleaned my counter, and cleaned and cleaned, and cleaned my rolling pin...I can NOT keep perfectly white fondant from showing microscopic pieces of dust and fiber here and there. WOW its so annoying.

One more cake tomorrow...I hope it goes smoothly! Its an interesting and unique design I'm supposed to be copying, so we'll see.... Seems like, though, when a cake week has technical difficulties, those often apply to the ENTIRE weekend, so I'm hoping that isn't the case.

This may sound rude, I don't mean it to sound rude, but have you checked your air filter. Sometimes between the heat and then going to a/c the vents just pick up everything. Maybe that is all that you need. I just changed mine and the dust in the house has been so much better. HTH

your work is beautiful so I doubt it is as bad as you say. We are often our own worst critics. Tomorrow is another day and I am sure things will look better. Good luck

That's a good idea, maybe I'll check the air filter. We changed it at the beginning of winter but then that's a whole season ago.... Its not a TON of dust on the cake of course, but on white you can see each and every little tiny speck.

And yeah my buttercream cake, there is a reason its not in my photo album. haha.

We own a home maintenance/remodel company that includes heating & air - we recommend that you change your filter monthly if you use the 1" type, every 4-6 months if you use the 5" media filters. Makes a big difference, I promise you!

Hmmm our house does tend to get a bit dusty...and of course I'm too busy with four boys and cakes to keep up on it all the time....maybe its the filters.

Isn't so silly that something so simple you don't usually think about causes so much grief with cakes? I am glad I am not the only one who has issues with it. Our house is back up to a creek and the dust is awful. We change our frequently now we now the problem. Even those eletrostatic 6 month types don't last a full month. We are getting some of the windows replaced and that should help too. If you have ceiling fans, turn them off and look at them as well. My DD decided to swith hers without thinking too much about it. The dust worms that came off where horrible. (she is 17 and does her own room)

I need to do that myself. I had tiny little dust particles everywhere. I left my fondant pieces out to dry and they had dust on them. ICK!

Since my son has been diagnosed with asthma, we have to change the filters and get the allergy ones, hopefully they'll cut back on all this junk in the air!