I'm making a "yoga"-themed cake for a friend's surprise birthday party tomorrow. She's an instructor at a yoga studio and everybody has gone through tremendous trouble to set this up for her, complete with balloon drop and celebrity appearances, heehee.

Well, I was planning on painting my white-fondant-covered cakes red, to make them look crudely tinted/pigmented, and then free-handing on a henna pattern on top of that, and adding a few small gumpaste decorations (lotus flower petals with several yoga poses painted onto themm and a topper).

So I stacked my three tiers ... not the most perfect job I've ever done, but overall quite acceptable and perfectly adequate. I gave it a quick coat of vodka mixed with my Americolor red, and got just the effect I wanted.

But I guess that, between that coat and the "henna" pattern I've been painting on for the last few hours, I haven't given the stuff time to dry, and it seems to be softening all my fondant and making it all sag ... it looks HORRIBLE! I'm so stinking exasperated!!!! ARGH!!!!

All I can think of doing is walking away from it now and letting it dry for the night, and then coming back tomorrow morning to see what I ca fix with my gumpaste decorations. I'll likely have to change the entire design to make it work quite right .... SO FRUSTRATING!!! Anyhow!

Thanks for letting me vent .... fuming right now ....

sorry its all going off plan! i think you are right to walk away, hopefu;;y things will b better, and you can think more creatively too!
xx

im feeling your pain. i just posted in cake disaters.
((((hug))))) to you! hopefully you will wake up well rested and ready to move on with your cake.

I hope it got better with time and that no family members actually did get punched!!!

The bulges are terrible! It's like the fondant got softened and slumped down at the base of all the cakes, not just the bottom two (I had allowed plenty of time for it to settle, it's not actual bulging ... just slumping!). Since the fondant is dry now, there's no way to let the air pockets out, so I've been covering them with my "petals" with the yoga positions painted on. And lots of buttercream bead borders. But no, JGMB, nobody's gotten punched ... yet

Okay ... it's done. Here's the end result ...

http://cakecentral.com/modules.php?name=gallery&file=displayimage&pid=1527753

Thanks for the supportive words of encouragement.

Here I was expecting a total wreck and it turned out great!

Your friend is going to love it because you made it! Great Recovery

Yes, it turned out just lovely!!!!

obviously you have a good grasp on "cake yoga"

egads -- all the detail!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! and those itty bitty pearls!!!!!!!!!!! I can even tell what the positions are! and the Hindi.....

YDG! RG!

LOL!!! Thanks for the feedback, guys! I look so stinking frazzled right now, I have to go clean up if I want to look halfway decent for my friend's party. But Doug ... I have to ask (and hence show how out of touch I am with anything remotely "cool") ... What does "RG" mean?

ydg! rg! = ya dun gud! real gud! (said in a deeeep south brooklyn accent)

LOL!!!! Awesome! I just said it out loud to make sure I had the accent quite right ...

Your cake looks good, but if baking makes you want to 'punch someone', then maybe you need to find something else to do.

Oh, it is not that bad! Very original design, and you did a great job.

Cakepro, LOL! What if doing yoga makes me want to bake cakes ... THEN what?!

That would be a vicious circle indeed. I would suggest pharmaceuticals. LOL

Great recovery!

Glad you didn't punch anyone

Jen