Hi There,

I just finished decorating a cake, was soooo proud of it. Well still am, but.. LOL. I just noticed a giant puffed out area toward the bottom of the cake! I thought maybe i didn't smooth my icing properly but I then thought to myself, nah, I know it was straight and smooth. I lightly touched the area and it feels like a bubble! Even the area where my filling is, it seems like there are bubbles everywhere! I have made a few cakes before and I have never had this happen! I mean, it is very rainy here, and I have not really had to do a cake in this kind of weather, could this be part of the problem? What else would cause this? I did allow my cake to settle, and it looked great up until a little while ago. I was going to send it in to my husbands job but now I am embarrassed to! Does anyone have any tips on how to prevent this? Thanks.

that's the air.... you probably didn't do debi's new trick... (it's a thread... do a search on it) after you tort and fill your cake... you need to put some weight on top and let it rest a few hours so that all the air trapped between the filling and the cake can escape....

hth

Is this a fondant cake or a buttercream cake?

Oh stupid me! Sorry, yes, a buttercream cake! I did do the weight thing, after reading the thread the other day. And to be honest, it was the first time I did that, and it was the first time I ever got a blowout. I have gotten them on fondant cakes before, but never buttercream! I don't think I will do the weight thing again. I did try searching for that weight advice again, but couldn't find the thread. I am at a loss. I def. won't try the weight again though.

That happened to me not too long ago and we figured out it was from using the new 0-trans fat Crisco (which I normally don't use.) I talked with others and that's a big problem with it. The funny thing is that it took the crumb coat and frosting right off the cake!

I have never encountered air bubbles in bc. I can't understand why there would be big enough air bubbled to cause a blow out...are you using the wisk attachment to beat your bc? I never use anything but the whip attachment, and I try not to over beat it so as not to pull air into the bc. hth

I use shortening with Trans Fat, not Hi Ratio, but a store brand. Everything is the same as it has always been ingredient wise. I use the flat paddle. I have never gotten a bubble before with buttercream either. At first I thought it was a mound I had forgotten to smooth! But when I pressed it, I could feel that there was air underneath. There is also now a line of demarcation from where the filling is, all the way down to the bottom of the cake, where there are pockets of air! Funny thing is, I tried the weight trick just to see if there was anything different ( don't know why, I never had bulge or air bubbles, but thought, what the hell). Big mistake! My lovely cake is ruined! Oh well, ya live and you learn. I wouldn't do that again. If it ain't broke don't fix it, should have listened to that advice. I never had a problem before today. I thought maybe the weather was a factor, but now think it is the weight because it is really the only new thing in the equation.

Thats what it sounds like, your so right, if it aint broke don't fix it lol. My husband gets so mad at me when I do something perfect and then decide to change it up and its no longer perfect haha.......and you know no matter how old you get you will always to things like that. Your not alone.

I commonly have this problem. Drives me crazy! Funny thing is, I've never had this happen with fondant, just bc. I work late into the night a lot so go to bed looking at a great cake just to get up the next day to a cake with a blow out and the more you try to fix it, the worse it gets! Wish I had the solution!

Here is the thread.... I don't think it's the BC... and I also don't think it's crisco on your bc.... when you get a large bubble... it's trapped air... a lot of us here have learned this the hard way... including me...
and also under How to... there is another thread called Everything you need to know about buttercream... it has a lot of helpful info....
hth

http://cakecentral.com/cake-decorating-ftopict-633571-newest.html+trick

It happened to me to { buttercream cake never fondant } But here is why I think it happened to me , the first time I didnt use plastic wilton dowels , I didnt have the right support so it put alittle stress on the bottome layer and it bubbled out - last weekn I made a three tier wedding cake , my little boy was in and out of the litchen and well I forgot to put the plastic dowel on the bottome , the cake held up just fine but it bubbled up on one side { I made that the back lol But yes I got busy and messed up and those times I really think that is why it bubbled out on me {it's a wierd thing I know ans you cannot fix it }

Well I have never had this happen, and I sure hope it stays that way. This is weird. Although I use a differnt butter cream...I kind of borrowed Sugarshacks idea of the warm creamer with my own recipe, and I love it....

Leah_s newest "trick" thread:

http://cakecentral.com/cake-decorating-ftopict-633571-.html

HTH

so is this what you did this time and had all the trouble? I must just be lucky so far not to have this happen I guess, but I am going to keep doing what I always do...try and frost it so it does not bulge

I know is not the buttercream. And quite honestly is a big question mark in my book..
We worked with high ratio and some weeks the bubbles appeared and other weeks they where in all the cakes.

Edna

Yeah, I have used the same buttercream recipe since I started doing cakes. All the cakes in my gallery have been done with the same buttercream recipe. I have done one or two cakes when it has been raining and the only real problem I encountered with those was the cake didn't crust completely. This one crusted ok, not great. I don't know how adding the weight to it could have adversely affected the cake, but it is the only new thing I did. I just felt dejected cause I was happy with my little cake! LOL! It is the one in my gallery with all the pastel buttercream roses on it, prob. the first one on there, if you look at the bottom left, you can see a bulge. The funny thing is, there was an even bigger bubble in the back and little ones all around the middle. I guess all i can do is chalk it up to a bad day, but I am so worried it will happen again. I have a few cakes coming up in the next month and I am hoping all goes well.

I also had this happen to me recently, and I didn't use the weight trick. I just let my cake settle over night. My theory is that I didn't even the outside edges, like Sharon (Sugarshack) suggests to do. So since it's uneven along the outside, pockets of air form in there, and then blow out the buttercream. I was so sad when I saw my smoothest cake ever have a large crack down the side from an air bubble. And then when I added my fondant, I discovered there were more air bubbles all over. And like a previous poster mentioned, it took my beautiful crumb coat right off. So on my next cake, I'm going to make sure to 1)put a frosting dam on the outside of my filling, 2)weight it to make sure it levels properly, 3)make sure the outside edges are nicely vertically smooth, then 4)crumbcoat. Crossing my fingers that this helps me.

HTH you too.

Thanks. Yeah, I hope it doesn't happen again too! I have my daughters birthday and Communion coming up and now I feel insecure in my ability to ice! Which was the one thing I thought I had down! Oh well! Thank you all for your tips.

I just had that happen this past weekend with a wedding cake.......as I was putting the sps plates into the cakes and giving a good push down I saw bubbles starting to pop out the sides of the cake!!!!! I had a diamond impression in the cake too!

I just took my exacto knife and cut a slit in the bubble and gently patted the icing back with my fondant smoother, worked perfectly!

You would have never known anything had happened! Oh and I did weigh the cake down for about 4 hrs. after filling with a wooden cutting board.........sometimes I never have this trouble (even without weighting the cake) and other times I do have this trouble (even WITH weighting the cake).........it's like a freak occurance!!!

every few months i have this. i have done nothing different each time it just happens. there is nothing you can do about it and it looks awful with crusting butter cream. first thing i do when i get up in the morning is check my cakes for this.

I wonder if the weather has something to do with it!! Seems like for me it happens more when it's spring/summer than it does in the fall/winter seasons!

I had the air bubble thing happen with cream cheese frosting once- never did figure out why. I very carefully poked sideways with a toothpick or a thin wire, hoping to get some of the air out. I think it may have helped a bit but not entirely. They say necessity is the mother of invention. For me that ultimately meant that there was a flower there