Everything That Could Go Wrong, Did.
Decorating By selfconclusion12 Updated 22 May 2010 , 1:45am by JanH
The only thing I might do is add a bit more buttercream to the top tier to level it out. Make your pearl border straighter. Looks like all you'd have to do is push a few of them in more to make a straighter line. Have you pearl dusted or lustre dusted anything? If not, you might add a little to add some sheen. I agree with adding something like sanding sugar...or even crushed graham cracker crumbs. We used that for all our beach-y cakes. Looks like sand and adds a great taste to the buttercream without too much sugar.
You did good and I agree with the others that say DO NOT APOLOGIZE or offer a discount. You're already not getting anything as it is! The bride is getting a bargain and as much as you've sweated and worked over it, you've got nothing to apologize for. Good luck! 
Just because the cake is cheap doesn't mean it's okay to look the way it does 
$95 or $9500 it doesn't make a difference when you except the responsibility of making someone's wedding cake it should look it's best.
If the bride complains then it would be a valid complaint, sorry to be harsh but the cake is not up to par with what a wedding cake should be.
I would take it apart, scrape the icing off, make a new batch re-ice and chill before you stack to avoid bumps and what not.
If you don't have the time to do that at least take all the shells off and cover the whole thing in sanding sugar like Leah_s suggested.
There is a huge difference in frosting a cake on purpose to look rustic and wavy and just being a unsmooth icing job.
Everyone messes up, it happens but it's how you fix it that matters.
If the bride doesn't like it are you just going to tell her to sleep on it and take pics in a different light?
Sorry again to be harsh but nobody seems to want tell you the truth.
i agree. free or $1,000, this is unaccepable.
why do most people think this is ok? i mean I know we all start somewhere, but sloppy looking wedding cakes belong in one place. it's called cakewrecks. You need more practise before agreeing to be part of someones dream day. 
I agree that it's not the best but it's salvageable. Surely the bride knew who she was asking to do her cake--and her level of expertise. $95 for a wedding cake is not much. I hope her expectations don't exceed reality here. If it had been me, I would have taken the whole thing apart and worked on the butter cream until it was smooth. (by the way I have a cheap 6 inch rubber squeegee I got at Walmart that works great). She did have time if it wasn't to be delivered until the next day. But apparently she chose not to so you've got to work with what you've got. Smooth and level the top, straighten the pearl borders between tiers and add the crushed graham crackers or brown sugar. Another thing I'd do too is add a ribbon around the sides of the cake board. Then I think I'd take this as a lesson on what not to do next time. Including taking a wedding cake order until I was confident in my abilities. But she worked hard, did her best and for $95 I think the bride is getting what she paid for.
I think it looks good, for $95 they got a great cake. Not everyone expects a Thousand dollar cake. The bride had a budget and she should be happy with it.
I get sick of people putting others down. We all start some where. I am doing a 3 tier cake tonight for a wedding and I tell my brides that I am not a professional, but my cakes taste better and look ok. I show them pictures and have them try a sample. Most people today don't bake and are happy to have a home made cake with great flavor that looks good.
LIGHT--I dont see anyone being mean i see people not particpitating in smoke blowing. big difference.
I think that I'd try to level out the top tier by adding more buttercream, too. You might want to make some more coral by putting about 1/4 cup of royal icing into a 2-cup glass measuring cup and microwaving it. Let it cool off before you use it, but it will break into pieces and it looks like the more 3-D porous-looking coral. You could use it to disguise some of the more uneven edges. Brown sugar to make sand is also something that you should try to incorporate, since that could help to disguise the edges, too.
I get sick of people putting others down. We all start some where.
Since when is honesty putting someone down? It doesn't help anyone if everyone is a cheerleader but no one is willing to tell the truth.
As for starting somewhere, that's what practice cakes are for. Once you start selling cakes, those cakes have to be perfect or you won't be selling cakes for long. You don't practice on customers. That's just bad business, plain and simple. If you aren't at the point where you can turn out perfect cakes every time, then you aren't ready to be selling cakes. No one wants to be known as the person who does shoddy work.
And I understand that everyone can have a bad day. But that's where the professionals suck it up, and in the words of the Tim Gunn, "make it work." Whether than means you stay up all night and rebake cake, make new batches of icing, whatever it takes to make it right. Heck, I do that for the cakes I make for friends and family....and those are free!
So I guess if people have a small budget they should be happy with what ever messy little cake they can get slapped together?
I've made 95$ cakes and I can guarantee you they were every bit as tasty and beautifully decorated as a 950$ cake.
I have standards, standards which I apply to every single baked good that I put my name behind.
Sorry no way even if this was a free cake it would be the best.
Whatever happened to having personal standards?
Are those like so last year or something?
I am not saying that you get what you pay for...not at all. I just am saying that because your better than someone else, don't be mean about it. I am learning everyday. I don't advertise my cakes, people see them and ask me to do a cake for them. No one is perfect, and yes some days it seems the cake isn't working out right.
Yes, try to fix it or redo it. But I thought the cake looked ok from the picture...perfect, no, but it was better than most could do.
What the hell is wrong with you butt kissing hacks? How the hell do you honestly feel right supporting a cake like this? Standards people! Like a few have mentioned before. This is the most rainbowlicious, puppy kissing, eye lash batting, hack filled craptastic forum on earth. Do you have such disrepect for your own profession as to suggest that this cake is acceptable at someone's wedding? Do you really want muggles out there thinking "this is okay?" And it's perfectly fine because it was only $95?
This place is a disgrace to the profession of cake decorating.
I think this is very harsh and very uncalled for. There is something that is called constructive criticism that we look for when we are starting out. She never said this cake was perfect, and nobody here said it was either. I am no professional and I have made 2 wedding cakes for friends. They are very far from being perfect, but since my friends could not afford to have a professional cake done, they asked me to make them. They were so happy, despite the flaws, because they knew they would never get such a yummy tasting cake to feed all their guests with their budgets.
Wow, be straight and tell us what you really feel! I don't know about you, but I've seen some horrendous wedding cakes for 3 times the price! And it's true, a wedding cake should not suffer just because it's cheaper--however this individual should not be raked over the coals because her efforts were less than stellar. She obviously was not happy with her end product...but then you have no idea what the bride is expecting! I worked at a bakery where sometimes (not often) a few of the cakes that went out were not up to our usual standards...or at least what I thought our standards were...yet the customers were delighted!
This person was seeking help in making her cake right. I think there were plenty of good ideas to help her and I think she has nothing to be ashamed of. Until the bride issues a complaint, then there's no reason for her to blurt out an apology. It may be just what the bride wants. She may not be expecting any more than what she is getting. And while you and I know this is not the best looking cake in the world, let's wait and see what finally happened before passing judgment or maintaining a holier- than- thou attitude towards cake decorating. We're not all Kerry Vincent. Most people here are doing this for fun as well as money. Lighten up.
What about taking off the decorations. smoothing and chilling the buttercream and covering with fondant?
Then edit the shells/coral and add a pretty little pearl piping. Try a soft white fondant. I would dust some of the white shells with a really light touch of pink dust.
Sometimes when we panic we lose site of solutions. It is better to focus on solutions and not throwing ourselves under the bus.
I don't believe that anyone on CC is a disingenous pleaser - not all communities such as CC are a "fit" for everyone. Hopefully you will find a more suitable forum. As for your vocabulary - http://www.vocabulary.com/
By looking at the OP's pics, it is obvious that she is a beginner. So, if a bride hires a beginner, and wants to pay beginner fees, she is going to get a beginner cake. The cake posted is not, by any means horrendous. But if the bride is pissed, she should've hired someone with more experience and a more extensive portfolio. Quite frankly, I think the suggestion of fixing the top will help and there won't be any issues.
Wow, okay the cake was bad, but you all have gone way to far. Thanks very much for nothing. Every post I post in gets all rude. I am not posting here anymore. Thanks for making me feel like a complete failure!
By looking at the OP's pics, it is obvious that she is a beginner. So, if a bride hires a beginner, and wants to pay beginner fees, she is going to get a beginner cake. The cake posted is not, by any means horrendous. But if the bride is pissed, she should've hired someone with more experience and a more extensive portfolio. Quite frankly, I think the suggestion of fixing the top will help and there won't be any issues.
Beginners shouldn't be selling their cakes.
Beginners should be practicing until they are no longer beginners.
Would you hire a beginner to paint you house and be okay with the fact that they slopped paint all over the place, used the wrong paint and didn't trim anything in, just because they were a beginner?
Wow, okay the cake was bad, but you all have gone way to far. Thanks very much for nothing. Every post I post in gets all rude. I am not posting here anymore. Thanks for making me feel like a complete failure!
Before you feel like a complete failure, I think you should read the majority of people who wanted to help you and encourage you. There were only a few who I think wanted you to make you feel worse than you did. There were some good ideas to help with your cake and I hope you took the advice. If not, then well, that's your choice. No one wants to see someone fail...it's just cake for God's sake! You worked hard. Crap happens. Don't let the few who said some lousy things discourage you. Cakes are fun! Learn from your mistakes and go on. It may seem like the worst thing ever now, but it's not. So let us know what happened. I hope it worked out well for you.
It's so so sad when people are not helpful and HONEST ast the same time. And then why ask for honest opinions if really you just wanted to be told what you wanted to hear. I don't think people would have gotten so extreme with the comments if everyone had just told the OP the truth. That she needed to fix the cake. Beginner, old timer, she got paid, period. My first cake that was SOLD did not look like that. And thats what it comes down to. It was sold...unless you really want to earn the reputation of you "get what you paid for" and there for can sell a bad cake, cause it was cheap.
I am not a beginner. I use to work in a bakery. I was just having trouble with THIS cake, and that is why I posted in the cake wrecks forum FOR HELP. Honesty is GREAT, but being down right rude is not. I would love to see some of your cakes. I am sure I can find flaws in them to. No one is perfect. This is what I hate about the decorating world. Everyone thinks they are better than you.
Honestly it doesn't look like a cake wreck to me at all. The top looks a little uneven but I'm assuming there may be some sort of topper? Is this a wedding cake? That would take care of that problem. Maybe some brown sugar sand around the bottom under the starfish/sea shells would distract the eye a bit and make you look down there. Gosh - gotta be careful though not to go too crazy making "fixes". Really - it's not bad! Call her over and see what she thinks. I agree - 95 is a steal anyway...
to the op..........the cake is far from "slapped together" looking, I think it's a beautiful cake! I think some of the coral in the original photos looked like pieces had broken off (but then again coral in nature isn't perfectly symmetrical I'm just fussy like that), I really was being honest when saying I liked the textured look of the icing...I prefer that over a seemlessly smooth cake when it's a beach themed cake.
I'm sure the bride was thrilled with it and probably realizes she got a steal for $95! That would have been a steal for a sheetcake w/ those shells on it!
Wow, okay the cake was bad, but you all have gone way to far. Thanks very much for nothing. Every post I post in gets all rude. I am not posting here anymore. Thanks for making me feel like a complete failure!
The couple of really neg. comments came from people with few posts and NO pictures, so take those comments with a grain of salt, please. I think most people (reg. members) were trying to be helpful and supportive.
By looking at the OP's pics, it is obvious that she is a beginner. So, if a bride hires a beginner, and wants to pay beginner fees, she is going to get a beginner cake. The cake posted is not, by any means horrendous. But if the bride is pissed, she should've hired someone with more experience and a more extensive portfolio. Quite frankly, I think the suggestion of fixing the top will help and there won't be any issues.
Beginners shouldn't be selling their cakes.
Beginners should be practicing until they are no longer beginners.
Would you hire a beginner to paint you house and be okay with the fact that they slopped paint all over the place, used the wrong paint and didn't trim anything in, just because they were a beginner?
Absolutely not! THAT is exaxctly why I would want not hire a beginner to do things for me, that I want to get done right. I would expect to see credentials, photos of past work, recommendations to make a good consumer decision. If someone says that they are going to charge me 100.00 to paint, and I already have quotes, for triple that. I would expect that there be a catch.
She is a beginner. She is doing a fantastic job. Should she sell cakes now? Probably not. She needs to decide weather she will again bit off more than she can handle. In this case she is already commited. That is what we are dealing with, not the should shes or shouldn't shes.
BUT.. did the bride know her expertice, or lack there of, when she was approached to make a cake? I do not know the answer, but the bride SHOULD have known the level of expertice. And if she didn't. Shame on her, and too bad. Good deals that are too good to be true, probably are. You get what you pay for. Cheap Cake, Cheap Paint, cheap cars, cheap houses, cheap shoes are CHEAP for a reson, not just because someone is feeling generous.
I am not a beginner. I use to work in a bakery. I was just having trouble with THIS cake, and that is why I posted in the cake wrecks forum FOR HELP. Honesty is GREAT, but being down right rude is not. I would love to see some of your cakes. I am sure I can find flaws in them to. No one is perfect. This is what I hate about the decorating world. Everyone thinks they are better than you.
Forgive me for thinking you were a beginner. I made the assumption based on the # of photos posted.
Question at hand: You are being too critical of yourself, just as others have stated. Level off the top a bit, clean it up as much as you can, and call it a day. It is absolutely NOT a cake wreck of any kind. Deliver the cake, take a deep breath and move on to the next one.
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