This has got to be the worst weekend I have ever had!! First, there is the petit fours from he**. I had to make these things 3 times with different frosting recipes. I just could not get them iced where they looked nice. I watched endless videos, etc. but I just do not know what I did. I ended up giving them to my client for free, because they just looked awful.

How do you guys, who do these, get your icing to pour over your cakes where they look neat. I tried using a ladle, then freezing them and dipping them, etc. I am never going to do these again.

Second, I ran out of hi-ratio shortening and went to the cake shop. They are all out and will not get any in until next week. Argg!! Ended up buying the generic brand from Aldi's to get me through this weekend.

Third, I made a 1/4 sheet cake. Used 3 sturdy plastic cake boards. Hobby Lobby had these and I used my coupon. I have done this many times with no problem. Used my BC that I have always used except my I had to use a generic shortening. Would that cause the cracking? I haven't used the generic shortening since my Wilton's courses last year. Picture is below.

Now, I have a full sheet cake due tomorrow. Both cakes have baked well and are cooling. I'm going to ice it and do a simple chocolate transfer in the morning. So I am really hoping that it goes well. I can't take any more cake problems this weekend.

I'm sorry this weekend's cake activities sucked so bad. Hopefully the next cake you do will go easier for you. I know how frustrating that is.

I know how stressful it is to have a bad cake weekend! *hug* Hope tomorrow goes better!

I haven't had a problem with Aldi shortening cracking. However, lately their shortening has been a lot softer which makes my buttercream take a lot longer to crust.
I can't see today's humidity causing that, either. My fondant dummies are melting in this humidity so there's not a crack in sight on them.

Mama Mia, I just noticed you're in Ohio. If you're anywhere near Cleveland, I have some extra Alpine hi-ratio if you're in desperate need to borrow some!

I am so sorry to hear of your cake problems and frustrations. Just keep in mind that everyone has these, and hopefully you're done with them now for the rest of the year.

Thank you everyone!! I really needed the pep talk. Well, I decided that I am going to take a vacation from caking. It's been a very busy few months with orders every weekend since April. My DH is getting tired too. I have the rest of June already booked, but will block out the 4th of July weekend. DH and I are going to take a long weekend somewhere. I need to take a break and give my assistant, dishwasher, etc, a much needed one break too.

I'm right with you. I had a horrible cake weekend too. I let my mother take my brothers three tiered wedding cake to to reception hall because she was arriving earlier than I and she wanted to get it set up. She has done this before with me with no problems. I told her that the cakes needed to be kept cool because it was hot out here on the west coast so what does she do. She leaves them in the car. I arrive to find bubbles forming on the side of my butter cream. Smoothed them out as good as I could and turned the large bubble to the back. I couldn't take it anymore kept staring at the cake. I ended up leaving before the cake cutting. Do you think its just the heat that would cause bubble in butter cream? I usually only have problems with bubbles under fondant. As for the cake in your picture it looks like the board didn't support the weight of the cake in the center. I hot glue two board together for my cakes just to be safe. I had one lady that decided to take my Thomas the train cake inside the party laying acrossed a shopping cart and it buckled in the middle. That will teach them. I told them flat surface. LOL. Now next weeks cake is scaring me. UGH!

I can see it slightly in the photo but truthfully your sheet cake look fine. BC sometimes does cracks like that. I bet your customer probably didn't notice. Cake is cute.

I thought it was just me, I had a terrible cake weekend also, I did a three tier wedding cake for an outdoor reception, went to setup the cake and there were flies everywhere. I felt upset because I did all that work and flies were landing all over the cake and no one seemed to care. Not to mention the bride sent an email telling me to deliver by 3:45, then someone called me at 3:30 asking where are you with the cake the bride is also most here. WHen I got there I showed the lady that called the email and she stated oh you know she's been under so much stress with
the wedding. I was thinking I have been under so much stress with this camo wedding cake. And oh, the bride stated on the contact that the cake should be delivered by 4:30.

I delivered a cake this morning to the customer's husband about an hour later, the wife sends me an email saying how disappointed she was with the cake. The cake did not look like the picture because the Dora on my cake had flat eyes instead of round eyes and the letters were not pink which is her daughter's favorite color. FIrst of all how was I suppose to know her daughter's favorite color and the eyes, I did not know what to think other than this chic is too picky.

Feels good to get that out.

My horrible cake weekend was LAST weekend - but I won't go into that.

Did you notice that Aldi's has reformulated it's shortening - it's now no trans fat It used to be in a plastic tub but now is in a paper/foil tub - that may be why it is softer. The Walmart store brand still shows 3 grams trans fat in it's vegetable shortening so I bought some of that. I've just made some icing with the new Aldi's formula, so we'll see how that goes - will use it soon as I am making a cake for my business partner's dad - he is vegan so both the cake and the icing should be interesting - no eggs, no butter, no dairy.

I'm right with you I have a post here as well I have a cake due tomorrow and I trid for the first time the MMF which I love the taste but I have specks in it dont know if it can be saved or not and I made buttercream icing and it wont crust so I know what you mean

yes, the brand of shortening makes a difference. the hi-ratio sweetex does not have that result. toedna told me that, and she was right.

Man! I had a bad weekend too! I thought it was just me
I made a 3 tier 'wonky' graduation cake- and apparently the bottom tier was a little wonkier than the rest and it fell over in the car. ugh. I know what my problems were so hopefully that keeps it from happening again. I also got lost while transporting my 4 tier stenciled wedding cake 30 miles away, my AC is broken in my car and it was 80+ degrees and HUMID as all get out. So by the time I got there both myself and the cake were nice and sweaty.

Just thought I would join in

Well, the petits fours have taught you an invaluable lesson: never take an order for something that you've not perfected.

Guess it was just a sucky weekend! Friday it was so humid here I could NOT get the buttercream to crust so I could Viva smooth it out. It literally took me ALL day to do a simple wedding cake. The 3D handbag was done on Thursday and, thank goodness, no bubbles but on the way to deliver these cakes, two hours away, the heat and humidity (even in the air conditioned car) made the handles come up (thank goodness there was bunched up plastic under the handles so they didn't crash and I was able to reattach them before presentation) and the wedding cake started to MELT! There is a REASON I don't offer buttercream after May 15th and I was kicking my own butt for agreeing to go against my own rule as I watched one quarter sized part of the cake simply slide off the side and hit the board! UGH! But this was a re-creation of their wedding cake and it had to be buttercream so I gave in. So I get to the site and the client says "Oh, man, I knew I shouldn't go for buttercream this time of year but I really wanted this for my husband! HERE, we'll make it work" and proceeded to come up with flowers to help me hide the repaired mark and we presented it to a very happy man and the guests. So I got lucky and it worked out but it taught me to never ever ever go against my own rules and do NOT make a buttercream cake after May 15th no matter what the "cause".

So yuup...sucky weekend!

Cat

ps...your cake looks wonderful!