I decorated the cake last night and when I woke up this is what I found. Please tell me what to do! My cake is due in two hours. It is a crusting buttercream made with half shortening and half butter.

Thank you

Try misting it with a tiny bit of water, waiting a couple of minutes and smoothing. If there's too much icing, you have to mist, wait a couple of minutes, scrape off the excess, let crust, and smooth.

Good luck! I had my own disaster this morning.

Oh no...so sorry. I don't have any suggestions but wanted to show my support. If nothing else you can turn it to the back or add more flowers!

if you haven't already misted it, i would first try either the viva paper towel method (can also be done with computer paper if you don't have any paper towels) or the Melvira method (using the high density roller) It will still have little cracks, but smoothing it back out should do the trick.

I wouldn't mist with water. Like leily said I'd use the viva method to smooth it out. How thick is your cakeboard? It looks like your support may not be sturdy enough. Also how thick is your layer of icing? Looks like a very pretty cake BTW...

That is just an air bubble, take a toothpick make a hole so the air goes out and then with viva paper and a smoother or your hands push it back in place. Fill the hole with some buttercream.
Edna

This just happened to me also. I popped it with a toothepick and added a little icing and smoothed the best I could. Why does this happen?? Twice now this happened to me. This time with cream cheese icing.

Thanks to all for your great help. I decided to "pop" the air bubble with a toothpick but could not smooth it or add buttercream to conceal the error since I had decorations on top of some of the air bubbles. I just added more decorations to hide the error! The client was happy.

Again, thank you!

How do you smooth it once it's crusted? When I've tried that, it cracks that area and the area around it. That's why I suggested misting with water as it's what I have to do to uncrust (is that a word?) it so I can get it smooth again.

I'm not arguing, I'm trying to learn.

Maybe my cake bubbles happen to long after crusting or my recipe crusts too much. I know that after a certain point, I can't touch it or the while area I touch will crack. If too much time lapses between smoothing after crusting and covering with fondant, I know I have to mist the cake or the fondant won't stick. I seem to have sorts of problems that no one else has.

I dont think there is nothing wrong with misitng it if it works for you, thats the beauty of cake decorating, you do what works for you.
Edna