Okay, I was so proud of myself because things were proceeding so smoothly with a wedding cake due tomorrow morning...

I should've known better!

I filled and crumbcoated the two tiers this morning before heading into my day job... leaving them to settle for the day.

All I needed to do this evening was final frost, cover with white fondant (already set to go...), and add a few fondant cutouts.... Or so I thought!

I was just going through my cake calendar and noticed that although my plethora of "to do" lists have me baking and decorating an 8" tier, the actual calendar entry lists a 10" tier! Waaaaaahhhhhhh!

On the plus side... I'm extremely happy that I caught this BEFORE the cake was delivered!

Any thoughts on the best way to blast through the processes of baking a 10" tier, filling, crumbcoating, settling, etc..... in the span of about 3 hours?

Agreed that it's wonderful you caught it before delivery.

Leah_S had a post a while back where she used weights (actually a big tile) on top of the torted layers. This could speed up the settlling part a bit for you. I'll try and find the link for you.

Yikes! All I can say is...start now!

Throw your cake in the freezer to chill...

And hey, my bro and his wife live in your town.

Really, Kitagrl?! Small world, huh?

It's killing me because I still have about 4.5 hours before I get home from my "day job" before I can start baking the 10" tier!

I like the weighting idea... I'll definitely be doing that. For now, I'm just "waiting"!

Someone mentioned placing a floor tile on top of the cake to help it settle.

Okay, phew.... That worked out as well as could be expected. I knew it would be a long night. Just waiting for the layers to cool completely took a while. I didn't bother putting them in the freezer to speed that process as I had other things to keep me busy while I waited for them to cool the old-fashioned way....

Once I had the 10" tier baked, cooled, torted, filled, and crumbcoated, I decided to sleep for a few hours allowing it to settle. I set my alarm for 4am and finished the rest of the cake in the 3 hours prior to heading into my day job....

Crisis averted! The recipient loves the cake and is none the wiser of my tribulations.....

I'll post a photo to my album soon....

Glad you caught it in time to fix it........

I think I would have just baked a 6" cake to make up the servings and made it a deluxe two-tier cake for them at no additional charge. Whipping up a 6 incher is quicker than a new 10".

I already had the 6" tier... The cake was supposed to be a 10" & 6"... I'd made a 6" & 8" by mistake!

But you're right, it would've been a LOT quicker to make a new 6" tier for sure!

Okay, so I finally was able to post a photo of this cake to my album. Here's the link:

http://cakecentral.com/modules.php?name=gallery&file=displayimage&pid=1753219

The cake was apparently well-received... And I know it was delicious because I reused the ill-fated 8" tier at a baby shower yesterday and got to partake of it! Yum!