My First Cake Disaster/ganache To The Rescue!
Decorating By mbark Updated 15 Aug 2010 , 6:24am by figmentos
Well it finally happened to me too! Just had to share with you CCers who could feel my pain. I had such a pretty 3 tiered wedding cake all ready to go yesterday, used my folks SUV since I had 3 cakes to deliver, popped it into the back and away I went.
Should have made sure the air was blasting back there. When I got to my first delivery, I noticed the cake was starting to slide, the tiers were bulging. I thought I would drop it at a nearby friend's house so it did not have to travel unnecessarily, but I kind of knew what was coming.
When I got there and opened the back, the red flowers on the right side had fallen off and pulled a large chunk of icing with them, and the top tier had slid so much to the right it cracked open. I wanted to panic but knew I needed to keep a cool head and figure it out. I kept thinking, this is someone's wedding cake, it just can't be a disaster!
After my 2nd cake delivery I raced back to pick up the damaged cake, took off all the flowers and the top tier entirely and went home. As you can see, the top tier came apart completely. It was then I realized the issue- fudge filling that was too soft. I questioned it when I was filling the cakes, but thought oh it will be fine. Big lesson learned.
What I ended up doing was completely scraping off all icing & filling from the top tier, used trusty ganache as the filling & reiced. Middle tier went in the fridge to firm up, I thought I could at least salvage that one. Bottom tier I scraped off the icing, saw the top was cracking so used ganache to completely cover the whole darn thing, as cake glue if you will.
Worked like a charm. Reiced, reassembled, and off to the venue I drove only 1/2 hour late. Every bump I cringed thinking it would fall apart but it got there in one piece! What an adrenaline rush! I was really proud that I kept my cool and fixed it though.
Wow, you were so level-headed to use ganache. And, so lucky that the cake was naked and you didn't have any deco to do on the tiers! I love ganache, it's like cement and holds everything together, yet it melts in your mouth - fantastic stuff!
so true! that's the other thing I forgot to say, I was sooo fortunate & glad that it was only ribbon & roses on the cake, I fixed the cake in 1 1/2 hrs (which included whipping up a batch of icing), I would not have had time to do any decorating!
and I just LOVE ganache and was super lucky again to just happen to have some laying around that I could use. It's awesome in so many ways!!
Oh, and did you notice I was so freaked out I did not put the roses on the second tier on the finished cake, wasn't going to risk anything! They all sat on the cakeboard or the top just to be safe.
Great save!
But I have to admit, I'd really like to dive face first into the slid-apart top tier with all that chocolate fudge showing. It looks really yummy!
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