Cake Was Sagging!

Decorating By EvArt Updated 4 Oct 2010 , 4:00am by EvArt

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EvArt Posted 3 Oct 2010 , 7:46pm
post #1 of 5

icon_sad.gif Like all of us who are making cakes, I am a perfectionist. I want it to be as perfect as possible.
I was asked to do a Rock-roll themed birthday cake for a young man. I had recently made a guitar cake for his sister a month prior so I had to think up something else. I went with the drums. 3 drums - 2-6" one single layer and one doubled; 1 - 9" double layered. All covered in MMF. And the help of my hubby who has ideas of his own!! lol

MY original design was to have all three drums laying down and close together which would have been a breeze, but noooooo, hubby insisted on the Bass drum sitting on it's side! I've never tried to sit a cake on it's side. Especially a round! And I strive to make a deliciously moist cake which I did. And before I even got started decorating it, it was already sagging. My cake wasn't sturdy enough for this type of construction. We ended up having to rearrange the cakes so that the two smaller cakes were hiding and supporting the larger Bass drum.

I fretted over charging the customer full price for it because I was so upset about it. But when we delivered the cake and the customer saw it, she raved about it. She went ahead and paid full price on it and I could hear my friend in my head (she used to decorate cakes in ancient times) "The customer doesn't see the flaws, they only see the beauty!!" Made feel a little bit better.

But for future cakes - anyone have tips that will help me avoid this mistake in the future?
(FYI- the cake was a Duncan Hynes Devils food made using 1/2 a box instant pudding and an extra egg)

4 replies
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myslady Posted 3 Oct 2010 , 7:56pm
post #2 of 5

A good support system and a denser cake. You should be able to use the whole box of pudding with the mix also.

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Texas_Rose Posted 3 Oct 2010 , 7:58pm
post #3 of 5

Awesome painting on the cake!

So you just stood it up on its side, no boards/dowels inside? That's why it started sagging. I think any cake would do that.

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DianeLM Posted 3 Oct 2010 , 8:07pm
post #4 of 5

That's a great looking cake!

In the future, I'd suggest stacking horizontal layers, then cutting them into a round shape, as I did on this cake http://cakecentral.com/modules.php?name=gallery&file=displayimage&pid=90964

Just place a round template on each side of the stacked cake and carve. The tire on my cake was divided by a board and dowels into what was essentially a 2-tier cake.

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EvArt Posted 4 Oct 2010 , 4:00am
post #5 of 5

Myslady - Using even the 1/2 box of chocolate pudding mix in this devils food cake made the richest moistest cake I've ever had!! And the chocolate pudding made it an even stronger chocolate flavor. Everyone laved the cake itself. My family couldn't stay out of the scraps!
Texas-rose - I figure this one was definitely a live and learn cake. And yes, the hand painting was fun to do. Had an older friend sitting there with me and I asked her if she had ever hand painted a cake before, she said no, that she was amazed at how things have changed so much. lol

DianeLM - I didn't even think of that!! Thank you that's a great solution to my problem! And you still separated it with a board and dowels? I will remember this for next time. Thank you very much for the tip.

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