I was watching a cake show about 3 or 4 shops working on cakes for people...It was on the food network and I did not catch the title but it just shows how they go about dealing with the ordering to the finished cake.

Anyhow, One couple ordered a five layer square cake with kind of a topsy turvey theme and chocolate roses. The gal doing it was chatting away as she was carving the layers saying that she never measures for a topsy cake and just 'wings' it...well, she carved the bottom layer too deep. She said, oh, oops...and instead of grabbing a new cake (which would have been easy,... they were in a bakery with probably lots of cakes around!)
She just picked up the cake scraps that she just hacked off the cake and mashed them back onto the cake...like one big gross cake ball!!

I could not believe that someone would do this when their company is being featured on t.v....also, I think the couple that ordered the cake was paying big, big bucks for it!!

If I was the bride and groom and saw this I would be upset.

Just wondering if anybody else saw this and what you thought???
Jo

I saw that episode, but can't remember the name of the show.

That bakery should have been ashamed of themselves, offering a product like that. I could see it if it was a very small area that had to be filled, or built up to make a small structure like eyebrows.

Had I paid what those clients did for that cake, and ended up with cake ball filling on top of one of the tiers, I would have immediately demanded a refund, as I would never have served that to a guest.

Theresa

Didn't see that one, but that doesn't surprise me. There are a lot of you tube tutorials for topsy turveys and they are always stuffing scraps here and there....

I know what show you are referring to...It is called Fabulous cakes and I saw the episode you are talking about and thought the same thing...I would be pissed also if that were my cake...There was a thread on in a few months ago when it aired..Many felt the same way.

I didn't see it but really, no, it wouldn't have bothered me.

I pay for taste and the final design. I really don't care how it gets from A to
Z as long as everything was done to follow FDA standards.

When it's all said and done, in the end, it gets cut up and served. Who really cares if the cake piece is still in one piece? I actually prefer crumbs anyway.

I gotta go with aswartzw on this one, personally I wouldn't care, but professionally, I do agree that it is bad business to show that on television where everyone can see the "secrets and tricks". I am sure the cake was beautiful when it was finsihed, but an ounce of prevention is worth a pound of cure!!! Use a template! Its just not that hard to follow a guideline.

I think it was on TLC not Food Network. But anyway, there are a lot of cake people that mix cake scraps and frosting and use it for fillers. Like one lady that uses it Carry Biggers. She tells you about it on one of the Ultimate Cake Challenges. She uses it as a dam.

It doesn't bother me that this is done. It's done all the time in bakeries. They go under the law that nothing is wasted and everything costs money. If a bakery throws out those scraps, then they lose money and they won't be in business for very long. The scraps of cakes are used for all kinds of things in bakeries. I do wonder this....."what do you ladies/gents use your cake scraps for?"

It was Fabulous Cakes on TLC. Yes, I saw the episode. I wouldn't want to have that slice of cake, it wouldn't be appealing to the eye.

i admit that i was shocked that they showed it on tv, but i dont' think there is anything wrong with it. i've often read of bakers using a cake spackel-cake crumbs and bc used to fill gaps and joints. i think it's ingenius! once my husband took a piece of cake off one that i was working on-he thought it was scraps , but it was actually a corner piece on a carved cake! i just filled in the void with the cake spackel. still tastes great and looks great!!

I didn't see it. I agree with PPs, it wouldn't bother me. Toba Garrett was the first one I seen using the mortar (crumbs and icing mixture) (that's not to say that she was the first (there's no way to know that), just that she was the first one I'd seen).

I say, for a business to use such a useful spotlight in such a way would put their reputation at risk...just for a bit of drama on reality tv. Maybe they informed the customer of the incident and that never really went out to them...kwim? like the challenges...for how long (and some still) did we believe that they were actually going to be serving those cakes only to find out that either duplicates were made or other cakes were served from the back. It's a risky thing to have others think you mishandle their foodstuffs, eh?

Now, I have to try this cake spackling with crumbs and icing!

We don't do it and it doesn't particularly bother me, but I'm not the one that paid $1000 for a cake that is going to look like crap when it is cut. From a customer standpoint, I'll bet that most wedding cake shoppers watching that were not impressed with that technique and found it unprofessional.

I am surprised with some of the stuff that companies allow to get on TV. On a recent episode of Amazing Wedding Cakes, the dude Mark from Merci Beacoup said something like "I don't like having to rush cakes but we're busy this week and we do have to rush" when he was working on the pirate ship cake. Seriously? I don't know about you guys but we don't rush wedding cakes. If we are busy, like this week when we have 23 weddings, we pay lots of overtime but a bride that ordered her cake 6-9 months ago isn't getting a rush job on her wedding cake, no way, not from us. And even is a company does rush through cakes so they can take more orders, why would you broadcast that on national TV? Craziness.

I wonder if this is the reason why they only had like 3 or 4 shows, because I have not seen the show again on TLC.

I think it works great especially if you are torting a cake and you have something like an edge break and you need to make it even. What I like to do is if Im making a cake and do my dam of buttercream and I have a spot that needs filling in then I will do this. Im not saying that I do it all over the entire cake but it doesnt hurt to use it for small spots that you need to fix. Buttercream alone sometimes isnt enough and I dont like to add too much sugar to my buttercream to make it too sweet. So this works for me. Its cake and frosting. Its not like Im taking something else and sticking it in there! And if their paying $1000 for a wedding cake, wouldnt you want it to look perfect? Its not like I can just keep baking and baking for little fixes. Im not a big bakery.
I dont think Merci bakes their own cakes. Or from what Ive seen on tv they have never shown them baking the cakes or a baker that is in the backround for that matter. So for them, I think they have to make do with what they have. Now Im not sure, so dont hang me for saying it!!

Ok, I will ask them if they do.

I love them, wish they would spend more time in their shop. Im in love with Mark, hes got a raw talent you dont see very often and when I see him get emotional, I know hes the real deal!! His passion overcomes him and thats what I love about him!

Yes, and he makes you laugh! I loved it when he had the cape on and was acting like a super hero! Too funny! I would love to work in a place like that because they make it fun even though their stressed!

I understand using this to fill in small spots, but it looks like she did this on whole bottom layer. If that was my cake, I would be upset if I cut a cake that I just paid $2,000 for and it was not a 2 layer cake with a filling, but a piece of cake with 1/2 cake and 1/2 smooshed "cake mortar".

Yes I agree. Yes to patching. No to whole tier fillings! Unless thats what the customer requested!

Spackeling... Ive done that since the early 80's didnt know it had a name.

Im not disagreeing with that. Like you said, a mass amount of it would not produce uniform layers but if I have my dam of buttercream already and I have a small dip in cake due to it falling off or something, then Im going to fill it with the mortor of the cake/frosting mix. Its not going to mess up your uniformity and it will prevent a blow out of the filling by sealing it in. But your right, its not a cake filled with a cake ball, its a quick fix for a small problem.
But the way I read the OP she sounded like she was saying she thought it was disgusting all together to use it. I guess I should reread it because I didnt take it the same way you did. Im sorry if I pissed anyone off. I was just stating that Ive seen pro's use this method for their dams and didnt think there was a problem with it to fix minor problems.