My Shopping Bag Cake Fell Apart....any Suggestions?

Decorating By Alwayzmakincake Updated 13 Feb 2011 , 11:50pm by Alwayzmakincake

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Alwayzmakincake Posted 13 Feb 2011 , 2:15pm
post #1 of 5

So I wanted to make a shopping bag cake for my mom. I used Wilton fondant and made panels ahead of time. I carved the panels on Thursday night and used them Saturday morning.

I made theree 9x13 cakes and cut them in half. The filling I was using was marshmallow cream cheese. The cakes started moving around when I stacked them. The MM cream starting seeping out the sides. Disaster! I wound up taking most of the filling out.

Then I frosted the cake in buttercream and attached the panels. So far so good, except I was off with the size of the panels. The fronts were too wide and the sides were too short. How do I figure the correct sizes?

Then I used royal icing to try to smooth the lines on the sides. Not great. Didn't stick and kept moving.

Then the worst of it.....the fondant panels fell off of the cake. The end! I was SO upset. I want to master this shopping bag cake. Do any of you have any suggestions?

I tried to add the picture, and I followed all the directions, but it doesn't attach it.
Thank you so much.

Michele

4 replies
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cakegirl1973 Posted 13 Feb 2011 , 2:30pm
post #2 of 5

I just read a thread that said to freeze the fondant panels for 10 minutes before applying. Maybe that would help to adhere it to the cake more securely.

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Bskinne Posted 13 Feb 2011 , 2:56pm
post #3 of 5

Did you dowel your cakes to keep them from sliding? Did you dam the filling to prevent seepage? I'm not sure what good freezing the fondant panels if they are already dry, maybe that meant to cut them to size then freeze to harden? That way they would be easy to apply but soften up to adhere? Next time, you could cover the whole cake in one piece of fondant, then attach the sides to the fondant...

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sillywabbitz Posted 13 Feb 2011 , 3:05pm
post #4 of 5

Hi Michelle, the attach feature on CC has been broken for a while. It sounds like several things were acting at once. First how tall was the actual cake. To keep the filling from causing cakes to slide you need to use a stiff frosting dam. Add extra powdered sugar to some frosting and pipe around the edge then fill. Cream cheese frosting is especially soft so refrigerating( a wrapped cake) between steps might have helped. If the cake is over 4 inches you needed to put a cake board and sleeps every 4 inches to support the weight and keep it from shifting.

For the panels, you can't get them perfect before the cake is iced and stacked. You make them bigger than you need but close to how wide and tall the should be. Let them dry for a couple of days and the measure your iced cake and trim the panels. I can not recommend sugar shacks DVD Boxes and Bows enough. I never could have done my wine cake without and she has so many different panel techniques. It's really great. I think the perfecting the art of buttercream DVD is a must have for all decorators as well. I have almost all of her DVDs and live everyone. I have two more to ordericon_smile.gif

I'm sorry your cake was being so difficult.

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Alwayzmakincake Posted 13 Feb 2011 , 11:50pm
post #5 of 5

Thank you so much for all the advice. I think that I made the panels too high for the cake which made them too heavy. And I didn't use a stiff consistency icing when I applied the damn.

I'm definately going to check out those DVDs. That's a great idea.

Thanks!

Michele

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