Hi everyone!
I'm doing a cake for a friend, it was supposed to be an 8" square with a small-ish 'Coach' cake sitting on top.

The trouble started when my red velvet recipe,that NEVER fails, failed. I was having trouble with the cake sinking in the middle. I rebaked another cake, and the same thing happened.

I figured I would try to make it work despite the fact. Well, after leaving the cakes in the freezer for a day, I got up this morning to cover it in fondant and decorate. Well......as I was assembling the cakes, one broke in half.
As I'm standing there trying to figure out what the problem is, I look at the bag of flour I had been using and realized.....it's SELF RISING!!! *Face Palm* (My 8 yr old had wanted to help, so I let her get my ingredients out), Completely my fault for not double checking.

Sooooo, the THIRD attempt is in the oven right now. Problem is, the cake is due TODAY!!! I only have 5 hours to get this done in time. I'm now doing an 8" round with more of a wristlet design than an actual purse. The fondant is made, the icing is made....I'm just waiting on the cakes to finish baking.

I need tips on how I can 'cut corners' or speed the cake decorating process up...or easy designs I can do on the 8" round(I have an airbrush). I could also use encouraging words

Thanks!!

As soon as it comes out of the oven throw that puppy in the fzr - wrapped of course - just putting it in a plastic bag will be enough. If you are going to fill one layer - split it so it will cool faster - wrapping each in a plastic bag..

I don't know if you'll find this particularly encouraging right now, cupcakesnbuttercream, but it's happened to all of us. The fastest cake I ever decorated (which came out very nicely, I might add) was one where I put a stencil over the top of the cake and airbrushed a damask design in red. I put some black fondant cutout letters on the bottom edge (of the cake top, over the damask) for the message and I put a strip of red fondant around the bottom of the cake plus a quick bow, like a ribbon. You say you have an airbrush - do you have any stencils? I'd love to show you how this turned out, but the pictures are on my (hopelessly outdated) cell phone, and I can't figure out how to download them to anywhere else! I hope you can do something lovely that won't totally exhaust you. Post us a pic if you like the way it turns out.

After the cakes are cooled, you're pretty much set for smooth sailin'. I would direct a fan in the direction of the baked layers to aid in cooling them faster. While they're cooling, you could create a stencil to use with your airbrush out of cardstock and, if you haven't done so already, create the pieces or embellishments for the purse/wristlet/whatever you decide to do. After that is done, bringing it all together should be a breeze. Focus focus focus. Decide what you are going to do and don't allow yourself to stray from it. No "oh, I can soooo do ____!" or "oh, it'd be awesome if I added ____!"

You can do this!