anyone else on complete melt down like me! i should be sleeping tonight but instead im re-doing 3 cakes for tomorrow because of the hot weather we are experiencing!!!
i have the air conditioner going but its not helping. other than me sitting with my refrigerator open to decorate im at my wits end!!
my frosting which i never have a problem with wont crust - ive had major blow outs with my fillings and my fondant is still goey.
just had to vent because im soooo exhausted!

I hope you got some rest by now

This heat wave that a good portion of the country is going through? That's called summer where I live Every day this week is forecast to be over 100 degrees and it's just a normal week for us.

In the summer, I don't use any butter in my frosting. And when I do cakes, I turn the AC down to 72.

Awww. I feel for you!! I have just been practicing this week but the same here. Everything seems to be acting differently than I'm used to. I'm fairly new to cake decorating so this is my first summer doing this. Our A/C is running non-stop but it can't handle weather this extreme so my house gets up to the 80s during the day (with the a/c on). I hope you got some rest and that cooler weather is on the way.

I made a business decision to take July and August off from baking this summer and I'm so happy I was able to do that.

It's been 100 or above the last 3 days and I can't imagine delivering a wedding cake in this.

Last summer, even with the A/C going, it didn't really help.

When you're dealing with butter and sugar and a kitchen that's getting heated up by a hot oven the odds are against us.

While making a decorated wedding cakes it should have limited exposure to heat and humidity.

I know what you mean I am in Missouri and it have been terrible. I bake in my basement and last week I purchased a dehumdifier and it really helps when the humditiy is so high.

I really feel for you! I was just thinking two days ago when it reached 107 here that I was was sooooo glad I didn't have any cakes to do. I agree, a dehumidifier might help, but I found out that mine throws off heat when running. Maybe you could use a buttercream frosting made for heat and high humidity. I think you can find one on here in the recipe section. Although, it is probally too late.
I hope everything turned out o.k. for you and you finally got some sleep. Just know that we're all pulling for you and we know how bad your situation is!

I am having such problems with this weather (we have had 102 days for several days now) No problem decorating the cakes, and I put them in the walkin for delivery, so they survive just fine. But once they get to the venue, a few hours later blows outs happen (I see them in the photos from the photographers) that ruin the cakes. How do I prevent these?

I fill the cakes room temp and let them sit for several hours (dont have the time to have them sit overnight) We crumb coat them and put them in the walk in and then frost and decorate cold. I thought about leaving them out over night before decorating, hoping this would get rid of blow outs. But once we get them cold again, they seem to come back hours later. (I am not around to fix them unfortantly) Any ideas?

I just had a major blow out on my cake. I ganached the damn thing and let it sit for 2 days!!!! I put the fondant on today and finished decorating it. Something told me to go and check on my cake and there it was!!! How in the world did a blow out happen on a ganched cake??

I see that we are all dealing with the same issues. While the heat is not too big of an issue here (Germany) right now, the humidity is HORRIBLE! My fondant is soooo soft and and pain to work with.

What are your tips or tricks to getting the fondant to stay firm?

p.s. I use MFF and MFF.

I can't help but ROFL on this one. I had a cake last weekend that made me want to jump out the window. The buttercream was melting and smooshing all over the cake, and eventually I ended up having to scrap it and make a new batch with more shortening than butter. I scraped allll the buttercream off the cakes and started over. I hated to do that but I knew it would just take less time to start over than fool with what I already had.

To prevent the blow outs, don't fridge the cakes. I had a cream cheese apple butter filling in one, which is why I had to fridge it, but I will never do that again in the summertime because it developed a huge bubble on the side (which I scraped and re-iced when the cake came down to room temp). I think you should just make your BC with a larger ratio of shortening to butter that way you can leave it out. Sharon (sugarshack) has commented on this several times and she also seems to think it's the condensation along with the heat and humidity. There really is no other explanation, because I never get them any other time of year! Also, switch to shelf stable fillings so you don't have to refrigerate.