Hi Guys well i could cry today. I have a castle cake to be ready for tomorrow evening, a fireman sam fire engine for saturday evening and a giant cupcake for sunday morning, so busy busy especially as i am new to this and am still learning how to freeze a cake and get my timings right.

The castle is taking me ages doing all the turrets etc (but i know it'll be worth it for building my portfolio) so ive been doing bit by bit over the last week, so i was doing it last night but needed to bake my 8" & 4" square plain sponge. I asked my partner to help which he kindly said yes and got to work. When i tried to check how he was getting on a basically got growled at as he likes to think he knows best. So i left him to it.

At one point i heard him 'SLAM' the oven door (not agood noise when your cake has only been in 20 mins) sneakily checked on 10 mins later....rising nicely, little cake too.

Then i gets a shout "Helen i'm really sorry but...." I just knew both cakes had big craters in the middle, nothing salvagable.

Ive woke up feeling so ill this morning aching all over, ive dragged myself to get ready as i need to top up on ingredients and hire an oblong tin, managed to get rid of kids til 2pm to get finished, phone call off one of the nana's, the eldest has toothache, so i dont have enough time to get my stuff, i'm sat waiting for him to come home and have to whizz him to the dentist then get my stuff, its just starting raining.......i could cry. I'll have to bake my cakes and leave them to settle then decorate which i know is going to take hours and hours boo hoo!!! I think ive bitten off more than i can chew.

Hang in there. You can do it just take a couple of deep breaths, get your game plan together and get started. You'll be fine if you keep your cool.

You are going to be just fine. Your photos show that you have the skill level and anyone who manages kids, a partner, parents, etc. can certainly manage even a challenging cake task. I fight the panic feelings with each and every cake....and I've been doing this since Hector was a pup! Good luck and know that you have the collective encouragement of all your CC cakers, bakers and decorators.

You can do this! At this point, try to start delegating. I know there are things that your partner can help you with. Look for tasks that don't require much practice and then leave him to it. It may not go as fast as it would if you were doing it, but it's frees you up to do other things. Also see if there's anything that may not be visible or structurally important and let him work on that so you know that you covered the really important stuff. Good Luck!

Thanks guys, my dad came round to help me i eventually got the cake done then.....it sunk in the middle again. It wasnt that bad and could be fixed but i wasnt happy with the consistency it was really greasy and heavy. Then my mam came to help with the kids ha ha. I decided to bake another. Its now nearly 1am and i'm waiting for it to finish cooking. We realised i had my oven too low a temp...silly me.

Thanks for your replies, i still have to put the castle together and am a nervous wreck as this is a big project for me. I'll post a pic when its done, please look and give me your comments.