Hello, I’m fairly new to cake decorating and desperately need your wisdom and advice. I made a four tier wedding cake. Later on during the reception, a bubble formed in the upper tier, (hopefully it’s visible in the photo. I have no idea why this happened. Any advice would be greatly appreciated.
I used the same recipe that I’ve always used. I tortes, filled, and settled the cake overnight in the refrigerator with a light book on top. I used Swiss meringue buttercream and frosted and decorated the next day. I kept the cakes in the refrigerator until delivery and assembled it on site. It was perfect when I left the venue.
I did two things differently. I used acrylic cake discs, which by the way worked great, and I refrigerated the cake for about three days prior to delivering it. Other than that everything else I’ve done time and time again. Help.
bubbles like that, aka cake farts, just happen — in all scenarios they just can develop — some people will try & say — it’s because blablabla and I promise you — in that configuration with whatever nationality the icing, the cake recipes used, temperatures involved, holding conditions, a cake bubble farted out of that cake at one time or another —
also — the settling thing with a weight on top is done at room temp, overnight or for a few hours — then you can fridge or whatever —
one way to avoid them is to use that settling method at room temp — and another is to put and keep a hole open in each layer of each tier through the icing so no air pockets can form —
you just place them in as inconspicuous a place as possible — on the back of the cake or wherever — one per tier might also work but to be safe if each layer of the tier is encased in icing, one hole per layer is the million dollar insurance policy — although can still happen — but the chances are quite slim —
i like to put them in at an angle upward so they are less noticeable— must be left open so the air can find the path of least resistance and escape without becoming tumourous —
and be sure to really be aware of smashing the icing on when applied —
another thing is after the cake layers are assembled into one tier, you could shave the sides down which will remove most of the grease from the edges of the cake — or stop greasing the sides of the pan — cakes rise better that way too — and if you do the shaving, you use less Icing and it can be more uniform —
Yes,it is a very nicely done cake and YES as K8 said there are sooooo many different factors involved that it is impossible to know *exactly* what caused the problem this time. Just be assured it has happened to many others. For me it seems to especially happen to small tiers (8",6",& smaller) which leads me to think at least part of the problem is not 'anchoring' the icing to the cake....not pressing it on tight enough. You can help keep it from 'farting' as K8 said by poking holes all around the bottom & top edges of the cake w/a pin. Most of those holes will be covered by the borders. Then, Also poke a hole with a sucker stick in the top of the tier which can be hidden by the topper or flowers/leaves etc. That allows most/all of the trapped air to escape and not push out the sides
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