So this week, I worked on a vow-renewal cake. The woman ordering it sent me some wonderful pictures of 3-4 tiered cakes, with ribbons, buttercream, and stargazer lilies. I was prepared.
I spent every night making cakes, cutting them, stacking them, etc so that all I would have to do on Friday would be to ice them, stack them, and add the decorations. No problem!
But life, it seems, doesn't like to be easy. Friday, I woke up and started icing each one. After icing the bottom tier, I left it alone for a few minutes to "crust" (which is where it dries a little and if you touch it, it doesn't come off on your finger). I came back to check on it and part of the cake had fallen apart!
Discouraged, I rebaked the bottom tier. Everything was on hold because this was the bottom tier! I had to have it finished before I could start on the two on top! 2-3 hours later, I started the icing again. Anyway, long story short, this is how it (eventually) turned out.
Not too shabby! Anyway, I called Cathleen (vow-renewal "bride's" sister-in-law) to come pick it up, and together we loaded the whole thing into her packed SUV for the hour-long drive to the event.
I was nervous. No, nervous doesn't describe the feeling. I was petrified. I watched them drive away and said a little prayer for the cake.
A few hours later, I got news from Cathleen that the cake had slid off the stand at the end of my street, that they had tried to piece it back together (but it's buttercream--I'm sure that was difficult) but that it at least tasted good.
Wanna know how I felt then? Mortified. Stunned. Embarassed. I think you get the picture. So I did some research to see what I could have done differently, and I got a solution: non-slip pads. From Walmart. Put them between stand and cake, and under stand for transportation. Duhh.
Sigh.... Learn something new every cake.
UPDATE: Here is a picture of the cake with a text from Cathleen:
"I showed everyone the before [picture]. We fixed it pretty good...Don't worry about it we are all laughing."
Follow up text from Cathleen: "Please laugh."
Okay, Cathleen. It is kind of funny. Better luck next time!
I'm out. No more cakes for awhile. I need a break!
