Cake disaster

shannonlcorum

I took cake decorating classes 5 years ago because I wanted to make my own wedding cake--which turned out great BTW--I had no desire or thought to decorating cakes on a regular basis. Since then everyone wants me to make cakes. It's mostly been birthday cakes but I've had a few wedding cake requests. I have a wedding cake due this Saturday so I've been working on what I could ahead of time and then planned out each evening to do a little each night starting Wednesday in regards to thawing the cake, icing and covering with fondant, and then decorating. I usually end up having to stay up to 3 or4 am to get a cake done because I wait too late to start it so I'm working on my time management. Everything was going fairly well last night. I had iced and covered the top (8-inch) and middle (12-inch) with marshmallow fondant. My plan was to get all 3 layers done, then stack and decorate today. The bottom layer is 16-inches and has 8 cake mixes in it so pretty heavy. I was in the process of taking it out to the fridge in the garage to chill the icing before covering with fondant when it slipped off the turntable I was carrying it on and hit the floor is a massive pile of mashed cake and icing. think I stood there for about 5 minutes in disbelief. If I hadn't been so stunned I think I would have cried. This was 10 o'clock last night. I have never dropped a cake. I had to make a run to Wally World (Walmart) and buy more cake and eggs and was up until 2am baking another two 16-inch cakes. I just hope this ain't some bad omen on this cake. Needless to say I will be relieved when we get it delivered and setup Saturday. Anyone else ever dropped dinner or anything?

Canugghead

sorry to hear that, but it could have been worse!  over the years I've seen few posts like this:

TexanOfTheNorth

Sorry to hear about your misfortune. The closest I've come to something like that was inadvertently turning off my electric turkey fryer, one year at Thanksgiving, just after lowering the turkey in. I had meant to bump the temp 5* but hit the off button by mistake. I did not notice my error until I went to get the turkey out of the fryer about 45 min. later. Needless to say, it was nowhere near done. Fortunately, we also had a ham to serve, along with plenty of other food, so everything worked out okay in the end.

RRP

I have lost two finished pizzas before I had the good sense to wrap my pizza peel handle with a sure grip wrap made for golf clubs!

insaneh

One of the first things I cooked on my egg was jalapeno poppers. I grabbed them with
a set of tongs when they were done and headed inside. About halfway across the kitchen, they slipped out of the tongs. My reflexes got the better of my common sense and I was rewarded
with hot cheese on my hand. The rest hit the floor.
Other than that, nada.

Mike_the_BBQ_Fanatic

Canugghead said:

sorry to hear that, but it could have been worse!  over the years I've seen few posts like this:

Man, that brough a tear...there cant be enough JB weld...

 

pantsypants

I once lost a chicken wing when it fell through the grate . It was horrible

gdenby

Hope you managed to finish the cake. I'm reminded of the phrase, "what doesn't kill you just makes you stronger."

Disasters are a part of being a cook. Expect failure, always have a plan B, and if things happen to work out right, its all cream on the top.

Being a home cook, my worst was this. I was cooking for a Christmas family gathering held at my parents. I was doing roasted ducks. As everything else was packed and ready to go, I pulled one of the ducks out of the oven, and the aluminum roaster pan buckled. Several cups of duck fat hit the oven and burst into flame. I had a couple of boxes of baking soda on hand, and doused the flames, and the other duck. The house was filled w. smoke. The smoke alarms went off.

I did salvage the mess. Rapidly cleaned the oven, burning my hands. Washed off the duck that was covered w. soda. Opened windows. Re-heated the oven, and brought both ducks back to temperature. Went to parents, and presented my cook.

Returned home, and realized that I'd left the windows open, and the furnace was running full blast trying to keep the house to temperature.

shannonlcorum

I think the broken egg topped my cake. But I did manage to get a new bottom tier baked and finished the cake. It turned out really good and the bride and groom were happy.

<img src="https://www.dropbox.com/sc/sbyzbk2m15tu2t5/px_mrNCVT2"></img>

Botch

The first and only time I used a cooking bag (TG turkey, pre-Egg ownership) the steam condensed on the top of the bag, and slid down to one side where part of the bag was hanging over the roasting pan.  Soon a bunch of juice had collected, weighing the bag down more until it touched the oven grate and melted/started leaking (why it doesn't melt inside the roasting pan, I don't know).

I heard the sizzling, opened the oven and figured out what was happening, and quickly pulled the roasting pan out to set in the sink.  In my rush the stream of juice squirted across my wrist, I yelled something like "Fart!" and the pan went flying across the kitchen.

I had a bad burn and quite a mess to clean up, but because of the bag the turkey didn't get dirty on the floor and we ate it.  

shannonlcorum

Botch said:

...because of the bag the turkey didn't get dirty on the floor and we ate it.  

There was a brief moment when I thought to myself, "Can I fix it?" That lasted about a millisecond as common sense overrode my desperation and told me 1) That would be downright disgusting (my garage floor is not exactly sanitary) and 2) Nope, it's beyond repair. 

Next time I will be asking for help when I have to carry that large of a cake around. The final 3 tiered cake required both my husband and me to to carry and 1 child to open all doors. I bet it weighed well over 50lbs.

Tjcoley

After cooking bacon on the Egg in a foil pan, as I went to remove the pan full of hot bacon grease, it tilted, spilling half the grease into the lit Egg. The fireball ignited the grease left in the pan which I was fortunately using gloves to remove. I was able to set the flaming pan on the side shelf and smother the fire. Let the grease fire in the Egg burn out, then finished breakfast.

cazzy

Your cake is beautiful!  Will you make my 5 year anniversary cake?  Awesome thanks!  Oh, free...you're amazing!   :P

Loosemoose

Very nice work on the cake.

Learning to Smoke

Cake is great looking. Nice recovery!

shannonlcorum

cazzy said:

Your cake is beautiful!  Will you make my 5 year anniversary cake?  Awesome thanks!  Oh, free...you're amazing!   :P

I seriously don't charge enough. Since the groom is my boss' son, I only charged $150. But he was kind enough to give me $250.

Foghorn

pantsypants said:

I once lost a chicken wing when it fell through the grate . It was horrible

I once had a spear of asparagus turn itself 90 degrees and commit suicide in the fire below. 

 

Seriously, though I have dropped two platesetters. They were each beyond repair.

krobertsmsn

I don't see the cake...

Eggcelsior

Your cake looks fantastic, nice fondant work. I haven't played with it in years(I used to work in a bakery and decorated cakes.) In terms of cake mixes, do you supplement store bought mixes with extra fat or are they scratch recipes with all those extra pounds of butter and eggs?

johnkitchens

Eggcelsior said:

Your cake looks fantastic, nice fondant work. I haven't played with it in years(I used to work in a bakery and decorated cakes.) In terms of cake mixes, do you supplement store bought mixes with extra fat or are they scratch recipes with all those extra pounds of butter and eggs?

I didn't see a cake!!!!!  Are you serious?

Eggcelsior

@johnkitchens, this is the link to the pic:

https://www.dropbox.com/sc/sbyzbk2m15tu2t5/px_mrNCVT2

Yes, I'm serious about the cake thing, if that is what you meant. Did it at Safeway and Costco, 3 years total. I like baking more than cooking.

Doc_Eggerton

If you look close, you can see that the entire back of this $400 wedding cake collapsed.  Oh, and I wrote the check for it.

johnkitchens

@eggcelsior I didn't see the cake or the link. I thought I was going crazy!