Welcome to the Cake Decorators Q&A

I made a cake recently for a friend of a friend which appeared to leave me in perfect condition however I got feedback from the friend that thecake was so wet in the middle that they couldn’t eat it. It was not undercooked but wet? They also said it didn’t taste nice and I always taste the of the cakes I make and it was lovely when I made and decorated it. Apart from being mortified as I have never had feedback like this before, I am keen to find out what could have caused it.

The cake was my usual vanilla sponge that I had frozen and fully defrosted (the sponge was fully cooked throughout and dry inside) before filling with jam and butter cream (they also said it wasn’t that the jam had soaked into the sponge) , I then covered in butter cream and covered with fondant as normal. I made the cake one day and it was picked up the following day and eaten the next day again.

I did advise to store somewhere cool and not in the fridge but I don’t know how it was stored, my friend will find out and come back to me.

This has seriously dented my confidence as I can’t think how this has happened.

Any help or advice would be appreciated

Hi Blossom

First of all I’m so sorry to hear that your confidence has been knocked by the feedback. You have said you tasted the cake off cuts which were lovely, the cake was fully cooked and texture as should be. Did you use any simple syrup to add extra moisture to the sponge or did you just fill it? Sometimes if too much simple syrup is used, it can cause make the texture heavy, wet and soggy. I can’t really say that the moisture from defrosting may have caused the texture to become wet as you have stated it was dry. Was the cake completely cooled before it was frozen? If it wasn’t, this could have caused condensation build up in the layers. Denser cakes sometimes benefit from being frozen while slightly warm, however not so sponge cakes because of their delicate structure. A filled and decorated cake can sweat or become oily if not properly stored in a cool environment, this I think is the most likely cause after it left your care.

There are other reasons why a cake might seem wet. Things like adding too much wet ingredients and insufficient dry ingredients or subsituting ingredients in the given recipe eg oil for butter or adding fruit purees and buttermilk/sourcream/yougurt. You don’t appear to have done anything out of the ordinary.

I’m afraid I would have wanted to see and taste the cake! Did the customer bring you some of the cake to taste? … do you think that they may be after some kind of refund? I wouldn’t allow this incident to make you feel bad, there is no evidence to say you did something wrong.

Thank you so mch for your quick response. It has made me feel better reading it. I hadn’t added simple syrup and the cake was completely cool before carefully wrapping and putting in to the freezer and as you say, I hadn’t done anything unusual with the ingredients. The customer didn’t return the cake or even take a picture which has frustrated me as I too would like to have seen it as I really don’t understand it. I also didn’t get notified of any problems until 2 weeks after they collected the cake. I want to offer a refund so that there isn’t bad word of mouth about my cakes as I really take pride in every step of the process but my husbands says not too as I haven’t any evidence that there was anything wrong with the cake.

I love cake making and decorating and it’s a shame that this has happened but I will keep going. I have a cake in a few weeks that I need to add syrup to and now I’m scared to do so in case it becomes too wet!

Hi Blossom

If someone told me two weeks later that they didn’t like my cake I would ask them why they hadn’t contacted me sooner with the evidence! Honestly, I don’t think there was anything at all wrong with the cake, it’s just a con! Your husband is right in advising you not to give any kind of refund. A person with a genuine concern would have brought the cake back the next day. So much for friends of friends!!
Please don’t worry about using simple syrup . It’s a lovely way of adding a little moisture and flavour to cake and it helps to add an couple more extra days shelf life. If your sponge cakes are already very moist brush on just a little. Good luck with your up and coming cake, don’t worry about this incident, keep enjoying what you’re doing. 🙂 xx

Thank you so much for your replies and I know you are right about the time delay in her reporting it etc. I think I was just so shocked as it’s never happened before. Thank you for your support x