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Summer ganache
Had a nightmare yesterday guys…..made theeeeee most beautiful birdcage cake for a wedding, anyway, after the worst most miserable July, summer decided to come to my neck of the woods yesterday and when i went to place the cage onto the other two tiers, the cake was way too soft and my beautiful birdcage shape went out of shape, a bit, probably not as bad as my head said it was (my hubby says this lol) but none the less, I feel my wedding cakes need to be perfect and this has shattered my confidence. I cant help thinking I shouldv’e done something else, Im just not sure what…..except maybe keeping it in a fridge, but then Im sure that has adverse effects when the cake is taken out, is this right? I have another wedding cake this week and Im toying with the idea of supplying all dummy for display and three tiers for eating/kept in cool kitchen? Is this something anyone else has to deal with?
Had a nightmare yesterday guys…..made theeeeee most beautiful birdcage cake for a wedding, anyway, after the worst most miserable July, summer decided to come to my neck of the woods yesterday and when i went to place the cage onto the other two tiers, the cake was way too soft and my beautiful birdcage shape went out of shape, a bit, probably not as bad as my head said it was (my hubby says this lol) but none the less, I feel my wedding cakes need to be perfect and this has shattered my confidence. I cant help thinking I shouldv’e done something else, Im just not sure what…..except maybe keeping it in a fridge, but then Im sure that has adverse effects when the cake is taken out, is this right? I have another wedding cake this week and Im toying with the idea of supplying all dummy for display and three tiers for eating/kept in cool kitchen? Is this something anyone else has to deal with?
Hi loufairy2
First let me say please don’t let this crumble your confidence. I think your hubby may be right, you’ve exaggerated the problem in your head because you’re a perfectionist! Most of us are guilty of the same, my last wedding cake was listing due east but no one noticed (hahaha). I was so distraught so I know how you’re feeling.
So was it the ganache that went soft from the heat? This can be fixed. For future reference, use more chocolate to cream ratio so the ganache is stronger. A decorated cake can get messy in the fridge because of the fondant sweating but there is Carmas Massa which can be placed in the fridge without the usual problems. Another way to keep cakes cool during a really hot spell is to keep a fan running or invest in one of those tower air conditioning units. They are not terribly expensive and would keep a room cool enough to keep cakes out on the counter.
Some members on site have reported back that they have infact refrigerated enrobed cakes.
The thing to do is place the cake in a box and completely seal it so no moisture can enter to lay on the sugarpaste. The box should also be placed inside another and sealed again. If a cake does have dew on it, let it dry without touching it so not to leave finger prints.
These are things you could trial out with a small cake.
Take a look at David’s free Pro lesson, he has a downloadable chart for pricing cutting cakes, covered only.
A little bit of information on the Carmas Massa sugarpaste:
Alternatively you could go the dummy cake route if your client was happy with the idea. There is absolutely no reason why you can’t do that! It would make life a lot more easier but please do read up on pricing dummies. If you’re a Pro member of the site there is probably information available about pricing dummies in one of the courses. I would have to read through to know where it is. If you’re not a pro member I can recommend the courses to anyone who is business.
There is a certain amount of information online on pricing decorated dummies, it isn’t as straightforward as some people think so don’t get caught out financially. Take a peek at the discussion in the following link, especially what the contributor Leah has to say:
http://www.cakecentral.com/forum/t/670018/what-to-charge-for-dummy-wedding-cakes
Hope some of the above helps and I’m sure loads of other members will advise further. x
I’m so happy for you Lou, I bet your cake was fantastic, you really must share pictures on Paul’s google+
https://plus.google.com/+PaulBradfordSugarcraftSchool/postshttps://plus.google.com/+PaulBradfordSugarcraftSchool/posts
would love to see the cake. xx
Hehe! I can’t help you there, I don’t know how to either! xx
