I was asked to make a halloween cake to take into work and decided after looking at the wonderful pics on this site I would make a cupcake cake. I didn't have time to make the cakes so went to the local supermarket and managed to find some cupcakes that were quite cheap, tasted ok and best of all were square. Great I thought easier to to line up. No gaps inbetween to worry about. I laid the cakes out on my board, glued them down and decided to be brave and ice them with buttercream. What I must say here with being english it's very rare we use buttercream. The majority of our cakes are covered in fondant or royal icing. I always have trouble smoothing buttercream but after following the hot water / spatula tip that I found on here I had no trouble. Got the surface nice and smooth. added my BCT , lettering and piped a border. I didn't have room for a cake this size in my fridge so put a cloth over it and went into our living room to brag how easy these cupcakes were, didn't know why I hadn't tried these techniques before ect. then went back into the kitchen and disaster. One of my cats must have been sitting on the windowsill and I hadn't noticed. She had jumped down onto the table, landing in the middle of the cake then walked across it to the edge and jumped down. Luckily I have some spare cakes so I can redo it tonight but in all the years I've been decorating it's the first time I've had a cake ruined by an animal

Animals, multiple babies with curious hands, just being tired and not paying attention to where the cake is positioned and then having it go 'plop' onto the floor..oh yes, there are many ways to ruin a cake.

Frustrating isn't it? I'm sure you will see the humour in this later on. At least you know you can do these cakes quite readily, and with buttercream no less!

I feel your pain!!! A few months ago I was making a cake for decorating class and was being generous and giving cake scraps to one of my dogs...Well, I put the cake on my dining table while I was making the icing----You can only imagine my horror when I turned around and my dog had eaten a big hunk out of my cake....I was furious, but could only blame myself.....Needless to say, no more cake treats for the dogs....And no more turning my back on a cake left on the table...

Maybe the cat did it on purpose because he never gets a cake!! and he wanted to try some
Sorry, but your story was so sad and funny all in one.
Michelle

OH no what a naughty kitty, i would have been in tears if that happened. One time i had just finished smoothing a buttercream cake, it was a tiered cake and the phone rang, i picked it up and didnt realise the cord ran all the lenght of the cake and stuffed up all the icing!!!!
needless to say i dont answer the phone over my cakes any longer!!!

..sounds as though you have a lot of patience! I would have flipped out!

Now for the follow up
I managed to do another cake this morning, left it on my kitchen bench where the cats never go and gave husband dire warnings about not letting the cats in there ect. and went out
Came in this evening and found yet another disaster. My husband had shut the kitchen door while he went upstairs but he forgot the dog can open doors. He came down found the door wide open, both cats on the bench and not a scrap of buttercream left on the cake.

I came in and couldn't help laughing while Stan looking very guilty tried to explain why I had to make yet another cake

Oh NO! Well, it helps to have a sense of humor. Just think of all the decorating practice you are getting!!


Cindy

MissBaritone, sounds like you need some cake boxes to put your cakes in once they're done. The worst that can happen then is that someone drops them on the ground but at least your pets wont be getting at them. Good luck with try three : )

I think you must be delerious by now...but at least these are easy to do!!!
traci

I do use cake boxes as a rule but as most british cakes are round or square thats the shape boxes I tend to have in. So when I did this cake at last minute that fact that the board is rectangular and a lot bigger than the cakes I normally make meant I didn't have a box to fit.

MissBaritone I have the same problem with funny shaped cakes, what i do is if it's rectangular then i get a square box the size of the largest side of the rectangle, if that isn't possible I get my husband to modify a box for me. I use any clean box that is handy.
Let us know how you go with try three and post a picture of your artwork. Let's hope that try three doesnt get attacked by a flock of birds.
All the best
Nati

Soooo sorry to hear about your cakes, but just goes to show you they have good taste, BIG hugs