Hopefully I won't jinx anyone or anything, but:

Have you ever had an incident where in the process of transporting a cake in your car, it completely got smashed into a big nasty blob of bread and sugar?

Have any of your cakes ever fallen over at a wedding?

What has been your "near 'failure'" experience?

great minds think alike, I just posted this too!

Last week we had to brake in the car really hard and I lost 20 cupcakes from the impact......but they just went to the "back" of the display.

You had to do what you had to do.

And we posted the same time (4:47)! CCrs like you better than me.

I had to deliver a cake to an area I wasn't familiar with. I googled the directions, which took me up a VERY LONG dirt and rock covered road. Keep in mind it was August and it was rather hot. Once we got to the end of the dirt road, we found that it did not go through to our destination. Having to turn around and fair the road again, we finally made it to the destination...just in time. The cakes jumped around just enough to sustain damage to the sides and the heat took it's toll on the buttercream. Fortunately, I was able to make repairs and the fresh flowers covered areas that were not repairable.

Is it just me or does it seem like the more delicate the cake, the rougher the road it travels!?!

I had made a separate dairy free vegan cake for a bride. The rest of the wedding cake was regular, but this was just an 8" round, all with special ingredients that I had to drive almost 2 hours roundtrip to get. As I was finishing up everything and getting ready to start loading up the van with the wedding cakes, I dropped the vegan cake. I was turning around to set it on the counter, and somehow misjudged exactly where the edge of the counter was! It literally exploded. I had only an hour before I HAD to deliver, and no more of the special ingredients on hand. So the bride didn't get to eat cake at her own wedding. I refunded them double what that cake cost, but never heard from them again, so I'm guessing they weren't happy.

HORRIBLE wedding cake disaster. I did my neighbors son's wedding cake, this was over 11 years ago. I took the cake to the site (D.C.) When I got there no one was around, so I finally found someone to tell me where to put the cake (keeping in mind there were still chicken nuggets on the floor from the night before - YUK!) So the table they gave me was very small AND they gave me a tablecloth with HOLES in it!!! The guy said don't worry about that we will put some tuelle (sp) around it and no one will see it. So then I asked, after the cake was all set up, was he SURE that they were not going to move the cake, he assured me it would stay right there (4 tiers with pillars and a beautiful ceramic figure on top). So I went home - Not taking a picture like a ding a ling. I get home and 15 minutes before the wedding started I got a phone call from my neighbor - "GINGER THE CAKE FELL OVER AND WHAT ARE YOU GOING TO DO ABOUT IT!!" I said where was the cake? And sure enough they had moved it and it fell over!!!!!! So I told them to call Giant or Safeway and sadly the bride and groom had to cut into a frozen wedding cake So I had to refund ALL the money, the neighbor had to take a lot of crap from the daughter-in-law since she recommended me and I had to repaint her figurine for her. So I swore I would never do another wedding cake again. And I stuck to it till 1 1/2 years ago I did 2 wedding cakes for my son's teachers which are in my CC pictures. So I ended on a good note, I will vow to do no more weddings!!!!! So moral of the story, ALWAYS TAKE PICTURES SHOWING WHERE YOUR WEDDING CAKES ARE SET UP!!!!!!!!!

my father made my wedding cake. I don't have a picture to post but it was a cross between two cakes in the Wilton Bridal Cakes book with a fountain. I think I had about 6 different kind of cakes one being carrot cake. Absolutely perfect and beautiful. We hired our local CYO kids to serve the food and one of them bumped into it. So the carrot cake started caving in the back. Luckily one of my aunts noticed rightaway and propped it up as much a she could. It still leaned back. Since we were moving to Italy a few months after the wedding we just said it was our Leaning Tower of Pisa.

I had a stacked 4-tiered cake in the back of my wagon and when I turned a corner, everything shifted and the cake fell into the side of the box. Looked like the Leaning Tower of Pisa.

PUt my friend in the back to counter lean the box...took it into the reception site. My friend went to get my repair kit (everything but the kitchen sink). I took the cake apart, repositioned everything. Turned the smooshed side to the back and re-did the embellishments. No one knew.

My second "Oops" is the calla lilly illusion in my photos. As I was placing the middle layer onto the bottom layer, the dowels shifted and the middle layer started sliding to the table/floor. I grabbed it with both hands...lovely handprints in the once-smooth frosting. Ripped a tablecloth off a table, set the cake on the table, scraped off the frosting and refrosted and smoothed with Viva. Successfully placed on cake, added the top tier and topper. All finished within 30 minutes. Florist said he was impressed...I was very professional about it and you could not tell anythiing had happened.

Thank you for all your disaster stories. I have learned a lot. Always take pictures and never try to deliver a cake already assembled.

The only disaster I have had so far is leaving a half finished cake on the counter when My husband and I left to go for dinner out.

Came home and the cat who never gets into anything decided to try out chocolate Icing. At least he didn't bite into the cake.

I had been working on a bulldog cake and had the picture piped in black pipping gel. I guess because the gel is sweet he decided to try it.

I had to remove all the Icing off the cake and start again. At the same time I couldn't help laugh at the cat who's white whiskers were stained black for over a week.

I DO deliver some cakes already stacked. Since I have started using the stress-free support system and double dowel into 1/2" foamboard cake base. No problems since I started doing that. I delivered one to Dallas (2 hours away in traffic) and the cake was stable--no shifting at all.

I say I study at the "Culinary Institute of Hard Knocks" for a reason...
1st wedding cake... was to be 4 hearts on the bottom to make a clover then 4-tiered cake on top of that... Well, I had to set it up the night before the event in the garage at the site.. No biggie..Set it up, got a couple pictures.. Then as the people there were drinking and I was chatting I started to notice it becoming the "Leaning Tower of Piza".. We catch the top 4-tiers JUST in time. My lower dowels had shifted because it was on an unsteady table (one of those fold in half tables).. In their drunkenness, they came up with a good idea to cover the indents with tulle and extra flowers... It actually looked o.k. when it was all said and done, no one knew the difference..

Did a groom's cake for a friend. I had to borrow my MIL's Envoy so that I could transport the thing because it was so big. Well, I didn't know her brakes as well as I thought I did and coming up to the stop for one intersection, the computer monitor and keyboard shifted off of their stands. Thankfully it was an easy fix, but still...

Of course, it's lessons like those that you earn your stripes and I now know FOLLOW and TRUST your instinct when it comes to the construction of a cake.. Always center dowel ALL the way down through the bottom board.. I also learned.. When delivering a cake, if the cake is going to make five miles it is going to make hundreds of miles as long as you drive like a trucker with a 52' trailer..

shadowgypsy,
I'm afraid to ask, but you never answered. You didn't serve that cake did you. There is no "5 second rule" for something as crazy as that. Were you paid for that cake?"