I used the upside-down icing technique found in the articles section here at CC. I've done it once before, with great success. But this time, my icing is getting little beads of condensation on it and softening!!!! WHY???? This cake is for class tonight & I don't have any ingredients to make a whole other batch of icing to take with me!! What could be causing this & is there anything I can do?? I'm worried the icing will soften even more on the way to class and just eventually slide off the cake... Thanks for any help

Bueller, Bueller, anyone....Bueller????

That happened to me once and the icing was too thin...ummm...was you cake frozen?? maybe its defrosting and that's whats happening

Thanks so much for answering! No, the cake isn't frozen...but I think it could maybe be that my icing was too thin. ??? Last week my instructor told me it was too thick - now I make it too thin! But I still don't understand how icing that's too thin would cause sweating on top of the icing?? Hopefully it can make it to class and back home

Just had a thought....if the air in my house is not cool enough - not hot, necessarily, but not cool either - would that cause the sweating once it comes out of the freezer possibly?

Anything cooler than your freezer may cause the condensation...can you blot it with papertowels??

Meant to say "Warmer" not cooler...it's been a long day.

I am guessing what she is doing with her cake is putting it in the freezer briefly after doing a crumb coat to make that set, not freezing the cake itself.

As for the rest, not sure I can help...sorry!

Cakesasyoulikeit - You got it! lol

As I said in the initial post: I was following the directions on the Upside-down Icing Technique which is posted here at CC in the articles section. http://cakecentral.com/article6-Upside-Down-Icing-Technique-for-Perfectly-Smooth-Icing.html It calls for placing the cake in the freezer between steps if you're using all shortening icing; in the fridge if using half butter/half shortening...the cake was NOT frozen...as I said.

It thankfully turned out fine anyway...though the icing did soften a little, it didn't start sliding off the cake. But it did keep an almost wet look, though...sort of like IMBC can look, sometimes. My instructor just blamed it on the humidity this afternoon...lol...it's supposed to rain tomorrow & it was 70 degrees here today. That's what I get for living in the South!

Thanks to all of you for your advice!

I think I was just freaking out because I didn't have that problem the last time I used that method...which works great, by the way for getting a super smooth finish! Plus I was just a few hours away from class-time & had no idea whatsoever to do to keep it from turning into a mess...lol. I think I figured out that it was a combination of things...my icing was slightly thinner than it should've been, the humidity was something like 97% and my house isn't exactly perfectly sealed so it was a little humid inside, too; and taking it out of the freezer into that humid air was just too much for it. Had I put more meringue powder in the icing, maybe it would've stopped the sweating, and had my air conditioner been down near 60 degrees or something, that would've helped too...lol.

We live & learn...right?? lol

Being from Ohio....it is so funny reading about needing a/c and having humidity troubles in January!!

I've had that problem before. My crumb coat was too thin. I had to eventually scrape the whole mess off and start over. better to have it thick than too thin. Luckily I had enough to do over. Never made that mistake again.

Having read this thread I need some major advice. I've been wanting to try that upside down thing for a while now but I live in the sunny old Caribbean where its hot and humid every day of the year. To tell the truth I was skeptical about the whole fridge/ freezer to countertop thing because I figured the cake would "sweat" and Jenn just confirmed that for me. Should I bother giving it a try? And what was that about increasing the amount of meringue powder?????