Last night I made 3 cakes...got them all icin' and ready to put the finishing touches on them tonight...all 3 different orders. Went to bed around midnight last night...they were all fine! I had put them on a cardtable in the middle of my living room...figuring nothing would bother them. When I got up this morning, I walked out the Living Room, and the biggest one has a hole in the icing. Now, let me say this, the other cakes are all fine, there is no damage to the cake itself, nothing around the spot to indicate tampering...no tracks, etc. I have a cat in the house, but trust me, she would have made a mess had she even been able to get up on the table. The kids were both in their beds...I sleep fairly light, and I know they weren't up. The icing is down to bare cake, but the cake is untouched. Look at the picture I have attached in my photo gallery and see if you can tell me what you think might have happened, and how I should fix it! Almost like something propelled down from above, scrapped (cleanly) the icing, and repelled back up.

That is very odd! Alien Cake Circles?!? What is wierd is how CLEAN the spot on the cake is! It looks like there was never icing there! It looks like something landed on it or touched it and lifted off. It doesn't even look like a finger scrape! I really don't know what to say! Sorry I couldn't be more help!
HeatherMari

is there any chance that you hit it (elbow/palm) & it stuck that you didn't know about last night???---i'm clueless, but agree no animal did that-they would have messed that cake up

I don't know...check the clothes you were wearing. Maybe you leaned over it too close and didn't notice.

If it is crusting buttercream , use a tube to fill in as best you can. Let it dry some and pat it smooth. You can use a piece of parchment, waxed paper, or Viva towel. Be sure it is dry enough!!

Hmm, that IS baffling lol! What's weird is there's absolutely NO icing in that spot left at all!! You know how if someone would swipe their finger across the icing you can usually see a fine layer of it still on the cake in that spot. But that is just CLEAN lol!! I don't know. Maybe the cat DID get up to that and just get a good lick in that spot? Their tonques are rough enough to get it cleaned off like that I think lol, other then that I have no idea how that could have happened either .

Don't underestimate the power of a cat bent on a mission. She was probably eyeballing the cake the whole time you were making it. She decided the biggest one was the best of all. No, no, no got this story wrong.......it really was Goldilocks, ya thats right, quick look she might still be sleeping in your bed.......

I hate to tell you - the cat did that. If you look at the left side of it, you can see the little tongue marks on the cake. Cats are very sneaky (and neat eaters) He (Or she) has licked the icing down to the cake and gotten his fill and then left.

(been there ~ that is how I KNOW that is what it is - cat is now locked up anytime there is a cake in the house)

that is SOOOOO a cat lick....The first thing I thought was "cat lick"....Im just shocked thats all it ate!!

I knew a girl that would give her cat lick (yuck) the whipped cream off the top of her drink.....that cat was very careful to take one section and lick it just like that icing......one spot ...and clean that one spot!!!

That's not an animal print, it looks like a clean cut, do u have ghosts in ur house ? LOL
It's so strange ! ...

I gotta agree with the majority here....that looks like the cat got to it. I showed it to my dh & didn't even tell him you had a cat & asked him what it looked like....he said either a mouse or cat got to it. I would say you are probably going to have to rebake that one.

Definitely cat!

I saw your picture in the gallery before I saw this thread and the first thing that I thought was it was an animal lick of some kind.

I gotta say, it looks like a critter. (will not vote on the dead or alive kind, as in my house the live one would now be dead )

Yep, had to be that darn cat!

Not fixable, must start over...

That is for sure a cat lick. Mine did that once, before I figured out that all baked goods had to be kept under lock and key away from the sneaky little devils.

Do I really need to rebake the whole thing...couldn't I just cut out a section of the icing and cake...batch it and go on? That's a 2 layer 12 inch square cake!

Damn cat...if it were her...I could just choke her right now! Usually I store my cakes in my spare bedroom, but my boyfriend's daughter is staying with me this week, and she is in there!

Surely I can salvage this some way can't I? I have 4 orders this weekend, and have already worked a full work week at my other job, plus I have a bridal shower I am giving tomorrow...no, this cake isn't for it. This is my niece's birthday cake for party tomorrow night. Help!

I must say when I saw this pic in the gallery i thought "Cat lick". I have a cat I that was just my tought. Good luck!




Edited for typo

My son once did something similar. I really thought he understood that the cake wasn't for us (silly mommy!), so I felt brave enough to go start a load of laundry. Son was innocently watching cartoons, or so I thought. I came back into the kitchen and found my 3 year old eating the piped strawberries off the side of a Strawberry Shortcake cake. I totally freaked out, for a second, then wished I'd had the camera ready.

I would cut a bit out and patch it, but that's me and I live with cats and it doesn't bother me. The only problem I think would be if someone was allergic to cats.

That is a decision only you can make about the cake. Personally, I would bake another one and toss that one. Not worth your reputation to risk selling a cake that you know was contaminated by an animal.

Most definitly the cat.

Definitely rebake it! I'm highly allergic to cats, but even if I weren't I wouldn't want a cake that a cat licked. I know its a pain to remake it, but once an animal has licked it I think thats the only thing you should do.

Guess I could take off the top layer, rebake it. Bottom layer should be fine...don't you think?
That's just it...I don't want to turn off someone to my business.

My sister in law (mother of the niece this cake is for) politely told me last weekend she had found a hair in her cake slice...mortified me! I have longer hair now, but have an appointment next weekend for a cut...going to go back to short...I have noticed when my hair is longer, it sheds so bad. Last night I was really self-conscious about it, and put my hair up in a ball cap to try and prevent, and now the damn cat has apparently licked her cake!!! I think I better rebake...whole thing or top layer only!

charman: sorry it took so long to get back...my personal advice would be to rebake the whole thing just to be safe...there could be cat hair on other parts of the cake just from it getting up there on the table. Sorry, I know its a pain to redo the whole thing, but I think you will probably feel better about it if you do.

oh I really think you need to rebake the whole thing....not just cut out a piece or a layer....Im sorry to say but I think the whole think should be tossed.....I wouldn't be able to consciously hand over a cake that I knew or even considered an animal had touched.....

I would toss them ALL and start over. But, that's just me. I would think that if the cat licked a hole in one, it sniffed around on the others and probably brushed its tail around. Cats carry germs. My kitty drinks from the toilet and licks her privates and I just couldn't eat the cake myself, so, I wouldn't expect anyone else to eat it.

Sorry, I know it's a lot of work. If I lived nearby, I'd certainly help you out of this one.

I didn't even think of the other cakes being affected. I wouldn't serve them to a paying customer. Now, my immediate family would be a different story. The way my daughter hugs and kisses all of our pets, she probably has ingested her fair share of animal stuff.

I would think there would be no question - definitely rebake. And I agree with LittleBigMomma - I would toss them all and rebake everything. If one's been contaminated I wouldn't feel right about not redoing the others (and this is coming from a cat lover)