What did you do the first time your cake fell/slid/etc?

well, luckily for me, my first real disasters were all cakes that i'd made for hubby or a girl's night out party w/my girlfriends - so no one was expecting perfection or paying me LOL. hopefully, that what i've learned about these will help me prevent it from happening with a real order or really important cake. that and the fact that Leahs has convinced me I can't live with out sps.

I have to laugh at myself. Back, back in the olden days, before I knew anything about cakes, let alone how to drive with one in the car, or fillings, etc..... I wanted to make a cake for a friend. It sounded like a great idea to not only put a strawberry jam between the layers for a filling, but why not put it under the cake so I would have a cake with filling, cake, filling. How delicious!

Well, with my prize in the car, I drove like a crazy person to arrive on time. Nothing like swinging around a curve, going full (legal) speed to make that cake take flight.
I hit the brakes, pulled over, and ran to the middle of the SUV like a frantic woman to save the poor thing. Little did I know that a highway patrolman had witnessed my driving. He pulled up behind me with his lights on. To be honest I didn't even know he was standing behind me because I was so worried about fixing the cake.
He started laughing at me. He said, "Lady, I thought you had forgotten to buckle one of your kids in, and had slung them into the floor board, and I had stopped to see if a child was hurt. But you hit your brakes like that for a cake! He laughed all the way back to his car, and just left me standing there in total shock.

Now I can't believe that I really could have been so clueless. Wow, how things change over the years.

First of all, I'm only a beginner in cake decorating - I do it for friends, familly etc. My cake disaster happened on my way delivering the cake to the party. I was almost at the location, turning right at a roundabout, when the cake tipped over to the side on its stand. Not worrying about the traffic around me, I screeched the car over to the side of the road, got out and ran frantically around to the passenger side (where the cake had been sitting). Anyone who saw me would've seen a stressed out, cursing, stroppy woman! Thankfully, the cake was saved, and I made it to the party without any major damage. From now on, I get someone to come with me when I deliver my cakes!

I had four cakes to deliver to a swanky country club for a wedding. There was a two-tier groom's cake, and there were a one tier, two tier, and three tier stacked presents cakes for the bride. This was also my second wedding of that day.

We got to the club and the top tier of the three-tier cake looked like it had been skinned. The back (or what suddenly became the back!) of it, the icing slid right off. It was a quilted pattern with fondant pearls at the intersections, and I didn't have the impression mat with me to make it look completely like new.

AND the venue had no idea the bride ordered that many cakes, so I repaired the cake on a credenza while the staff swapped out the small round table for a long sofa table sort of a table. They put it up against a wall so that the repaired side of the cake wasn't so obvious.

It took forever to get everything fixed and set up, and by the time I got home I was literally sick to my stomach and thought I would vomit. My friend told me to call the venue and ask if the cake was okay, because I was so stressed about it, so I did and they checked and said it was still fine (this was about two hours after I'd left).

This turned out to be one of my favorite cakes of all time. Unfortunately, either the florist or some "helpful" attendant sprinkled violets all over all three silver and white bride's cakes. Imagine sprinkling salt over a pot of soup or something, and then imagine doing the same thing with violets and that's what it looked like. Except in the middle of the silver dress bows, they put little "patties" of violets. It looked awful with the flowers all over it, but the bride was really happy and it didn't fall after I left, so I'm okay now.

Deanna

I was stacking a very elaborate 4 tier birthday cake at a swanky hotel ballroom when I had my first near-death experience. Everything was doweled before I left the house and I waited to stack when I arrived. The bottom two tiers were fine, then I placed the third without a problem. I set the 4th (a VERY heavy tier) on and the third started to go backwards. Evidently I had a dowel starting to lean under the third tier. Did I mention I had an audience?

I remained calm (like this happens all the time-OY!) and quickly grabbed the top two tiers back off and set them aside. I redoweled my second tier and placed the top two back on. I still didn't like how the top tier looked but I left it alone. The cake was fine and beautiful and nobody knew except for those watching-who only knew that I remained calm on the outside even though I was freaking out on the inside.

The only disaster I've had was a Guinness can cake that I tried to to make for my husband's birthday. It was 4 6 x 3" layers which stacked beautifully. Then I tried to cover it with fondant...one side looked great, the other totally tore about 1/3 of the way down. So, we just looked at it from the front! It still tasted great!

well, my biggest and most horrible disaster happened just a couple weeks ago with a wedding cake!!! My worst nightmare realized. I stacked the 4 tiered cake, put it in a box took pictures, put it in my van, drove it to the venue and all was fine, pulled it out of the box, set it on the table, looked gorgeous!! Went out to my car to get the matching sheetcake for the kitchen and look over at my beautiful cake and...what's that?? Is it leaning??? Looks like it's leaning! I ditch the sheetcake on a counter run to my beloved creation and realize the top 3 tiers are leaning, but why?? I stacked like I always stack with wooden dowels and double cardboards between each layer, it was a 4,6,8,10....not even very heavy cakes, what's going on?? Ah hah!!! The dowels in the bottom cake had shifting and were no longer supporting the weight, so I removed the top three tiers, had some elderly woman pull the dowel out from the bottom (central dowels I pounded in trying to get it to stop leaning) and set them on a counter to clear the damaged cake off the board. Then I hear it, the elderly woman screamed! She had bumped the 3 tiers and they fell!!!!! She managed to catch the bottom two so only the 4" was lost completely. The 8" was too damaged from her hand going into the side to catch it, so I refrosted half of the 6" with a piping bag, redid the design and put their flowers on it and brought out the sheetcake I so callously ditched in the kitchen moments before.

So they ordered a 4 tiered cake and got a 6" round and a half sheet cake!!! What a nightmare!!!

oh did I mention there were grease spots on the cake board that we had to cover with SOMETHING so someone found this lacy yellow ribbon, bride's colors were peach and sage green!! yikes. I pinned it all around the board and it wound up looking like that gawdy fluff wilton sells with stick pins in it which I hid by using some of their confetti! ugh!

I had my first cake disaster one week ago. I really don't know what happened. I have delivered wedding cakes and tiered cakes with no problem in 90 degree heat and humidity. Last week I had a one, mind you aONE layer cake, torted and filled with pineapple filling with bc. It was a humid 80 degree day, I looked at the cake before I left and it was fine. I stayed behind a slow truck and only had to make a couple of turns, slowly.

When I got to the customers house, the top of the cake was hanging over on one side by about 1 1/2 inches. I was totally shocked! This had never happened before. Not being able to transport a ONE layer cake! I was so embarassed. I was able to push it back together and fix the icing, but that made the white and gray icing muddle together and look marbled. I think I was more upset than the client. I gave her a discount on the cake. Now I am trying to get over this.

My first slider was last March and I would have had NO idea how to fix it without all of the helpful threads CC'ers had posted, sharing their disasters and how they fixed it!

I pulled the bottom tier out (it was the slider) and the bride had a 3-tier instead of a 4-tier. We were still able to cut-n-serve the bottom tier (so she lost no cake) but we had to do that in the kitchen.

Well, I only make cakes for friends and family right now but you would think I was making them for millions of dollars the way I stress over making them just right. My husband and I don't argue much unless he is driving with me to deliver a cake, LOL. I make him drive slow and I flip out when he takes a turn or brakes. I have only had one problem, knock on wood. I made a 9x13 cake that looked like a box of Huggies with fondant wrapped twinkies on top to look like diapers. It was sitting on the seat on my SUV and it fell off the seat. It only damaged one side which I was able to fix most of and no one really noticed.

My first and only (so far) cake disaster was a year ago. I made a cake for my step son's birthday. It was only 2 tiers, but the layers were thick and the so was the filling.. so it was a little "jello-y) but was fine. I decorated both tiers.. kept adding and adding and had so much fun decorating.. when it came time to stack, the top tier was pretty heavy. I was trying to center the top tier as i started to lower it to the cake, the back went down first and the cake slid off the cake board. it was too heavy for the angle i was holding it! i started to laugh! there was nothing else i could do! it was going to smooth and easy. I was gratefuly that i had extra butter cream so i wasn't in any stress. I baked another cake... made sure this one was going to be a think cake bec. I had no filling left. and i completed the cake. Of course this new tier was not a tall as the other as i didn't fill it, but it worked and the cake as a hit!

My worst disaster was my very first wedding cake. I depressed me for weeks, but I used it as a learning experience! (Have come a long way since then!)

I didn't know you can't use an all butter buttercream on a wedding cake, unless the room is nice and cold. It was a simple three tiered cake, that I didnt even assemble till I got to the site. I had predoweled it as well. I arrived at this community center, on a rainy hot day. They had the doors opened to the outside (they were moving in chairs..outdoor wedding that had to be moved indoors) and they had the doors to the kitchen opened with all kinds of cooking. It was like a 80 degree steam bath in there. I should have refused to set up the cake. But I didn't know any better. I set up the tiers, and do the piping and everything is fine. We were getting into the car, when they come running out to tell me the cake is falling over! I run back inside and the buttercream is litterlly melting off the cake. It had some piped designs on it, so I repipe them, and ask them to please turn the AC up and close the doors and got out of there. I am sure the cake didn't survive, but I never heard from the bride (not even for her anniversary cake a year later!) I am sure everyone is talking about that cake! haha

I now have in my contract I won't set up a cake in a warm room...period. hahaha!

I made a boob cake for my cousins graduation party...for a funny cake for the after party he was having with all his goofy friends. I was soo proud of it lol!! It looked really good...for what it was.
It was a 1/4 sheet cake and the board I had on hand was just almost exactly the same size of the cake so there was no where to hold onot it, so I sat it on 1/2 sheet board I had just to transport it....I got it to thier house just fine...went to get something else out of that car...the caks started to slide and I over corrected and the whole thing landed face down in the grass!!

Thank goodness it was for family!! i screamed as it fell and then I just stood there outside bawlign my eyes out!! I was sooo mad at myself for doign something sooo stupid!!

Thanfully it was covered in fondant and my family pealled the fondant off and ate it anyways!! And the REAL cake for the party was fine!!