Working on my first tiered cake, 15" and 12" octagon, all buttercream with lots of candy decorations, swags, roses etc. I get the cakes frosted and stacked, but I don't quite have all the candy ready yet so I leave the cakes sitting on the table and start working on finishing the candy. Get that done and start putting them on the cake. Long story short, it was over 100 degrees outside today and the AC just wasn't getting the job done. By the time I got all the candy on I realized that my buttercream was melting and falling off. I had to pull all the candy and buttercream off, throw the cakes back in the fridge and wait until tonight to redo the bc and candy. *sigh* I swear I've been reading all these stories and thinking to myself, really? Who cries over cake? But damn if I almost didn't cry today when I had to scrape that frosting off and start over.

OMG! That's aweful! I have been having a terrible time with the heat and humidity this year too!

Sorry about your cake...hope it all works out!

ugh- was it butter-based buttercream? maybe the shortening based (indydebi or sugarshack) one would be better in the heat.

@SugarHigh - Thanks, I'm pretty much done now. Just waiting on the last candy piece, a cross topper to finish setting

@mbark - Yeah, butter and shortening. A cup of each. I think I'll try a different one next time around. I love the taste of this bc but I don't know if I can handle this again!

Finished product:

http://cakecentral.com/modules.php?name=gallery&file=displayimage&pid=1722389&done=1

Not my best work, but for a gift cake and it being my first tiered cake, and first time doing all the candy work I'm fairly happy with it.

I just added a comment to your pic! Beautiful. How did you get that cross to stand on the cake?

Thanks Parabale! It has another piece of candy melted onto the back propping it up, and it melted to a candy plate on top of the cake as well.

Came out wonderfully! Sometimes what we see as disaster is God's way of saying "Meh...you made that look too easy...do it again."

Nice job!!

Well, it got worse. The damn thing fell on me on the way to my friend's house! I think I went wrong by not doweling it through both layers. This particular cake had candy plates on top of each layer, and instead of thinking ahead and drilling holes in them for a center dowel, I just doweled the bottom layer thinking that would be enough. Guess not. From looking at it when we got there, it seems like the top layer slid on the candy plate and when it fell it wiped out the bottom layer with it. I was able to save the top layer, but overall it was just one of those days where I wish I'd never seen a cake! Lesson learned I guess. Can't get better without learning, even if the lessons come trough failure, eh?

OH NO!! I am sorry to hear that! You really had a learning experience the hard way on this one!

I think I would have just turned around and gone home (*%#@) all the way there!

OUCH!!!! That just plain old sucks!!! Sorry for all you've gone through.
Things can only get better from here.