I mostly bake cakes as a hobby for friends and family. Occasionally I will do one for money. I'd like to step my cakes up a notch, but not sure where I am going wrong. I made this wedding cake for my nephew for this weekend. I iced the cakes flat and put them in the cold oven to store overnight. I came home from work and opened the oven to take them out, and it felt warm, like someone had used the oven, and put the cakes back in before it was completely cooled. All three kids swore they hadn't used the oven. After thinking about it for a while, I surmised that since I had left the light on in the oven, it generated enough heat to cause some damage. The smaller tier had a big bulge in the side and the frosting was sliding off. The middle tier didn't appear to have any damage, but the frosting was very soft and looked slightly discolored from the heat. I scraped the top tier and re-iced. I left the middle tier as is. I finished the cake up tonight, but it just looks very amateurish to me. Any suggestions (other than to never store cakes in the oven with the light on!)???

(I tried several times to attach a photo, to no avial... just another FAIL tonight!. I posted a pic of the cake in my photos)

If you're unhappy with the middle tier, is there any way you can re-ice it tonight? If not, do you have a picture of the cake? Maybe someone can suggest what to add to help it out.

Is it the "cherry blossom" cake on the floating tiers cake stand in your photos?

Rae

Those lights will give off a lot of heat. I found that out when I put a cake in the microwave just to store for a while & had the light under on. (Microwave over the range) It got really warm in there! Good Luck with the cake.

Rae:

Yes it is the cherry blossom cake on the floating tiers cake stand.

Though they were happy with the cake, I would like to do better. I do believe that the time factor is my biggest issue (not enough of it). I work 9-5 M-F, with a two hour commute each day. In the previous week I don't think I got to bed before 2:00 a.m. and at least once at 3 a.m. and then had to get up at 7:00 to go to work. I definitely don't want to do more than one cake a week! I also had done the fondant flowers previous to any cake baking or decorating.

I probably could (and should) have re-iced the middle tier, but since it was different from the other two tiers, I decided to leave it.

Do you have a gas oven? If so, a pilot ignition could give off a little heat as well. Not sure if would be enough to effect a cake or not... but I wouldn't take the chance

Cindy,

The oven is electric, less than a year old! No pilot light, just the light bulb. I definitely won't keep anything inside that I don't want heated! What does everyone do for storage???

Thanks!

Sorry you had such a discouraging moment. I've had them many, many times myself. I usually store my cakes in my fridge, just to make sure the kids (and anything else) stays out of them.

Never heard of storing an iced cake in the oven that seems like a no no to me, oven light on or off.

why did you store it in the cold oven? Do you have pets in the house or something? WHen I was at home, I just left them on the counter or on a table.

We have several window A/C units in our house and I keep my cakes directly across the room from the a/c unit in the dining room (connected to the kitchen) on top of a china cabinet that is only about shoulder height - makes it easy to lift them on and off the cabinet as I work on them. Don't have to use the refrigerator unless it is a perishable filling/icing in the winter when the heat is running. The dining room (which is also where I store most of my cake decorating supplies) is the coolest room in my house and keeps the cakes cool and undamaged.

Yes, Indydebi, I do have pets, so I don't dare leave anything within reach, which includes the countertops. Alex looooooooves frosting! Maybe I'll have to think about an extra refrigerator for cakes. I was under the impression that if you refrigerate your cakes, they will dry out, so I was hesitant to store them in the fridge.

I refridgerate all my cakes.I would never store them in the oven cause #1..I would forget it is in there and probably turn on the oven and #2...You need to keep them cold to be sturdy .A cold cake is never dry if the right icing is on the outside..It acts as a barrier to hold all the moisture in...I would empty out my house fridge first (I have one in the garage also) before I would let a cake sit out at room temp!

An un-iced cake will dry out in the fridge, once covered with frosting or fondant I've never had a problem, moist and delicious even a couple days later.

You can freeze your cakes too. This helps when you work full-time, as I do. If I have a cake due on Friday, I usually make my cakes on Monday and freeze. Icing on Tuesday (into fridge in air-tight container and damp paper towel on top), any fondant work or gumpaste earlier in the week also. Wednesday, cakes out of freezer to defrost and settle. Thursday, pull everything together. Doing a little each evening is a lot less stressful then trying to do everything all at once.

cabecakes you sound like me...that is exactly what I do except i don't thaw mine out I take them out of the freezer and crumb coat them then put into fridge till I'm ready to decorate them..

I refrigerate all my cakes once they are iced. Fondant, ganache, bc...all of them. I often leave un-iced out at room temp for a day before I ice them. But I keep them very well covered or they dry out.

I attempted to make an apple cake and it turned out lop-sided.
I LOVE love loveYOUR APPLE CAKE THAT YOU HAVE AS YOUR PROFILE PIC'!
I received what I thought was good advice but turned out not to be! when she asked me two months later about it, I told her what happened she says " well yes, I told you it would fall...gravity honey!"
boy was I ever teed off!!!!!
So my question to u is, would you mind explaining to me how you made this cake? I would appreciate soooooo much.
thank-you graziaxo

I freeze my cakes the second they are cool enough to wrap. I crumb coat them frozen and then frost BC in layers...refrigerating (not freezing) between each coat. The cake thaws slowly in the cooler. I keep them iced in the refrigerator until time to decorate. After adding my fondant decor (usually the same day as delivery) I deliver as cold a cake as I can (without it being frozen) an hour before an event. Most cakes sit out for several hours so they have time to come to room temp. If I have to decorate the night before I will put the cake in a box and wrap with cling wrap to avoid moisture in the fondant. My cakes are always moist. Do NOT put in an oven again!
Also, after looking at your picture, you might want to consider making your tiered cake boards a bit thicker and running a coordinating ribbon or fondant ribbon around it to dress them up a bit more.

You, definitely need to let them settle at least 4 - 6 hours, or you can get bulges.

lately, with so many cakes to do, I do the following:
Bake Sun, torte and fill Mon/Tues
Freeze whole, no wrapping
Thurs- pull out, let come to "cool" at room temp, Ice
Refrigerate overnight
Decorate Fri
finish Sat am. Deliver.
Then I repeat, over and over and over again....

I'm so confused right now. reading all the different methods you ladies go through, it makes me dizzy. freeze or not to freeze? refridgerate or not? I have no knowledge except for what I read and get off line. I have two little ones so taking a class right isn't possible. so can anyone please tell me if they make the cakes from scratch or use the boxed ones? I really would like some answers from experienced bakers. have I told u ladies that I'm so grateful to have found this site!!!! thx grazia

thx so much for responding. I understand that everyone has their own way to do things. I believe it was my cakes that made it callapse. I used a DH cake mix followed by the recipe with 4 tbsp of egg whites/1/2 c of water/1/3 oil/pudding mix and 1 c of sour cream!!!!!!!!
Now my gut is telling me that the cakes we're tooooo moist. what do u think?xo

It really doesn't matter what recipe you use, it is all in the way you support it. Your recipe is fine, I have used similar ones and never had a problem.

Thx for reassuring me that my cakes are fine, what a relief
I placed a 9" round over a 14" square cake and placed around 5-6 dowels where the 9" round was going to be.
There wasn't any support any where else on the bottom tier!
I also placed a wooden dowel in the middle of both tiers for extra support and I don't know if this was right or not!
thank-you ladies

Yes, that's good for support! You only need the support to hold up the 9" tier and the dowel through is good to help from sliding. The SPS is also a really good system. I use that for wedding cakes!! I Love them!.

[quote="Karen421"]Yes, that's good for support! You only need the support to hold up the 9" tier and the dowel through is good to help from sliding. The SPS is also a really good system. I use that for wedding cakes!! I Love them!.[/quote]

thank-you for this! can u tell me then y it fell? I used BAVARIAN CREAM & BC filling. I didn't refrifgerate them at all. Do you think this was the cause of it falling?
would u mind telling me what SPS is? I've tried looking on CC but cannot find it.???