I don't know if it was the heat ( I live in Florida) or the filling I had, but when I got to the party my bottom tier was a droopy mess. Arghh!!! I tried fixing it but the square shape ended up looking sort of like a pillow. I was so sick to my stomach. I put it in the refrigerator once I got there, but it didn't help much. The filling I used was the Oreo filling from this site. I thought it was stable enough but it ended up bulging ALOT. Was there something I did wrong? Or can I blame it on the heat? It's prob. a mixture of the two. The cake was for a first birthday party and by the end looked ok (totally lost it's shape), but everyone loved the taste and that's important. Ugh. I CANNOT imagine if this happened for a wedding!

It's the HEAT all the way. There's nothing in the way of cake filling or anything you can put under fondant that will hold up to the Florida heat in the summer! My go-to thing for filling cakes in the hot, humid mess that is the summer in Cancún is ganache, because it resists better than buttercream. But I only use the thinnest layer of it under my fondant - just enough to get the fondant to stick to the cake, and sometimes, when it's really hot, I don't even use that: the humidity in the air makes the cake moist enough to stick fondant to. Otherwise, the stuff melts and kind of slips down the sides of my cake! All I can say is I wish you the best of luck in this, and may you always find venues that have an excess of airconditioning! You'd probably have a better chance of that where you live than I would - I don't even have AC in my kitchen!

Last summer, I made a 3d firetruck for a friend's groom's cake and part of the fondant accents slipped right off the cake. Unbeknownst to me, there was no air conditioning in the reception area and it was over 100 outside, so you can only imagine how hot it was inside and there was no where to keep the cake cool. The wedding party got to the reception over 2 hours late, so there was nothing that could be done to salvage the cake after exposure to extreme heat. I was humiliated but there was nothing I could do and she had assured me that the Army room she rented was air conditioned. The bride's cake literally melted. Awful!

Oh my goodness! That does sound horrible. I was so embarrassed. I can't imagine baking in a kitchen with no AC! Or having no AC at the reception. I'm glad I'm not alone in this!

Sorry to hear that! Do you use Indydebi's BC? It holds up really well in the heat, being crisco based. I use that for the oreo cookie filling and it's really yummy. It usually doesn't get that hot here and it's really dry (I think humidity is the culprit more than heat), but there is a lot of testimony to that BC in heat and humidity!

I use Indys and love it!!! Im in South Texas outside of Houston and we get HOT & HUMID!!!! Ive done cakes and have had them outside under a shade in temps of 98....crust good, and cake stays moist inside, and I get request for this recipe when I make a cake....

Last cake I used Sugar Shacks because the temps had hit 103 and our party was outside also, she has no milk products in it...and I was afraid to take any chances...BOTH ARE VERY GOOD RECIPES!!!!

I use all-shortening buttercream, but I can't use either IndyDebi's or Sugarshack's because I can't get all the ingredients here. But I've had it just puddle under fondant, although it holds up pretty well on its own. I think it's actually a combination of both the heat and the humidity. Also, I think kitchens with AC are sort of an American phenomenon, because I've heard from several Australians here on CC who live in hot, humid places that don't have AC in their kitchens, either. When I think of the effects of heat and humidity together, I'm reminded of those T-shirts in New Orleans that, instead of saying "It's not the heat, it's the humidity", say "It's not the heat, it's the stupidity" - somehow the combination of heat and moisture in the air addles the brain, not to mention the buttercream!

During our Summer our temps reach 45C+ (120F+) with extreme high humidity. Western Australia.

Ganache is the only thing that will tolerate that kind of extreme heat.
Never have i had a cake collapse - melt - or turn into a puddle.

It surely is a brillante medium to work with and is the most used fill/crumbcoat used here in Australia.

Your heat sounds like ours - perhaps try Ganache - i am sure you will have great results and happy customers.

Bluehue.

Yes, I started using ganache after reading posts by you and others in Australia about how well it stood up to the heat and how Planet Cakes used nothing else. And of course, you can't beat the fact that it's delicious, too. And even easier to make than buttercream.

I've tried IndyDebi's recipe before and it worked well for me. I don't know why I didn't use it. I've never had such a problem and it was no hotter yesterday than it is every other day here in Florida. I have never tried Sugar Shack's recipe. How do I make it?

Here's the link to SugarShack's buttercream recipe:
http://cakecentral.com/recipes/5313/sugarshacks-buttercream-icing
As I said, I can't make this one because I can't get hi-ratio shortening and I can't make IndyDebi's because I can't get Dream Whip! But I can get everything I need to make ganache!