AHi guys, my 10" round cake broke into 3 pieces while I was moving it (still undecorated) to my cake board. It's one of the layers for the bottom tier of a 3-tier stacked, fondant decorated cake. It had plenty of time to cool overnight, and I've made this recipe numerous times before without a hitch, so I put it down to me not being careful/gentle enough.

Anyway, my question is, should I forge ahead (the cake will be ganached under fondant) or should I rebake? The cake is due tomorrow morning so I'm afraid it won't have time to cool sufficiently for me to complete decorating today (it's 1.20pm Friday where I am), but I'm not sure if the entire cake will sag/crumble if use the "broken" cake?

Am pretty new at this, so would appreciate experienced CC-ers advice. Starting to panic now!

Thanks.

If in doubt I would rebake where possible but it sounds that you may not have enough time for that. 

If the cake was for a paying customer I would make another, working through the night if necessary but if it's for a friend or being done for cost/free then you could stick the broken bits together with ganache and use this as the middle layer, so the undamaged ones are top and bottom, making it easier to cover flawlessly.  Chances are they'd never notice anyway.
 

Hi Suzanne, Thanks for taking the time to respond. I was going to try using the broken layer, but it fell apart more when I tried moving it, so I bit the bullet and re-baked the layer. It was ordered by my friend for his son's 1st birthday, but I was going to gift it anyway (didn't tell until after the party).. regardless I wouldn't have wanted my cake to fall apart on anyone :) Worked through the night I did, indeed! But it was well worth it. Here's a picture.. it was a Dr. Seuss' Oh, the Places You'll Go!-themed party. My first stacked cake, so lots to improve on!

Thanks again :)

Ally

AThats a great cake! :)

Very cute, amazing what we can do when our backs are to the wall

Love your cake!! It looks great! You're a wonderful friend and such a pro!

ABeen there too! Great job pulling through. Do you freeze your cake layers? I'd like to know how you made the clouds and elephants?

Letty38: Thanks :)

wildflowercakes: yes I think caking (cake baking and decorating) is a good character builder.. you can't just give up, and HAVE to make things work somehow!

cakefat: thank you, but I'm far from being a pro.. the cake isn't perfectly centered or level, if you look at it at eye-level *sheepish grin*

Rommy: Hi there. I don't freeze my cake layers, although I do know that makes them easier to handle. I'm not comfortable with the idea of doing so, might have to give it a try some day, but my freezer is pretty small and full! The clouds were made using a flower cutter. I just stretched the flowers out a bit to look less flower-like. As for the elephants (my favourite thing about this cake :)), I printed a picture of the elephant, made sure it's the size I want and traced it onto a piece of cardboard. Cut around the template with a sharp knife, and add on details with an edible ink pen. Do give it a go, it's pretty simple, albeit a bit time consuming.. the thinner parts (trunk and tail) are rather fragile, so be careful not to break them.

BTW, noticed your profile picture.. I'm planning to make a giant cupcake rose bouquet for my mom on Mother's Day.. my giant cupcake mold just arrived, can't wait! I hope mine turns out as nicely as yours.. your "flowerpot" is flawless! Did you use candy melts or just coloured white chocolate?

Cheers!

AAlly, that cake is soooo freaking cute!!! I love it. You did an amazing job, I didn't notice the middle tier was ever so slightly off centered until you mentioned it. Then I had to go back and look!! Lol you are being too hard on yourself, it's a flawless beautiful cake.

Btw, I understand the issue with with freezer space but freezing the cakes (even for just an hour) will make them so much easier to stack and ice. When I use buttercream on a slightly frozen cake it is so easy to ice that I don't have to do a crumb coat if I'm in a major hurry and short on time/energy!

That is a really cute cake. I love it.
 

AAlly, as far as the material you used for the clouds and elephants...fondant, gumpaste? I just made my giant cupcake two weeks ago using the wilton pan. I made the cupcake liner with melted Merckens candy melts using a tutorial from a fellow cakecentral member.

A

Thanks, haha.. I guess we are our worst critics. Of course we spend hours working on and scrutinizing our cakes so closely, we see every single flaw! On freezing cakes, do you decorate with fondant, and if you do, do you have problems with the fondant getting sticky? Or do you wait till the cake is fully thawed and at room temp before covering with fondant?

A

Thanks for the compliment, BakerBee :) Will let Rommy answer your question, but I found this tutorial (link below), not sure if it's the same one Rommy used :)

http://cakecentral.com/tutorial/giant-cupcake-candy-melt-base

A

I used fondant, with a bit of CMC kneaded in. I made the clouds (and balloons) a couple of days earlier to let them harden, to add some dimension to the cake, but the elephants were made the day of, as I wanted them stuck flat on the cake. HTH.

AAlly, I've never attempted freezing a fully covered fondant cake. Reason being is that once when I first starting to play around with fondant I made a buttercream cake (that I do freeze without a problem) with fondant ribbons and polka dots and when the cake started to come back to room temp the colored fondant started to bleed and dripped all over the place. I was mopping it up with a paper towel! Disaster! Fortunately I was gifting it to a friends baby shower and it did have super cute figures of an elephant and giraffe to take attention away from the dribbles around the bottom. Live and learn. So for that reason I haven't tried to freeze a fondant cake, however, I did just read a thread (several cc's replied) saying they freeze fondant without a problem. I know it wouldn't change the taste of the cake but I'd be concerned about the color staying put.

As far as BC cakes go, I freeze mine (so i can make them a couple days ahead ans spread out my work) then wait until they get the condensation beads all around the cake then put fondant on top. Sticks like glue! I'm just fortunate that my MIL bought me a huge deep freezer BC she owns a wagyu beef farm in AL - she just hasn't been sending as much lately do I have two shelves for cake space. Otherwise I'd always be stressed and overwhelmed having to cram all the steps into one or two days. Then caking wouldn't be so fun!

ABtw... What type of marker did you use to outline and shade your dr Seuss cake? I

AYes actually I did mean freezing cakes before covering with fondant.. I don't think I'll ever have the courage to freeze a fondant decorated cake, although I did read here that some have done it before successfully. So when you do it, the condensation helps the fondant to stick to the cake, but there's no problem with the fondant getting sticky with all that moisture? I might have to try that someday, it's very warm where I am and I don't work in an air conditioned room, so it's very difficult to get a smooth finish.

The outlines on the bands that go around the cake were painted on with a brush and food colouring (and a prayer), whereas the details on all other elements were drawn with an Americolour edible ink pen.

A big, deep freezer AND access to wagyu beef fresh from the farm?? Not.fair! :D

AYes, I'm lucky I know! And she paid for the deep freezer and told me to get the biggest one so I could use it for my cakes too! I thought that was awesome, I'm very appreciative of the meat, it comes in handy and helps keep down my food cost.

Now as for cake. I have never had an issue with the fondant becoming sticky from the condensation. In fact having some condensation allows the fondant to be easily picked up and re-situated if necessary. But now that I figured out the viva paper towel trick and can make the BC look beautifully smooth I hope to rely less on fondant to achieve that look. On the other hand, I just learned how to make MMF and it's so much better tasting than Wilton but my kitchen, clothes, and favorite slippers were completely dusted in powder sugar!! What type of fondant do you use?

ABakerbee Please do let me know if you had to shave down the base. Seems like you would have to since the chocolate will be thick and make the spacing off a little. I'm practicing with one this week as well so I'll come back and let you know as well.

that cake looks awesome well done!

A

AAllycrumbs & BakerBee, that is the exact tutorial I followed. I did have to shave cake off the bottom half (pretty much the ridges) as well as a thin slice off the bottom. I crumb coated both pieces, refrigerated them, added a thin layer of swiss BC to the inside of the liner, then slid the cake in.

A

Hi TheLoveofSugar, BakerBee and Rommy,

Just checking back in to share the giant cupcake rose bouquet I made for Mother's Day. I had to make the chocolate "cupcake liner" 4 times before I was completely happy with it (and even then, wasn't completely happy with it).

The plan was to have a blue liner but candy melts aren't that easily available where I am and are rather pricey, so I coloured some melted white chocolate instead. Saw it done this way in another tutorial. It worked fine the first 2 times I re-melted the base, but it just wouldn't melt enough the third time. It stayed thick and goopy, so I ditched the whole thing and used milk chocolate instead.

I had to shave the base down, but only very slightly. Just the ridges, like Rommy said.

So here it is.. I know my roses are atrocious I really wanted to scrape them all off and start again, but my Mom was due home at any time, so it had to do. Do share the ones you made, TheLoveofSugar and BakerBee!