Hi all,

I'm a hobby baker, doing it for fun, but someday would like to become professional.  I've mostly been baking cakes for friends and family, work, etc.  I have little experience with carving or stacking, although I took a carving class a few weeks ago.  Anyway, Husband asked for a cake for a work friend's birthday, and requested a very specific design.  He wanted a sheet cake, carved to look like a pet bed, with a cat inside the bed.  I know this is quite a bit for my skills, but was eager to take on the challenge.  I baked and decorated the cat portion first, then carved out the sheet cakes, and set the cat inside the sheet cake.  Board and all.  Husband is just livid that I left the board in the cake.  Every stacked cake tutorial I've ever seen uses boards and dowels, so I thought that was how it was done.  Did I do something wrong?  I was so disappointed in his reaction that I didn't take any pictures of the cake.  Here's a diagram I drew afterwards.  There's a 12x18 sheet, a layer of buttercream, another 12x18 sheet which is carved to create the edges of the pet bed, and the cat cake with board is in the middle of the carved cake.  Should I not have put the board in?  It seemed right at the time. 

Thanks everyone for your advice.  I'm just so frustrated right now.

Not sure the size/weight of your cat cake.    For ease of cutting, I put a board under everything that is stacked.    That way they would cut the cat cake and not worry about going through to the half sheet.    I would've put a board under the cat cake.  Was the board showing?  I don't understand all the uproar...Tell him to chill out. 

Yea I'm not sure I understand why he is so upset. There should be a board under the cat cake, any tiered cake should have some kind of cake board underneath for structural purposes. Now if your talking about a board in between layers of cake then that is not necessary and should be avoided in the future.

You did it right! 

The cat is on a board, on the cake with filling in it.  Just like your diagram.  Good job!  

I make my living doing cakes --You're right, he's wrong. And he was livid? As in furiously angry? How about being grateful you even did all this work for him regardless of how it turned out
 

AIf it wasn't that this is your husband you're talking about I would have words of description for someone becoming irrationally angry like this. You made the cake correctly; he doesn't understand.

You're right.  He's wrong.  End of story.

First off like everyone else said you are right, you do need a board under the cat.  My only question is was the board big and covered the whole surface of the cake it was sitting on or did you trim the board smaller more in the shape of the cat and fill in any part of the board with frosting/decorations so you couldn't see the board?

Thank you guys, I was starting to second-guess myself.  The board was not big at all, it stuck out maybe 1/4" from the cat, and after setting it in place, I piped decorations around so you couldn't even see the board on the finished product.  I think Husband won't be getting any more of my cakes for awhile.  I'll make a few so he can see what he's missing, and donate them to the firemen or my job or someplace. 

haha, yeah, stick him on the 'no cake for you' list!

AI have a husband like that, too. He thinks he knows everything, and loves to lecture me on stuff I do every day, like how to use a knife. I bet he felt dumb when went to cut the cake at work and found the board, and tried to cover his ignorance with blame. Hope he learned his lesson. Men can be such babies.

Wow...if the cake board didn't show, can't imagine what his problem is...I agree, no cake for him!!

Your husband doesn't know what he's talking about.

If I were you I would be tempted to make him one more cake...a nice red dog house with feet sticking out...he'll get the idea.

Had a customer get mad at me once because there was a board in their 2 tier cake. Ask him if he would have rather had a smooshed cake with a dead cat from all of the fallen debris

Meghan, Have your husband read this thread.