AI don't know what have I done wrong? The cake or the frosting there's water like leaking, please help ;(
[IMG]http://cakecentral.com/content/type/61/id/3165885/width/200/height/400[/IMG]
ADo you use simple syrup on your cakes, and maybe used WAY too much? Is your fat to sugar ratio off if you are using American buttercream? It's got to be a moisture issue, but somehow you've got to narrow down the source
AAny chance your cake wasn't quite cool when you assembled and decorated it?
My vote is buttercream separating and leaking out the bottom. I have only ever had this happen the one time I used ABC. It was on this cake:
The top tier was wheat free and dairy free cake with ABC made with margarine, organic shortening and vanilla soy coffee creamer for flavoring to thin it out and make it usable. I basically used the ABC recipes ratios I normally see here on CC but used dairy free subs.
The bottom tier was my regular cake with my regular SMBC, I was AMAZED that the top tier leaked, was mushy, impossible to cover in fondant and get a sharp edge, and the fondant stayed tacky and damp no matter how long I had the fan on it. The bottom tier was perfectly fine. Not damp, tacky, totally dry, and looked perfect.
Now, I know I made dairy free ABC with organic shortening and all that so the consistency is slightly different then if I used Crisco, but I have ONLY ever had this problem when I've made ABC even using butter and Crisco. My assistant, that comes from another bakery that only used ABC, said "that happens all the time" and the explanation she told me is if you add too much flavoring to your ABC, like cream, extract, liquid coffee creamer etc it can separate out and leak out the bottom of your cake. And I'm sure others with WAY more experience using ABC can explain why I had one perfect cake and one sucky cake, but this conclusion made perfect sense to me.
Better luck next time!
From Scratch...that is one adorable cake! leaking or not!
Alton Brown did an episode of Good Eats explaining tempering chocolate and it was excellent. It was on You Tube forever and I have posted the link so many times on here - now I can't find it on You Tube and I am really bummed, looks like it was taken down for copyright. 
Honestly, tempering chocolate is an art and it takes practice - that's why most people buy candy melts, which need no tempering and when cooled are nice and shiny. I used to really hate candy melts because they are a hydrogenated product that are "chocolate flavored", meaning they contain no chocolate or cocoa butter, but actually the Barry brand of confectionery coating actually contains real chocolate and cocoa butter, but acts like a candy melt and requires no tempering. It tastes, well, like if you melted a bar of real chocolate into a bag of candy melts, So not perfect, but good enough for me.
AI spoke with a very experienced baker once about my frosting sliding off of my cake (I was a teenager, so I called it frosting. It's ABC now). He asked about my recipe, and explained that with ABC, the fat to sugar should be about 1:4 (more sugar, by weight, than fats). And there really doesn't need to be a ton of liquid in ABC. Just enough to make it spreadable. I've gone by this 'rule' ever since (15 years, give or take), and it hasn't let me down yet.
colette's formula for abc has this 1:4 ratio
half pound fat
two pounds powdered sugar
half cup liquid
A
Original message sent by FromScratchSF
Alton Brown did an episode of Good Eats explaining tempering chocolate and it was excellent. It was on You Tube forever and I have posted the link so many times on here - now I can't find it on You Tube and I am really bummed, looks like it was taken down for copyright. :(
Honestly, tempering chocolate is an art and it takes practice - that's why most people buy candy melts, which need no tempering and when cooled are nice and shiny. I used to really hate candy melts because they are a hydrogenated product that are "chocolate flavored", meaning they contain no chocolate or cocoa butter, but actually the Barry brand of confectionery coating actually contains real chocolate and cocoa butter, but acts like a candy melt and requires no tempering. It tastes, well, like if you melted a bar of real chocolate into a bag of candy melts, So not perfect, but good enough for me.
Sorry this post it to the wrong thread. I guess Cake Central is wiggling out today. or user error. probably user error.
AMy abc is 1# butter, 1/2# shortening and 1/4 c heavy cream. No where near the 4:1 ratio you guys are talking about. I've never had this problem, and I'm in a very humid environment. Weird.
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