AThis was not a cake I made, but an incredible Mother's Day cake that a friend had done for my grandmother (it was a Powerball ticket). At the time, I knew nothing about non - skid pads or putting it in the trunk, so my husband put it on the back seat. I'm driving to my grandmother's house down a back road and there's a woman walking her dog on my side. All of a sudden the dog runs into the road, and at the same time another car comes speeding up the other side. I had nowhere to go and I had to slam on the breaks. I hear/feel the cake box hit the back of my seat and flop to the floor.

I pulled over and got out. There was pink frosting all over my back seat. The woman with the dog walks over and says, It's just a cake. I wanted to say YOU couldn't control YOUR dog and I had to slam on the breaks to avoid hitting it!

I cried the whole way to my grandmother's house. All my cousins teased me about it and the worst part was telling my friend I'd ruined her hard work. But I have never put a cake in the back seat again! And I always tell my customers to have a FLAT surface available when they pick up, and I keep non-skid rolls at home just in case they need it :)

AOh no!! I can't believe the woman's reaction!! So sorry you had to go through that, but on the plus side at least you know how to deliver a cake now :-)

Poor you - my heart is always in my mouth for pick ups. Every decorators nightmare

AYou are so right. I was super paranoid for a while, and my friend who had done the cake uses the story as a "lesson learned" too, lol. On the upside, only the bottom half (it was a sheet cake) got totally destroyed so we ended up cutting that part away and eating the half that somewhat survived, though the frosting was a little smudged :)

AWell atleast everybody got cake

Oh no! That must have been awful for you! I always worry about moving cakes, I always think I am going to drop it on the way to the car!

I am really new to cake decorating and I had a cake disaster with the last cake I made.

It was a bright pink handbag cake I made for a friends birthday and considering I haven't made many cakes I was quite pleased with it.

I called the restaurant we were going to for her birthday meal to check it was ok to store the cake there just before my friend arrived as it was a surprise, I also checked they had somewhere suitable to store the cake and they said yes.

After the meal they brought the cake out and it was collapsing and the sugar paste was dripping off it, when I asked them where they had kept the cake they said on a bench next to the OVEN!! 

I learnt something that day, to look after my own cake right until the very last second.

AOh no!!! Your heart must have broke when they brought the cake out, I would have been so angry.

I was, but my friend thought it looked great and said she didn't even notice it was sinking, she thought I had made it like that to make it look more like material. Well, it was quite dark in the restaurant! :)

AWell atleast she loved it :-)

ADid you take pictures beforehand? I'm sure it was beautiful :) I've found that even people in the restaurant industry have no clue what cakes/baking is all about.

This was the bag I made, like I said, I am new to this so it's not perfect, I think this was the 5th cake I ever made and my first handbag cake, but it looked a lot better here, than when they brought it out after sweating it next to an oven! Oh well, plenty of mistakes to learn from with this cake, and not just with the decorating! :)

AThat is fabulous!! I love the look on it, seriously great job!!

AGorgeous! You have a lot to be proud of :) Nothing I've done has been that good.

Thank you :) 

I was really proud of it when I made it (Not so much now when I look back at photos) but I think we all pick out the faults with our own cakes.

By the time the restaurant brought it out it was about 3 inches shorter and the sugar paste had split and sort of melted in about 4 places and all the buttercream was squirting through the splits :(

I will never leave a cake in someone elses care again!

Thank you for the lovely comments x

AAw, you're a doll! Thank you. I loved doing the harvest cake, but that one was almost another disaster! None of my candy clay would set, I had to stay up all night trying to mold the pieces, lol.

A[B][/B]maybe we shouldn't think of them as disasters but as lessons? It might make it a bit easier to deal with when something goes wrong. I know I have had many 'lessons' (disasters) in the 5-6 months I have been decorating x