Cake Disasters #1: Cake Disaster

Yesterday sadly I experienced my first major cake disaster since I’ve started baking professionally. I must say it was sad and heart breaking, but I managed. I’ve had mishaps before where I’ve been able to fixed them on the spot. This particular one left me no choice but to start over.

I had promised some friends (a couple that I’ve recently met that I would be baking them one of my yummy cakes,the “Rum Pineapple Upside Down cake”). It’s one of my specialties. There was no charge for the cake. It was just for them to try it out and hopefully order more in the future. Free or not, I wanted my cake not only to taste good, but to look right as well (Everyone knows presentation accounts for a lot in the cake world). We set a time where he would pick up the cake. I was baking, going with the flow knowing that I had ample time in front of me. I baked the cake, everything was looking good up until I realized that I ran out of cake boards to place the cake on. I decided to try to unmold the cake without the board anyway on a regular plate hoping that it would work out. I was wrong. After unmolding unto the plate and transferring to the cake box, my cake fell apart. I wanted to cry. Then I calmed myself down. My mind started going 100 miles/hour trying to figure out the best way to fix this cake disaster. After thinking for a couple of minutes and examining the time, I decided that baking a new cake was my best bet. That I did. I’ve never baked a cake so fast in my whole life. Thank God, it wasn’t a big size cake and didn’t require any icing or fondant. I am very grateful.

I was able to bake the cake in a timely manner and have it ready for pickup. I also had to run to the store to pickup some cake boards (I should’ve done that the first time. The cake was still a little warm when it was picked up, but the most important is the fact it was ready on time, and they loved and raved it about it.

After this awful experience, I realized the importance of always working ahead of schedule in case I am to encounter any cake disasters, and always double check that I have everything I need around.

Hope you don’t experience anything of the kind. If you’ve had, don’t hesitate to share I’d love to hear about them. At least I’ll know I’m not alone.

Rum Pineapple upside-down cake. First major cake disaster
Until next time my Sophisticated friends!