577 cakes in 4 years and I dropped my first wedding cake.

It gives me anxiety even now. I was headed out the door to deliver a small wedding cake with 30 minutes to spare. I was holding the cake in large plastic container as I have mentioned before, holding the cake and container about waste level when I opened to door and crash. The cake hit the floor. After a few choice words, I realized that I had no time for emotions, no time for reactions, I had less than 30 minutes to survey the damage, fix and deliver.
This, in a split second…

turned into this:

Now people ask me all the time, “Have you ever dropped a wedding cake?”
I’m sure we all get asked that question.
I would just look that person in the eye with an evil, cocky grin on my face and say, “Never!”
I took the cake back to the clean work bench to survey the damage. Luckily there was no real damage that couldn’t be fixed.
I tried to focus on my breathing and stay calm. The clock was ticking away. The first thing I did was to start scraping of the border and removing the some of the decorations.

Luckily this is one of the types of cakes that has so much decorations on it, you can really hide the flaws. I filled in the holes with icing and got my Viva paper towel and a fondant smoother and got to work. I smoothed and smoothed and smoothed until I couldn’t smooth no more.

I recycled some of the decorations and luckily had I had some left over fences, shells and flowers.

I was able to pull it together and have the thing delivered right on time.

The main reason I am sharing this message is for the new kids on the block. When I first got back into this 5 years ago, I would be so panicked and so rushed and so full of anxiety. Five years ago, after hammering a supporting dowel down through the center of a 3 tier cake I had the middle layer break apart for some reason. I called my chef friend in a panic to tell him I was going to have to make repairs and be late on the delivery. He said, “Better some cake, then none cake.” and “Stay calm”.
He talked me off the edge and I was able to focus and have that cake delivered close to on time.
Now, I realize panicking and being anxious about having a cak-tastrophey is really counter productive.
Try not to react. Prioritize. Always leave enough time in case you have a mishap. Don’t doubt your skills. Know that you know what you are doing. Lastly, carry a small repair kit with you on the delivery. Carry some extra icing, a spatula, one or two Viva Paper towels and a fondant smoother. (I’m sure you can customize your repair kit to your needs)
And the rule with the repair kit is to always bring it with you because if you bring it, you won’t need it!
All in all, I think that dropping 1 cake out of 577 is pretty good odds.

Before and after pics.

Thanks for listening!