Wedding Cake Rescue

On Friday evening I returned from cooking with the kids at my local Youth Club and checked my phone to see a number of missed calls, a voicemail and text messages. My best friends nieces 4 tier wedding cake has collapsed en route from the baker to the venue so can I take a look and see what I can do!

It goes without saying that this is a call I had hoped never to receive. My friend and her niece are not actually speaking and, whilst I do not wish to go into why, I will say that there is good reason. Yet she was still willing to test a friendship and go to considerable lengths to rectify the situation.

By 9pm that evening I have the cakes in my house with my friend and her very distraught sister who thinks that this is all her fault as she picked the cake up. The bottom cake has sustained the most damage and is severely dented on 1 side. Cakes 2 & 3 look like this:

I learn that the cake looks nothing like the bride expects having discussed a cake covered in black cake lace not overly heavy black piped RI and has cost £300. I also learn that the wedding is a 2pm the next day. I have 15 hours to work some magic. I explain that yes, I have the tools and ingredients to make white cake lace but in the time frame, without the benefit of multiple mats of the same design, I do not consider that making and airbrushing enough lace is a viable consideration.

Between us we agree that the top tier can stay as only minor damage has occurred. The remaining 3 cakes must be stripped and recovered. We also agree that black ribbons around the base of each cake are the most practical solution.

I start to strip the bottom cake and end up stripping the board as well as it has been iced around the cake. In discussion with the brides aunts a decision is made to make the bottom cake smaller to remove most of the dent making it possible to fill the remainder with a buttercream crumb coat, Normally you would expect such a decision to ruin the finished stack but it is actually going to improve it. At this time I have no idea what size cakes 2 and 3 are as they look the same based on the picture above.

As I disassemble the cake it is immediately apparent why this cake has not survived being transported. In between each layer there is a sheet of greaseproof paper. 1 & 2 have RI/greaseproof/nothing/board, 2 & 3 have just the greaseproof between them and 3 & 4 had RI/greaseproof/RI/Board. I explain this to the upset aunt and point out that no one could have successfully transported the cake as the greaseproof should not be there. It is not meant to hold anything in place as stuff is not meant to stick to it. I also explain that the glitter may not be food safe and that, whilst the top cake is being retained, it is also not food safe as the wires and feathers have been inserted directly into the cake. There are also no food allergy labels present.

I have re-iced the board whilst discussing options and the base cake is stripped and trimmed as I bid goodnight to my friend and her sister at 11.30pm. I have also added a base board to the bottom cake. I know that sleep is not an option until I get all the cakes stripped and recovered in buttercream. Fortunately, I have already stocked up for 2 cakes that I have going out next weekend so I do not need to source any supplies. By 2am I have cakes 1 and 2 in the fridge crumb coated but cake 3 is so moist it is crumbling as I try to apply the buttercream. I was told that the baker called this flavour “Red Devil” and that it was important to the bride that the flavours of the cakes remained. I have also just stocked up to make some red velvet cupcakes and consider re-baking. I now know that cakes 2 and 3 are 8" and 7" . I decide to refridgerate the cake to firm it up. By 3.15am I have three crumb coated cakes in the fridge and I need some zzz’s. The alarm is set for 8am.

I successfully ignore the alarm for 40 minutes as I actually did not go to sleep for about 1 hour due to the adrenalin pumping through my body. I take the cakes out of the fridge to allow them to come back up to room temperature in the hope that I can avoid any air bubbles. I know that I cannot stack these freshly covered cakes anywhere other than the venue and contact the aunts to tell them that I want to head over there at 12. I did have air bubbles on the base cake as I only had so long that I could wait for that cake to come up to room temp. The other 2 happily behave themselves.

The distraught aunt is slightly late arriving. She still thinks that she is somehow to blame and has not slept well. By 1pm we are at the venue and have managed to gain access to the function room. My friend has bought some lace and once I get the cakes stacked and the base ribbons in place we look at how we can use this to give these plain cakes a lift and get some overall balance to the finished cake. As we do this, I regret not having switched the board ribbon from the silver to black as the cake does not look grounded, indeed it looks unfinished. By 1.45pm we have this:

It transpires that the baker is a hobbyist and has accepted that, based on my observations, she was to blame for the collapse. For that I am grateful. However, my position remains that she should not have agreed to make this cake if she lacked the experience and know how to do it. The distraught aunt still feels that she is in some way to blame and the bride does not have the cake that she was expecting and there was never a possibility that she would have. Hopefully, the big day is not deemed spoiled on the back of my endeavours but it most certainly has been to a lesser degree.

As a professional, fully registered and compliant cake artist I know that these stories will continue to happen. Indeed, they are currently a growing trend with more unregistered bakers under cutting our charges and sending out badly structured and decorated cakes. Not every family has ready access to a professional and I will always be thankful that I was able to turn things around for this one. No family or bride deserves to find themselves in this position just because someone thinks “how hard can it be?”

I did this at cost, £35.00, for a “good friend”. I have no expectation of anything more than covering my costs because I believe that situations like this should not happen within my circle of friends. I am who I am and it is my nature.