Wet cake
I won’t say I had an actual disaster but the cake didn’t turn out as expected. I made a cake for my son & daughter in law’s baby shower — it was a vanilla cake with a Nutella buttercream filling – cake was fondant covered. I did use a simple syrup to moisten cake but not very much. – only a little bit. When I got to the venue the a/c was broken and the cake sweated until we eventually found a fan. It dried, but when I cut it, the cake was very wet – the taste was great but the texture was too soft. It didn’t look like it should.
Any idea what could have caused this? Heat? Nutella buttercream? I couldn’t believe it – this wasn’t the time for a messed up cake – people seem to like it but I wished I could have done it over – lol!!!
DJ - Fun Fiesta Cakes
3 Replies
Copying some answers we get on our Facebook Page:
Barbara Jackson: Fondant covered cakes actually perserve the cake to keep it fresh so anything you did to make it moist was not needed and high temps are not good for a long period of time no matter what the cake is. I have actually left a wedding cake in my air conditioned car for an hour because the venue was too hot and air had not been set properly……my loss with letting my car run with air on but the cake was saved !
Melissa Walsh: Was the cake frozen before assembling? If so, was it frozen before it was completely cool?? There really isn’t enough information to give you an answer. I have frozen cake before it was completely cook and noticed icicles when I took out the next day. I didn’t have any problems, but I was concerned I might. I refrigerate every single one of my fondant covered cakes and have no problems…..yes they sweat a little depending on how warm the room is after taking them out, but as soon as they come to room temperature, they are perfect. EVERY. TIME. I always have read people saying, adamantly, you can’t do it….I could not disagree more. If your cake was dry, fondant isn’t going to make it moist. I would suggest adding sour cream to your recipe instead of using simple syrup.
-- Michal, http://cakesdecor.com | My Facebook: http://www.facebook.com/michal.bulla
Thank you for the responses. I appreciate the feedback.
I cover my cakes while still warm – once cool, I freeze them until ready to use. When I’m ready to assemble the cake, I allow it to partially thaw out so it’s easier to torte – I fill it, crumbcoat it and finally put the fondant on. In between all these steps, I refrigerate the cake so it is easier to handle.
Other than the heat and high humidity, I don’t know what could have caused the cake to get so wet inside. I always refrigerate my fondant cakes and this had never happened before. Maybe I froze the cake while it was still warm and it got wet when it thawed.
I hope it doesn’t happen again! :)))
DJ - Fun Fiesta Cakes
- check your oven temperature. It’s possible it’s not accurate
- You don’t take a cake out of the oven just because you’ve cooked at as long as the directions to say to cook it. You test it by sticking a clean toothpick in the center. If it comes out clean, it’s done. If not, then it needs to bake a little longer. (You don’t “poke” it to check for denseness.)
- You don’t “open up” cakes. You make sure they are done first.
- There should never be anything liquid or soft or anything at all coming out of a cake!
You never mention that you cook you cake longer than the 35-45 minutes the directions call for. You HAVE to test it to make sure it’s done before taking it out of the oven!!!
Get an oven thermometer to test the accuracy of your oven. Put the thermometer in the oven, then ET it to 350 (or about 170 deg. C). Once fully pre – heated, check the thermometer. If it says less than 350, then your oven temperature isn’t accurate.
