Ring of DOOM
Gah! We’ve all been there, haven’t we? You put so much effort into your cakes, trying to ensuring they are flawless and then an hour or so after covering, one side of the sugarpaste/fondant starts to balloon out… yes, it’s the dreaded ring of DOOM! Gah! This happened to me with a recent wedding cake order. I was given strict ‘no chocolate’ instructions which ruled ganache out, but obviously I still wanted a flawless finish so I tried REALLY hard. I diligently trimmed, levelled and layered each cake with flavoured buttercreams that I mixed 50/50 with royal icing sugar and icing sugar to give a harder set, and then upturned each cake and refrigerated them for a minimum of 6 hours before taking out, crumb coating and popping in the fridge again, and then repeating the process to ensure I had nice even, smooth cakes to work with when it came to covering. And it was going really well. They all covered like a dream and I managed to get nice vertical sides and sharp edges. I was really pleased. But when I came back to monitor their progress I noticed that the 10" lemon cake was developing a very unsightly, rather enormous bulge on one side. Sad face. Why, why, why? I managed to make a small incision to let the air out, re-smoothed and then patched the hole almost invisibly, but I am annoyed that it wasn’t perfect when I tried so hard to make it perfect. Where did I go wrong? And how can I stop it from happening again in the future? And once you notice a ring developing, what (if anything) can you do to stop it? Please help, oh wise cakey people :)
CakeyCake, http://www.facebook.com/ChildsCakeyCake
7 Replies
I had this happen to me on a butter creamed double barrel cake last year… Since then I have learnt to cover it by brushing sugar water over the entire surface first before covering… That eliminates the chance of air bubbles . I keep the cake in the fridge till I’m ready to cover, to keep it nice and hard. If it’s warm weather, I keep a fan on the cake till ready for transport and keep the a/c blowing in the car to keep it cool and firm… But you might need a jacket :)
You must never limit your challenges, instead you must challenge your limits
Thank you Calli. I haven’t heard about using sugar water before. What strength solution do you use?
CakeyCake, http://www.facebook.com/ChildsCakeyCake
Jup as Calli says, make sure all surfaces are wet/damp before covering. I always keep a fan on full power on my cake. I ALSO before covering do fill the layers and let it settle with a weight ontop before finishing the sides. I only fridge for about 20 minutes before fondant. I only twice had a ring……or bulge…( luckily not serious) but this was when using a tiny amount of margarine in the ;buttercream, which was for home cakes. I only use lurpak lightly salted for b/c with a 2:1 sugar/butter ratio and 15 ml fluid including extract per 250g butter.
I am no pro but seems to work fine for me xx
Wallace x http://www.facebook.com/AWGHobbyCakes
Just water is fine too Harriet, that’s all I use
Wallace x http://www.facebook.com/AWGHobbyCakes
Yes just water is fine too… I’m OCD so ensure that “stick” … I use a teaspoon of sugar in a about 1/4 cup cold water ( not warm as it could warm the buttercream)
You must never limit your challenges, instead you must challenge your limits
I’ve taken to filling, then sliding them back into a clean cake tin that’s lined with cling film upside down with a cook book on top. So any bulging will be settled then before I crumb. Some of my neatest cakes happen when I’ve done that. You can tell which ones I’ve skipped that with. :/
Dawne's Kitchen, http://www.facebook.com/DawnesKitchen
Thank you ladies :) x
CakeyCake, http://www.facebook.com/ChildsCakeyCake
