My Last Cake

So I have finally had to make the decision to completely give up cake decorating. It is just not something I can do right now and still be able to give my family everything they need from me. It has caused too much stress for them and as a mom, I have to put them first. Unless you have experience in cake decorating, you really cannot appreciate the amount of time this takes. And that is for anyone who makes cakes, not just me. I also never figured out how to actually make a profit from this type of work. In fact, I went backwards most of the time. So I could in no way justify continuing to make cakes even if I did enjoy the work. There are also some other projects I have begun and have now fallen in love with, and I'm wanting to be able to devote some more time to as well. I am sure there will be pictures posted sometime in the near future.  

I would have liked to have ended this on a high note instead of with a major BOMB. And man was it a big one! I've actually never bombed so big on a cake in my life. I was asked to make a topsy turvy cake which I have never made before. I accepted the challenge and studied up on how to do it and really felt pretty knowledgeable about what I was attempting. And well, I will now show you the result of all my knowledge. So here it is ...the good, the bad, and the....please don't hit the floor!!   

This is the front of the cake and this is actually the good side. I worked sooo hard on all the little fondant details. All of the candy is made from fondant, none of it was real candy.

The left side of the top tier that the arrow is pointing to, should be up higher just like it is on the bottom tier. When I first put the cake together it all looked good. After a little while, I looked at the cake and the top tier was just about to slide right off onto the counter. So I took it apart, and added some small pieces of cake board underneath the top tier to keep it from falling. All seemed good at that point, but just wait.....  

Still focusing on the good here. More of the fondant details.

This cake was for an adorable and super sweet little girl who turned 5. She had a candy themed party. I had different little messages and words on the little candy hearts that were all over the cake.

And... here's the bad. And boy was it bad! I thought all was well after I had added the extra pieces of cakeboard to lift up the side of the top tier that was falling. Then I looked at the cake and one side of the bottom tier had actually caved in and was falling also causing the top tier to fall in that direction as well. So now I have a new problem,...and this was about midnight on day 3 now of working on this cake, and I had been working non-stop at this point since about 10:00a.m.  

You are looking at the side of the cake here. The sides should be even or level. The only part of the cake that should look topsy turvy should be the front and the back. 

I had to take this cake apart about 5 different times trying to do everything I could think of to solve the problem. I put many more dowels on the side that was falling, but once the bottom tier had started to cave in there was nothing I could do to get this cake level again. It was all over! Now it was time to pray, "please Lord don't let it hit the floor"! And let me tell you, I do not know if there has ever been a cake more prayed over than this one. Well, prayer works because I am happy to say, and this is the only good thing I can say about this cake, but it stayed together through the party. Praise the Lord!!!   

Here you see where the top tier was cracking, and trying to fall off. I just kept filling in all the cracks with royal icing hoping it would not only hide those hideous cracks but also adhere this cake together a little.  What a nightmare!
I still cannot believe I delivered a cake that looked like this. I wish I could post pictures of the beautiful decorations this little girl's mom had made for her party. It was like walking into a sweet little girly candy land,......so creative! After getting there and seeing all of that, it made me want even more to be able to give her a cake that was worthy of such a beautiful setting. They were very kind and understanding of what happened with the cake and I really appreciated it. I just hope miss Jada wasn't too disappointed! I know I am very disappointed in myself but nothing can be done about it now. So I just have to accept my failure and try and let it go.