what did I do wrong?

[MikeLitorisRings]

Just finished decorating a cake and it looks sweaty.

I baked cake yest. Crumb coated last night left in fridge until today.

Covered in icing and decorated in fondant.

It looks all greasy and horrible.

Wtf did I do?

I'll put a pic on my profile in a minute.

Bump.

I need help.

I have to make two of these next week and don't know what to do differently.

Have no idea - you mean the sugarpaste looks shiney?

Could be the humidity?
Have you added anything to the suagrpaste like trex?
Was the buttercream not stiff enough?

Try posting on a cake forum like Cakecraftworld.

If you look at the pic on my profile it's the white and pink one. The white looks wet.

I have left it out in the kitchen and it looks a bit better now.

I didn't add anything to it.

Yes, I have looked at the picture - all your cakes look great!

Sounds like humidity problem.

Bum.

I was hoping it was something I could control.

Thanks btw. I've only just started decorating cakes and each one is bringing up new problems.

The cause is putting the cake in the fridge. Fridges are wet environments and there will have been an increase in the moisture contetn of your buttercream as it set. When you took it out of the fridge the butter will have loosened up, producing moisture droplets. This will have been absirbed by the layer of sugarpaste as sugar is a hydrophilic substance. The sugar in your sugarpaste has started to dissolve in small quantities, causing the shiny effect. This is why a fondant covered cake should never be put in the fridge
When you put the cake in the drier environment of your kitchen some of the moisture in the icing has started to evaporate, drying the icing a bit.

Lesson - don't set buttercream cakes in the fridge, if you must leave time for the moisture to come out and sponge it off before covering.

Thanks nigel. So when i do the crumb coat I should just leave it out? For how long?

We tasted a bit of it last night and it is not nice the fondant tastes metallic. Never had that problem before.

Crumb coat in open air, somewhere cool, should crust over in a few hours.

Did you use a new fondant or colour paste? It may be the reaction of the fondant to the cold cake which has made it taste odd.

I always set my buttercream in the fridge and have never had this problem. I've also pop in freezer. But would assume in hot kitchen's then this could cause moisture draw. I will take this point and in future allow set cakes to come back to room temp.

If the sugarpaste has reacted to heat then I would assume this would make a taste change.

It was tesco's own fondant. I wont be buying it again.

I had another go yesterday and it was much better. I'll try and out a pic on in a minute.

Another question. After doing a crumb coat do you do another layer of buttercream? Or just ice straight away?

I have somehow been roped into making 3 parcel cakes 30 cupcakes this weekend

Good god Mike, you dont give your self alot of work to do, glad you sorted your fondant though, hate getting thing wrong when you know you can do so much better, cant wait to see your pic.

Didn't manage to get a pic of the finished cake but there is a half. finished one on my profile now.

Nanny- I am a idiot eternal optimist! Luckily I have this week off to get them all done.

Fingers crossed anyway!

Wow! Your cakes are beautiful! Hope cakes are ok in terms of moisture :)

Cake looks good, what did you make your flowers with? Yep i know what you mean, week before last i found myself with 4 cakes in a week to do and worked fulltime, was so pooped after, pics are on my profile ( not all of them though).

Sorry Mike, should check before i send, i meant, you dont half give yourself alot of work to do, tut!

Those flower are just sugar paste.

The person wanted quite shabby looking flowers.

The other prob I am having is my kitchen gets so bloody hot. Everything is melting and I'm having a nightmare getting 30 bloody minnie mouse bows to set hard!

Ha ha, god you sound like me now , i did my 4 cakes in that hot week we just had, nitemare, every thing i touched stuck to me, and storing them was a problem as it was so hot, they ended up on the top of my freezer, then i spent the night wondering if they were covered in ants in the morning, thankfully they werent. did you use the modelling paste for the bows?

In my garage i meant.

If only I had space on top of the freezer! Every available space is covered in cake crap.

I have used modelling paste for the bows and some flowers for the parcel cakes.

I've decided to just to 10-15 of the cakes with bows and will do the rest another way. I think the fear of some of the bows breaking may push me over the edge otherwise.

Nanny I've seen your cakes before on fb. You live just up the road from me. I especially like the first on on your profile.

Aw bless you, dont know why they should break then if your using that paste, i made 45 butterflies, dropped one on the floor, so surprised it didnt break. maybe you need a break, no pun intended! start afresh tomorrow.

Probably because I am rather heavy handed

I've made 40 bows so we shall see if the last until I actually make he cakes on Friday.

Thank you Mike, i was really pleased with that one, the person i made it for absolutely loved it and took ages to cut it, which worried me somewhat as it was such hot weather, but it was fine. it seems a strange colour for a cake, beige, but that what she wanted. I reckon we should all meet up we'd have so much to talk about!

FFS just got up and all my flowers and bows have sodding well melted

I checked them last night and they were drying up lovely. This morning they are all soggy.

Will they be ok covered in a clean tea towel or kitchen paper?

Feel like giving up today :(

Just out of interest - what's the crumb coating for? I've never heard of it before