How the cake was saved

This was the cake I baked for Hannah’s birthday do in KL:

But lemme tell you a secret…let’s just say the cake evolved through various stages during its creation.

First of all, silly me thought it would be a great idea to bake a cake and bring it all the way to KL for the celebration.  We were traveling on a Saturday and the birthday celebration was to be on Sunday.  So working backwards, I’d need to bake the cake on Friday, to ensure it stays as fresh as possible.

I then decided to make the Baby Bop fondant figurine on Wednesday night, to allow time to fix any last minute disasters.  I completed Baby Bop and placed it in an airtight container and put it straight into the fridge and went straight to bed.

BIG MISTAKE.

The next morning, while googling to find out how long fondant figurines can last after they have been created, I found out, to my horror, that we are NOT supposed to put completed fondant figurines in the fridge.  Neither are we supposed to place them in airtight containers.  Because of the differing temperatures, condensation will form, and the figurine will have a *melted* look.

When I took out the Baby Bop figurine from the fridge, it looked all right, but as soon as I left it out for a few minutes, it started looking *glossy*.  So I put it back in the fridge.  I didn’t know what to do and scoured the internet cake baking sites for advice.  I was told to leave the figurine out in room temperature and it should dry out again in a few hours.

I promptly took it out and left it uncovered.  But  it appeared to be melting.  Thinking it could be too humid, I then placed it in an air-conditioned room for a few hours.  Alas, the fondant did dry out, but the black parts had bled onto the green, creating a very melted, mascara-streaked Baby Bop.

That certainly would NOT do.

Mortified, I knew there was no way out but to redo the figurine.  And this time I made sure I did not put it in the fridge.

On Friday night, I put all three layers of the cake together with chocolate ganache, and proceeded to decorate it.  It was my first time covering the entire cake with fondant, and I soon discovered it’s not an easy task.  I ended up with some *holes* that needed patching, and thankfully I managed to patch it with a decorative *button*.  See the purple thingy at the side?

Because I could not keep fondant in the fridge, and the cake was fondant-covered, I had to leave it outside the fridge overnight.  And when we transported the cake, the fondant figurines had to be transported separately because the cake box would not close if the figurines were on top.  Such a lot of hassle, and at that point, I was kicking myself for having this idea of taking a cake all the way to KL.

Everything looked good to go then, but catastrophe struck again.  Before leaving for KL, we stopped for lunch at McDonald’s for about 20 minutes, leaving the cake in the car.  And when we returned, the hot sun had caused the top layer of the cake to slide off, breaking the side fondant layer!  After I had stopped screaming in shock and had calmed down a bit, I inspected the cake and thankfully the fondant on top with the wordings remained intact, and throughout our journey to KL, I was constantly checking the cake, and adjusting the layers to make sure they stay stacked up.

When we reached KL, the sides of the cake were completely ruined.  It looked like pieces of fondant torn up and stuck together on chocolate ganache.  Although I knew I was not supposed to refrigerate fondant, I was forced to put the cake into the fridge, to ensure the chocolate ganache could set and make the cake layers stay stacked up.

I then decided to get some ribbon to cover up the mess.  Unfortunately I could not get any purple ribbon (which was my preference), so I had to make do with whatever ribbons I could find.  That night, I got to work placing the ribbons around the cake, in an effort to hide the disaster.  And then back into the fridge the cake went.

The next day, right before the cake cutting, I took the cake out of the fridge and assembled the fondant figurines.  The pink shopping bag piece had experienced broken handles in transit, but the rest looked alright.

And the finished product, salvaged the best I could, looked like this:

It was an experience never to be forgotten 🙂