Wedding Cake Hiccup

by Barbara
(Menorca Spain)

I have had no training for decorating cakes but my mum used to have a go and I used to watch and help (or hinder as the case may be when I was small) and she made my wedding cake for me too.

It wasn't until I had a family of my own that I started to try my hand for their birthdays

The cake you can see was the first time I had made the swans on the top, and I feel they turned out okay. However, the day the cake was picked up by the couples parents a disaster occurred where as I went to turn the cake for them to see I accidentally broke off one of the swans heads! Neither the mother or myself realized it until we saw the father with his mouth wide open and staring at the cake, (which we thought it was in awe of) mmmm, well we found out different! Sooo embarrassing!

Well I told them not to worry and that it would not be a problem to mend...ahem!.....but it was. I always save some of the icing for emergencies, so I got out my piping bag and with a lot of patience stuck the head back on and after standing there, for what seemed hours instead of minutes (waiting for it to set enough so the parents could take it away,) it stayed on, all be it a little "crooked". And they went. They never let on if the head stayed on for the reception but I hope it did.
My mum used to say:-
"you should never panic if something goes wrong. Sit and think things through carefully to find the answer to the problem, if all fails your the decorator and you have the ARTISTIC LICENSE, so cover your mistakes with something else, only you will know".

It was a good message I think for those of us who are not so clever but make an okay job.
Happy Decorating All.