This past week we were in Maine visiting my brother and sister-in-law. It was right around his birthday so I decided to bring up everything I needed to surprise him with a cake. I pre-baked the cake and froze it (uncut). I whipped up all the icing and packed up the fondant and gum paste. I threw my tools and other random decorating supplies into a bag and off we went!
The house we rented in Maine was on a gorgeous lake. It was perfect except for the fact that it had no central air conditioning and not the best lighting. The first night of decorating at the house the temperature was a tad warm but certainly quite comfortable. I made the gum paste decorations for the top of the cake (dog, ball, bone, and dog dish). No problem.
The second night I had one more thing to make. It was a little too warm to start creating until after 10. No big deal - it wasn't that big a piece (dog house) to make but I started to notice that everything was a little gummy.
The third night I needed to stack the cake and cover it with fondant. It was quite warm in the house, even late at night. We opened all the windows and had the fans on full blast aiming towards the counter I was working on. I finally gave into the idea that I would have to make it work. It took a really long time to get the fondant to cooperate and cover the cake. I piped grass on top and placed the decorations. By that point I was done. I could see the fondant starting to bubble and buckle on the sides. I needed to get the cake out of the heat. Besides, the only thing left to do was the border around the cake.
The next morning the house was hot! Nothing I could do about it - I had to put the border on before my brother arrived and the surprise was ruined. I rolled the fondant out and cut the letters for "Happy Birthday Fred." The fondant was a little gummy but I knew I could make it work. Out of the fridge came the cake, and the lettering started. In the time it took to do all of this, the cake started to sweat (seriously!), the writing on the dog house ran off, and the border letters didn't want to keep their shape. I managed to get the word "Fred" up and decided to cut my losses with the "Happy Birthday" for fear of ruining the cake. I started to pipe on brown paw prints on the side of the cake. Only, they didn't want to stay in place. I tossed the cake in the fridge and finished the paw prints. Phew! The cake made it! And so did I!
It was challenging to decorate in a strange house, with no air conditioning, during a heat wave. But, I think the final product came out quite nice. Hope you agree!
And, yes, the photos were taken inside the refrigerator! I wasn't taking any chances!
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