Perfection Achieved... Almost

Well, I pulled off V...'s cake. It was not nearly perfect, but it was good. The fondant that I made from scratch was far too dry and hard by the time I tried to cover the cake with it on Friday night. I kneaded it and kneaded it and kneaded it. I worked corn syrup into it.. and it got a little better. When I rolled it out, I couldn't lift it off the work surface, or roll it over a pin without it breaking. I finally decided to mix in 40 oz. of Wilton fondant. It was my last hope. I was finally able to cover the cake. I don't know if it was the fondant, or the fact that my buttercream wasn't sticky enough, or the cake was firm enough, but by the time I was done decorating, the fondant drooped in spots around the sides of the cake. It was not the firm, polished look I was hoping for.

The cake base did turn out really great. The top tier, which was a styrofoam dummy turned out great as well. I covered it in fondant, cut out small stars, painted with blue brush on color, then put the white stars back into the cutout holes. The bottom tier had red stripes painted on, and they too looked nice.

My biggest issues with the cake were:

• The fondant was still too dry and cracks were visible throughout
• The fondant drooped around the sides of the cake

I suppose that's not too bad. When I post the picture I'm sure most people will say how great it is, etc. I guess my problem is that if I were offering this as a product that someone paid for, there's no way I could sell it to them with a conscience with those problems.