Don't Sweat it!

You know when you're on a holiday in a tropical locale and you get into a lovely cool shower to restore your body temperature but then as soon as you're back out in the open sans cold water and air con the sweating resumes...? Yeah, well the same is true of cakes.

This summer in Australia has seen the temperatures climb (as you are most likely aware with our infamous bush fire tragedy covering most news outlets) and in Sydney the humidity has been horrendous. I don't know if you've attempted to decorate a cake in extreme humidity but let me tell you, it's near on impossible!

Here is my extreme cake decorating experience...

I get my cake out the fridge all excited like a kid at Christmas to use my brand new, never opened Sweet Stamps lettering set. Got my design all drawn up ready to add all those iconic Mean Girls quotes to my pink buttercream canvas... I start pressing letters into the buttercream (which, last time I did this was in October, was super cold and firm) and things get a bit ...mushy. I crack on with my letter pressing but as I rotate my cake the bugger is forming sweat beads quicker than American Pie's Jim in THAT scene.

Literally, my cake is turning into a nervous teenage boy while I'm trying to tattoo it with the words of some of the meanest girls in movie history. Makes sense I guess!

So I do what any sensible person does, I pat it down with a napkin and pop it back in the fridge and then with the fridge door propped open on my elbow I attempt to continue my letter painting. But I'm filling in my letters with a concoction of vodka and black food colouring (don't worry, the alcohol evaporates once the "paint" has dried) and the black is leaking. Great, now my cake is sweating and crying... oh no wait, that's me BECAUSE MY CAKE IS SWEATING AND CRYING!!!!

At this point I am about ready to pack the whole thing in but I persist and simply abandon the sweaty, weepy side and start again on the back. Things are looking marginally better but the climate conditions are continuing to cause problems so I bring in the cavalry, a.k.a cry to my baker buddies and hope they'll have the answer. They do. And it's so simple I start crying more. Umm... turn on the air conditioning. Sounds simple but I actually don't have air con in my downstairs but upstairs I do so relocation relocation people!! I set myself up under the vent in my kids' room with strict instructions to my husband to forbid them from entering while I work and thank the holy cake lord I save the damn thing!

Et voila!

So what have we learnt from this exercise! January is a no-bake month!!! Just.... no!