25/08/2026
I HAVE NEVER BEEN SO RELIEVED as when I received this message: 'The cake was beautiful and arrived perfectly intact 😅'
Creating large showstopping cakes during the heatwaves of this summer has been a challenge! At times it has required using all the hacks I know to give the buttercream extra stability and keep your cake safely standing.
I have used more royal icing sugar than ever before, as the egg white it contains creates a firmer buttercream. I blend it with regular icing sugar for best results - anything up to 50% as I did for this cake. I also replaced a little of the butter with Trex, a vegetable fat which has higher heat stability than butter. And adding melted Belgian chocolate for enriched flavour had the advantage of giving the buttercream further holding power...
This cake travelled 2 hours to Birmingham in a car boot on a hot day! I gave both the buttercream crumb coat, and the final coloured finish layer, over 12 hours each for the buttercream to crust and set firm. As an added precaution I then chilled the cake before the customer collected it.
Tall cakes like this one consisting of 4 layers do have an internal support system consisting of a central dowel, a cake card in the middle and dowels in the lower layers. However... buttercream only lasts so long when exposed to sunshine or extreme heat before it will melt.
️⏩️ I will be adding an additional question to my cake enquiries going forward - how far will you be travelling with your cake after collection? If I had known this cake would be taken 2 hours in a car boot during a heatwave, I would never have planned such a tall design...
It has been a learning experience for both my customer and myself, and encouraging to know this cake survived it's journey unscathed 🚗☀
