22 Items You Need in Your Cake Emergency Kit

Cake decorators do 95% of their work before they ever leave the bakery.  On a good day, you walk in to the venue and sit the cake down and you're gone in 5 minutes.  But every decorator worth their salt comes prepared for every eventuality.  Every decorator needs a cake emergency kit.  Here are the 22 items I take with me on every delivery.

1. Two Big Angled Spatulas - .  If you ever have to move a cake off a board or reposition a tier, these will come in very handy.
2. Floral Wire - I have had to use these on real flowers and poorly made toppers on many occasion.
3. Electrical Adapter - OK, I have only needed this once or twice, but it's small and I like having it in there.  ;-)
4. Fondant Roller - Self explanatory really, I keep it in case I need to make onsite repairs.
5. Grippy Shelf Liner -I keep small squares of this and I use it to level wobbly cake tables, or keep a cake from sliding on a cake stand.
6. Fondant Smoother - Again, I keep this for onsite repairs if needed.
7. Fondant Scraps to Match Cake -I keep This comes in handy for repairs or for leveling wobbly toppers.
8. Buttercream to Match Cake (not pictured) - This too is for patching boo boos!

9. Business Cards - You should always have business cards.  Lots of networking can happen while making a delivery.
10. Various Pearls / Dragees - I always keep a nice assortment of these with me at all times, just in case I need them.
11. SassieSap - Need to re-affix a gumpaste flower to a cake?  SassieSap is just what you need!
12. Floral Tape - I use this on flowers and on monogram cake toppers with teenie tiny picks.
13. Needlenose Pliers / Wire Cutters - These come in handy for ALL sorts of things.
14. Fat Ivan Door Choc - I just got this for Christmas and I don't know how I did without it.  Fat Ivan folds out and hangs on a door's hinge to hold it open while I bring in the cake.  NICE!
15. Small Knife - Always bring a knife to a cake fight! :-)
16. Small Angled Spatula - This is the spatula I use for minor repair work.
17. Tide Pen / Shout Wipes - When you deliver a cake, you usually put it on a table with a really nice tablecloth.  If I should ever get anything on that pristine cloth, I use these to clean up my mess.
18. Small Bottle PGA / Vodka - If you ever get a smudge on fondant, this will help you clean it off.
19. Scissors - We all know what scissors do, right?  Just don't run with them!

20. An Assortment of Dowels, Straws, Skewers, and Toothpicks - I almost always use these items for cake toppers.  Super heavy?  Support them with straws.  Short pick?  Use a skewer and some of that floral tape to make it work!
21. Paper Towels - If there is an emergency, you'll need something for clean up.
22. Rubber Gloves - If things go south during a delivery, you'll want to don a pair of rubber gloves, cause we all wear gloves when working with food, right?

Depending on the cake, I may bring more items (like extra flowers / petals), but the above items are always in there.  Keeping things in baggies helps keep things nice and clean too.

What do you think about the list?  Are there any things you think you'll be adding to your kit?  Are there some things you think I left out?

Have a great week!

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