diff --git a/R/cast.r b/R/cast.r
index 79255cd..6befaa7 100644
--- a/R/cast.r
+++ b/R/cast.r
@@ -135,8 +135,14 @@ cast <- function(data, formula, fun.aggregate = NULL, ..., subset = NULL, fill =
       fun.aggregate <- length
     }
 
-    ordered <- vaggregate(.value = value, .group = overall,
-      .fun = fun.aggregate, ...,  .default = fill, .n = n)
+    overall <- factor(overall, levels = seq_len(n))
+    ordered <- tapply(value, overall, fun.aggregate, ...)
+    if (anyNA(ordered)) {
+      if (is.null(fill)) fill <- fun.aggregate(vector(typeof(ordered), 0L), ...)
+      structural_missing <- setdiff(names(ordered), levels(droplevels(overall)))
+      ordered[structural_missing] <- fill
+      names(ordered) <- NULL
+    }
     overall <- seq_len(n)
 
   } else {
diff --git a/tests/testthat/test-cast.r b/tests/testthat/test-cast.r
index a9e59c5..83aa541 100644
--- a/tests/testthat/test-cast.r
+++ b/tests/testthat/test-cast.r
@@ -199,3 +199,54 @@ test_that("useful error message if value.var doesn't exist", {
   expect_error(dcast(airquality, month ~ day, value.var = "test"),
     "value.var (test) not found in input", fixed = TRUE)
 })
+
+test_that("mix of fun.aggregate= and fill=", {
+  DF <- data.frame(
+    group = c("1", "2"),
+    variable = "value",
+    value = c(1, NA)
+  )
+  expect_equal(
+    dcast(DF, group ~ variable, sum),
+    data.frame(group = c("1", "2"), value = c(1, NA))
+  )
+  expect_equal(
+    dcast(DF, group ~ variable, sum, na.rm = TRUE),
+    data.frame(group = c("1", "2"), value = c(1, 0))
+  )
+  expect_equal(
+    dcast(DF, group ~ variable, sum, fill = -1),
+    data.frame(group = c("1", "2"), value = c(1, NA))
+  )
+  expect_equal(
+    dcast(DF, group ~ variable, sum, na.rm = TRUE, fill = -1),
+    data.frame(group = c("1", "2"), value = c(1, 0))
+  )
+
+  # "structural" missingness, i.e., combinations that didn't exist
+  DF <- data.frame(
+    group = c("1", "2"),
+    variable = c("v1", "v2"),
+    value = c(1, NA)
+  )
+  expect_equal(
+    dcast(DF, group ~ variable, sum),
+    data.frame(group = c("1", "2"), v1 = c(1, 0), v2 = c(0, NA))
+  )
+  expect_equal(
+    dcast(DF, group ~ variable, sum, na.rm = TRUE),
+    data.frame(group = c("1", "2"), v1 = c(1, 0), v2 = c(0, 0))
+  )
+  expect_equal(
+    dcast(DF, group ~ variable, sum, fill = -1),
+    data.frame(group = c("1", "2"), v1 = c(1, -1), v2 = c(-1, NA))
+  )
+  expect_equal(
+    dcast(DF, group ~ variable, sum, na.rm = TRUE, fill = -1),
+    data.frame(group = c("1", "2"), v1 = c(1, -1), v2 = c(-1, 0))
+  )
+  expect_equal(
+    dcast(DF, group ~ variable, function(x, y) sum(x) + y, 1),
+    data.frame(group = c("1", "2"), v1 = c(2, 1), v2 = c(1, NA))
+  )
+})