"The Hardest Part" - Part One

What is the hardest part about being in the cake decorating business? You might guess that it's the baking of the cake; getting the cake to have the right taste and texture, knowing how long to bake it, leveling and torting the cake, etc. Yep, that can be challenging. Maybe it's stacking cakes with multiple tiers. Or you might guess that the hard part is the design and decorating. Getting the frosting and fondant colors right, having the right consistency in the butercream. And what if I mess up? What if the fondant rips or breaks when I'm shaping it over the cake? Kind of nerve wracking! Well, the fact is that cake decorating is not easy, but contrary to what you might think, none of that is the hardest part.

The hardest part is putting a PRICE on the cake!

I worry every time someone asks me "How much do you charge for cakes?" They see the colorful, fun and unique things that can be done with a cake, but they aren't really prepared to hear that the cost is going to be greater than what they're used to paying at the grocery store.

Let's face it. When most people think of getting a birthday cake, the usual thought is, "I'll stop by the grocery store and pick up a cake for $18.99 and ask them to write 'Happy Birthday Johnny' on it". I'll admit that even though I usually make my kids' cakes, there has been a time or two (or five) over the years that I just didn't have time or didn't want the hastle, so I caved in and bought a ready-made one at the store. It's convenient, takes almost no advanced preparation, and hey, it's cake.

A cake roll from the grocery store - we begged the store bakery to write on it for us!

It's colorful, but it's still in the foil pan! Ugh.

Chocolate cake from Sam's Club. I'll admit this one tastes really good, but it's not too festive.

Have you ever had that sticky chocolate fudge frosting? Bleh.

Boy, I must have been really busy that year, it's a bowl of ice cream. :/

Those are examples of what $10 to $20 will get you. The cakes served their purpose but the kids don't look very excited...

Once I really splurged and spent $35 or $40 on a store bought cake:

This one actually looked pretty good, but I'm not a fan of the taste of the frosting or the spongy cake.

For my 40th birthday a few years back, my amazing hubby ordered a custom cake from a the best grocery store bakery in Utah - Dick's Market in Centerville. It was a Rubik's Cube and it cost around $100. It tasted great - Dick's cake is moist and yummy. If I'm ever in a pinch and want to decorate a cake but don't have time to do the baking, I will order plain unfrosted cakes from Dick's and frost/decorate them myself.

Now contrast those store bought examples with these buttercream beauties I made myself!

Now let's take it up a notch and contrast with FONDANT cakes.....

This 8" custom fondant cake VS. a mass produced grocery store undecorated chocolate cake at $10. What would you pay?

This cake took two afternoons to make, with about 4 or 5 hours spent just on the fondant designs alone! What is it worth?

If a grocery store charges $100 for a buttercream Rubik's Cube cake only a little taller than this one, what should I charge for a cake like this? Each fondant square was added separately...

 So what should I charge for custom fondant cakes, or even themed buttercream cakes? In part two of this blog post, we'll talk about what goes into creating these cakes, and what experienced bakers have to say about how to price your cakes. I have been doing my research!  Stay tuned for Part Two!....

Why I Decorate Cakes

I've always loved to craft. As a child I loved to color, paint, cut, sew, glue, bake, and just generally create things! It's a family trait. My maternal grandma was a talented artist - she was an oil painter and seamstress.
My mom is a jack-of-all trades - she is a talented seamstress, watercolor artist, former cake decorator, and over-all crafter. I must have inherited that desire to create. I especially liked to bake as a teenager. Whenever someone wanted cookies or brownies, I would be nominated to be the baker. Now as an adult, I have tried just about every craft imaginable, and my favorites are scrapbooking, quilting, home decorating, drawing/sketching, baking and of course, cake decorating. I guess the desire to create beautiful things is in my blood! (My sister is the same way, so really, I think it's in our blood!)

Growing up, my mom made a lot of fancy cakes. My siblings and I were lucky that we always had amazing cakes for our birthdays. I loved it when Mom was working on a wedding cake, because there was always plenty of time to watch her pipe on the frosting designs, and plenty of leftover frosting for me to play with. I picked up some of her skills by watching her and trying them out. When I had kids of my own, it seemed natural to make my own cakes for them like my mom did. It was fun each year to ask them what kind of cake they wanted and see their smiles when their vision became a reality.

I never took cake decorating classes or had special training (until recently). It was just something I liked to do and could do fairly well, but I never made cakes for other people. In the last decade or so, fondant cakes became more popular, to the point that I'd guess 90% of wedding cakes have to be fondant now! I didn't even know what fondant was until it started becoming more common. So a couple of years ago, a friend of mine asked if I wanted to take some cake decorating classes with her at a local store, and I learned how to do fondant and fell in love with it. It opened up a whole new world for my cake decorating! One can be so much more creative with fondant, and the outcomes look much more polished and professional!

When I started making fondant cakes, as usual I just did them for family. I did a couple of small cakes for my kids birthdays that year, but still to that point no one outside of my family knew I could decorate cakes. Then I did one for one of my older daughters' baby shower. Things went crazy after that!

Once the cat was out of the bag, I decided to be brave and do a daughter's wedding cake ("old-school buttercream, not fondant),

Cake up the nose is always fun!

and then everyone knew, and I gained confidence and started making cakes for people outside the family every chance I got.

The thing I like most about doing cakes, is that it's an art that I can share that makes people happy. Everyone loves to EAT cake, but it's even more fun when the cake also looks awesome and is a special representation of a particular person or occasion. A cake is a centerpiece, a focal point, a celebration in itself! Anyone feels special when a work of art has been created just for them.

And that's why I love to make cakes!

Welcome to my Blog!

I like to decorate cakes! It's one of my "too many hobbies", but right now it's my favorite hobby. My skills are also increasing in demand, so I have felt the need to start a blog where I can post pictures, prices, and fun info about my cakes for clients, friends, and family. So here it is. Welcome to my blog!