Early Cake Decorating!

This is a throwback post to some of my first cakes that I made when I started.  You can see that I've come a little ways since then.

First off, is this UVA basketball-inspired cake.  This was made at the request of a friend as the groom's cake for her wedding.  It was also my first actual cake that I decorated, and I was pretty nervous.  I had some ambitious plans that didn't quite materialize the way I had hoped.  I tried baking a round cake THREE times before I gave up at midnight and went to the grocery store to buy ingredients to make Rice Krispy treats which is what I ended up using for the ball shape.  (But on the plus side, who doesn't love Rice Krispy treats?!)

The important lesson that I learned here?  Make sure you both grease and FLOUR your cake pans before you fill them with your cake batter.  Thankfully, the bride was satisfied with the way the cake turned out.  She knew she was sacrificing some cake-decorating expertise in order to get the cake-flavors that she wanted.  Apparently, none of the local bakeries were willing to make a Guiness-flavored cake!

Next up is this cute little snowman cake.  Again, this was an experiment with using melted chocolate candies to make the little snowmen.  I had another very gracious friend who let me experiment with this technique on a birthday cake for her mother, who just happened to love snowmen.  This was a direct rip-off of a cake from the Bird on a Cake blog.  If you compare the two, I'm sure you'll see who the expert on this is.  ;)  But not too shabby for a first-attempt!  I will say that in order for this to work well for you, you need to be able to move pretty quickly.  The chocolate hardens pretty quickly as it cools!  Definitely check out the Bird on a Cake blog, though - she's got lots of great ideas and tutorials on how to make them happen! 

And finally, here's a sweet owl cake that I made for a different baby shower last year.  My original plan was NOT to put fondant around the sides, just to put it on the top as a background for the owls, but the frosting I made did not come out to the consistency that I wanted, and my fondant circle covering the top of the cake was a little lopsided, so I needed to improvise.  These little strips of alternating colors did the trick!  Add in a white boundary of buttercream to hide how uneven the edges were, and you're set! 

So there you go.  Some of my earlier work.  For those of you that maybe are just starting out, maybe this will help you set realistic expectations?  The real key to making these projects successful is a combination of patience and an ability to improvise when things don't go according to plan.  Hopefully, you'll have gracious friends that won't hold it against you!  And my philosophy is that even if it doesn't look the best, as long as it tastes good, you're in good shape!