I just made my very first wedding cake this past week, for my niece's wedding yesterday. Although I love making cakes, it was an eye opener for me to really know all the work that goes into making a big cake. Every day this past week was taken, I had to put my family on hold (I have four children 6 and under--one a nursing baby), and was left wondering if I would even attempt to do this as a regular job--and the answer for now was no! I don't know how you all do it with small children, and I hand it to you!

But I must say I want to thank CC and all the help I gleaned for cake decorating. I truly love it. I have been baking for years, and recently started the decorating part and I have learned so much here. I torted my cakes with dental floss, something I asked about here, and it worked like a charm! Wrapping my cake boards with contact paper was a great tip, and transporting the cake unstacked was the only way I could have done it with peace of mind--all of which I owe to CC.

Just wanted to share my first experience with a wedding cake. Although I may do one every once in a while (I was asked by a few people at the wedding for my contact info--the cake was a huge hit!) I think I will wait until the little ones are a bit older to take on very much. And in the meantime, I will enjoy decorating for fun and continue to learn more and more from all you wonderfully talented people. Thanks to CC!

One more thing.....I COMPLETELY understand why wedding cakes cost so much! It really wouldn't be worth it to undercharge. So much time is invested into making a wedding cake--much more than the cost, which of course, can run up too. I appreciate the high cost of wedding cakes, and I
say don't sell your time (and talents) short!

beemarie,

Loved your wedding cake and I would have commented on it but you don't have that feature turned "on" in your forum info. I bet your niece loved it too!! Such vibrant colors! I always feel bad when I tell poeple how much I charge for a wedding cake ($2 pp) but then when I make one I think to myself I'm crazy for charging so little as they are so much time and effort!! Definately a good idea to wait for the wee ones to grow up a bit more - my son in almost 10 and he still can get under my skin when I'm decorating!!!

Do we get to see a pic?

It's an amazing cake! I love it--it's in my favorites now.

No wonder people were asking for your contact info! You have talent, girl!

I keep cake decorating as a hobby for the same reasons you mentioned. It just takes too much time away from my family. When I make a big cake, I feel like I neglect my kids. Some people can probably juggle it better than I can, but it just takes over my whole life. I make wedding cakes for family as gifts: 3 nieces, 1 mother, and 1 brother so far and another niece this coming week.

I have people tell me I should go into business, but now isn't the time. Maybe someday!

I'm glad you had such a good outcome with your first wedding cake. It really is wonderful.

No one looking at that cake would ever believe it was your first. It's beautiful! And yes, I can see it was a lot of work! But you did a fantastic job and should definitely give yourself several pats on the back.

I just did my first wedding cake in many many years for my sister's wedding yesterday. I had forgotten how much more work it is, but I really enjoyed it and so did they. Their appreciation makes it all worthwhile, doesn't it?

Great job! Now go put your little ones to bed, put your feet up, and have a cuppa whatever makes you feel good, and tell yourself "ya done good! Real good!" (as Doug would say!)

Congratulations on your cake!!! It is so bright and beautiful!!...and huge!!!
So glad to hear it was a big success!!!

Although my brood are all grown up, the only thing that is eaten whilst I am decorating is bags of salad and a grocery store BBQ chicken..standardly!!!!

Remember to enable the tick box on the bottom of your forum info for comments..

Kudos to you also for pulling this off with little ones under foot!!!

beemarie, great cake! the colors are so much fun

I completely get where you are coming from about how much work a wedding cake can be. I made my first wedding cake this year in April, after years of telling clients "No, sorry I don't do weddings."

I said no all those years, because weekends belonged to my family. I did not want to miss a soccer game or a taekwondo tournament, or whatever. Finally last fall, my son left for college, and my weekends were mostly free. Then I got my first wedding cake order, and I was paralyzed with fear. As time went by, I relaxed a bit, but wow, I was so afraid I'd mess up. I had to keep telling myself "One task at a time, one cake at a time."

I thought I would die from exhaustion the week I made the wedding cake. I have made lots of cakes over a period of a few days in the past, but making a tiered cake which was for someone's most special day, their wedding, was emotionally frightening for me.

I'd love to make another one...someday. But not on a regular basis.
It's just too much stress.

And yet...I wait for the next call

Hang in there!

Thanks for the comments! I enabled people to leave comments. I don't know how that got turned off.

I was wondering for all you who do wedding cakes regularly, do you make the cakes way ahead of time and freeze them? I told myself if there is ever a chance I will do another one (another niece is getting married in December, so I just may do her's as well!), the things I would do differently would be to bake the cakes a couple weeks in advance, even the fillings and icing, and freeze them. And also make sure I did the decorations ahead of time if there were ones I could premake. The gumpast flowers on this cake I started a couple months ago, and I am so glad I did. So I figured to make it less stressful I would do the baking ahead of time, too.

I was up the three nights before the wedding until 2 and 3am, and I just figure from what I experienced that this may be regular bakers hours! Again, I hand it to all you wonderfully talented bakers and decorators! It is fun when you have the time, but if you don't have the time, it does put stress on you and the family.

Yes, we also ate very little 'fresh' food this week! I had to keep the fridge open for space toward the end of the week to store the cake--we only have the one. Poor kids and hubby. But we all survived and in the end, although a little tired, it was fun and enjoyable.

Again, thank you for the comments. I owe so much of what I have learned to the people on CC who have answered my questions on how to do many things! This is one great site.

Okay - I'm impressed that you made a wedding cake with that many small kids but the fact that one is a baby you nurse - WOW you rock! As my sister would say, "let's bow to the queen".

You're right about finding a new appreciation for the time and work involved in making wedding cakes. I use to balk at the price of cakes. I thought, "it's only a couple of cake mixes and some icing" . Boy were my eyes ever opened when I made my first wedding cake. I also found a new appreciation for cake decorators. Now I only wish my customers could understand what's involved in it.

Oh, Indydebi, that is so funny. I couldn't even imagine cooking all the time, being a caterer. I used to work catering in several hotels, and that was a lot of work. But to own your own catering business, THAT is a lot of work! Your family must love your food when you do cook for them, right?

Again, after putting so much time into one cake, if I did charge, it would be top dollar because to charge minimal would just not be worth the time it took, time that took me away from pretty much everything else in my life. I think I would become resentful if I did undercharge regularly. So all you who charge for wedding cakes, don't undercut yourselves. Time is precious!!