the cakes you see on TV and by professional cake shops? I have always wondered but have not gotten the chance to see any up close.

are there tiny imperfections you just can't see on tv or in pictures?

If anyone has the inside scoop I would love to know...

Thanks
Sherri

Did you happen to see Duffs episode where he said.. if you ever see a flower in a weird place... there probably is a thumb or finger print in the icing ... nothing is perfect.. everybody makes mistakes.

All you need to do is go to a few web sites of "professionals" and check out their pictures........ MANY mistakes.......

I doubt it. I'm sure that some are able to do perfectly smooth, no-mistake cakes, but I'm betting that any cake will have a slight imperfection or two.

I always carry a little container of RI or fondant flowers, just in case. That way, I can add a 'design element' if something goes wrong. LOL

The ones that amaze me are the really simple ones -- the rolled fondant or smooth buttercream with minimal decorations. Not much to hide behind and they look perfect, but we're only seeing one side of the cake. Right?

Lots of professional cakes have mistakes too. You can look on bakery websites and see lots of little oopsies. Most people wouldn't notice them. I never used to notice them myself but lately I have noticed that I can spot the mistakes.

For that matter, I've been looking for my wilton gumpaste flowers book for a few months. I finally located it the other day and was amazed at how bad the flowers looked...ragged edges, most of them had no curve to them, broken petals, etc...and I remember when I got that book that I didn't think I'd ever be able to make any of the "amazing" flowers in the book

So I think it's something that develops over time, the ability to spot the mistakes, at least for me it was.

You know what, my cakes always have little bumps and imperfections etc... and I usually have those simple cakes with not much to hide it all. BUT, when I see the photos, my cakes look PERFECT!!! I can't find any of the things that I could see with the cake in front of me. The only time I can see imperfections in my photos is if it is a real big mess up, or if I have taken the photo in poor light. Mostly I take photos with as much natural light as possible, with a light coloured background for light reflection and with the flash on. I think most tv cameras and still cameras can't focus in close enough to see the little flaws, plus they automatically compensate for lighting, so that fills in some flaws too.

The upshot of it is, if my cakes can look perfect in my photos and on video, then imagine what flaws are being covered by the super high tech cameras that the professionals use!