How long did it take for you to find your style? Did you just realize one day that most of your cakes were fondant or buttercream and you had a certain way for borders and figures and flowers? Since I am just beginning I don't really know what I like yet and don't feel like I've found my way.

i have found that when i browsing the gallery or a cake mag, that certain types of cakes stand out to me. i am just drawn to those type of cakes, and they are mostly the kind of cakes i make, i just prefer them.

HTH

Sometimes it's a lot of personal preference on what you like to do. Contrary to most people, I LUV doing square cakes, especially square basketweave .... so you will see a lot of square cakes in my pics. WHen I get an undecided bride, I guess I tend to push the square cakes. I counted up once, and of 19 consecutive wedding cakes, 15 of them were square.

Debi -

I love to do square cakes, too! I get into the challenge of making those corners absolutely right-angle!

My forte seems to be gumpaste flowers. I find them very easy to do. I studied GP flowers under Kim Morrison, Ron Ben-Israel, Betty Van Norstrand, and Toba Garrett, so I have taken features from all their teachings and applied them into my own system. Callas are currently my favorite to do.

I love Old School and International techniques - Victorian and Art Nouveau piping and figures, Australian and South African styles - I just don't get many requests from my family for them. They prefer fondant-covered designs which are painted or airbrushed, sculpted into figures.

Theresa

Because most of the cakes I make are donated to a charity and I get to decide what I do it was prett easy to do what I like which is fondant. More modern and a little different. Not into the BC string work or what I feel is the grocery store cakes with the same border over and over again.

When I took the Wilton classes I realized I really liked fondant and brighter colors than the other students. Some would do anything to do BC and I would do fondant.

Just practice and see what you like, then you will start seeing everyday things and begin to think : I can make that into a cake! You will then see your style.

Just practice, have fun, look for ideas, match plates, invitations, holidays by the time you get done with about 6 months of decorating you will know what your style is.

My instructor called me the "fondant queen"

I have been doing this only little over a year now. I have found though that I am drawn to fun and casual styled cakes with fondant/marzipan 3-D figures. I also like creatively carved cakes. I like lots of bright colors. I am not formally trained and usually avoid piping even though I would love to learn it some day. So my style is what I see and like. I aspire to be versatile though and don't want to do just the type of cakes I do right now.

They way I found out what kind of style I had was actually thanks to my friend. She looked through my closet one day and mentioned that the pattern on one of my shirts looked similar to one of the patterns on my cake and that the color on another shirt was really close to the color on another cake I did. I love the old 30's and 40's starlet look (Joan Crawford, Mae West, Katherine Hepburn, etc...) and my closet reflects that as do my cakes. One way to find your style is to look through your closet or the closet of a friend who has really good style and take it from there. Make a book/file of things that catch your eye in magazines/on the internet/in books and run with it.

Happy Caking,
Em

Thank you for the replies. I am having fun learning-but I'm anxious to find a technique that I feel good at (and like doing) so that when I give a cake I won't worry if they will will be pleased or not.

Every time I finish with a project I see where I can do better next time. I would love finish a cake and think ain't I special!
Instead of hope I don't get banned from the cake club!

I think my style is pretty distinct. Most people can spot my work very quickly. Just seems to have created itself. Predominantly floral designs. Clean lines. Always fondant. Most of my work just happens. Don't think I could do another style if I tried.

Like playingwithsugar, I like making gumpaste flowers... A LOT. I like doing sculpted cakes and making figures and miniature versions of things in sugar.. I prefer to work with fondant, but I can ice a BC cake with the best of 'em. I am not into the wilton style with a lot of BC frills and shell borders and that sort of a thing. I think that the intricate look of a stringwork cake is beautiful and I would love to try my hand at one someday. I have been focusing on flower making these days though.. I like a clean looking cake.. nothing overly done or busy.

I love using modeled figures on my cakes. Not sure I've exactly developed a style yet, but I'm working on it! I love the neat clean lines of Sugarshack's cakes and would love to be able to model figures like Aine2.

I'm not really sure on this...but if I had to guess, my customers help to mold my style. Clean.... crisp.... simplistic.....

Jen

. . . I think for myself, anything I am GENUINELY PASSIONATE about doing I consider my personal style . . . that applies to anything I take on . . . if you find yourself in a "zone" chances are you will do it well, and it will become your signature so to speak . . . it may take a bit of trial and error . . . but when you find it you will "KNOW" . . .

It's interesting what everyone likes. Next I should ask how y'all got started decorating.

Oh, I can answer that one quick. When I got sick I fell into a deep depression and became agoraphobic. My therapist told me that if I didn't find a hobby which got me out of the house once in a while she was going to discontinue my treatment.

Now, I had decorated years ago, using the supermarket stuff. We didn't have a supply store around here until about 10 years ago.

Not wanting to lose a very good doctor, I thought hard about what I always wanted to do, but never did before. As it happened, one niece was having a baby and the other was getting married soon. Not having much money, my gifts were their shower cakes.

I enjoyed doing their cakes so much that I decided to take lessons. And more lessons. Then even more lessons.

Now I'm Theresa, and I am a Cake Deco-holic.

It seems that my style is more in the simple, elegant category. I love making gumpaste flowers. I also love stringwork. Although neither techniques is simple, the look is simple, clean, and elegant.

However, from time to time, I like to go a different direction. This is when I do crazy things like a frog wedding cake or silly animals in the fields. It's fun to do sculpted critters or people to place on a cake or gingerbread house.

Michele

I always do lambeth. Aaaaalways. Unless specifically asked NOT to. Lambeth with gold painted on.

Oldfashioned, royal icing and always fondant. That's my style. With the occasional gumpaste flower.

I am more of a Modern combined with traditional kind of style. But my Topsy Turvys are loved by many.
Edna

I don't know what my style is. I LOVE fun but I also love elegant.. I think what I love about all of it is the feeling I get when someone loves the cake I have produced for them. That is my style ... a want to please my customer.

I don't think I have a style I've been doing this for only 2 years, and I don't think anyone could look at one of my cakes and say, "Oh, this must be from Robin." I often woder about this. My business has picked up from 2 or 3 cakes a week to 15-20, so maybe I'm doing something that people like???? I couldn't tell you

I started out carving my cakes..........
Now I create 80's British cakes.
Why, because we don't do them in the USA so they are always fresh and exciting to me.