My problem is i started decorating properly maybe 4 months ago and in that time i have only done 4 cakes and only ONE of them was actually for a reason. It is just really frustrating when i have all these ideas and want to try all these things with my decorating and i can't cose i have no reason to and i can't keep making them for no reason!

I am trying designs on fondant dummies now to save making all that cake but yet i still have to pay for all the ingredients to put on them.

I am doing some cookies which i love even though i don't get to do them very often and am now making gumpaste pieces to atleast do something but i do find that really fun!

Does anyone else has this problem or for hobbists out there just starting how many cakes do you do a week/month?

I have done a cake for our family but other than that b'day's are so spread out and there are no weddings etc etc so that doesn't really help

I think that is all i want to say, not that there really is a point in this just letting my frustration out.

Try to find a local boarding school, nursing home, or any group home in your area. I donated two cakes a month (one for boys and one for girls) to a local boarding school, and that is how I built my portfolio. The cakes I made were probably a little too much sometimes just for a birthday, but they loved them and it was good practice for me.

HTH

PS: You will probaby get referral, etc. from staff/family at the facilities and eventually start getting a little cash.

That might be an idea but i am not confident enough in my abilities for donating......I know it is silly lol

Oh, please, Elise!!! (hey, that rhymes ) Not good enough to donate? I looked at your photos and you do lovely work.

I, too, need practice! So, I put the word out at church that I'd like to do people's special occasion cakes for free. I tell them right up front that I'm new at this. I've been getting 4 or 5 requests a month. I just dropped one off this morning (the musical score one in my photos).

So far, everyone has been very grateful and has insisted on paying me. Not being a licensed kitchen, I can't take money and tell them to donate to one of my favorite charities. One woman gave $100 to my church. Someone last week gave $60 to our local food pantry.

I get to practice and try new techniques, my friends get cakes, and the charities get money. Everyone wins!

one thing that brought more business for me was...my husband took a free cake to work and the rest is history!!!

I know i am being silly. It's not so much the decorating, it is more like when i make them will the cakes taste ok and will they be ok sitting out silly stuff like that, that i know prob be ok but it's like what if? lol

I have done some stuff outside the family but they were only cookies. I am confident with giving cookies out though. i did some for an airline crew and the others were for my graduation class and have been asked to do some again but that is for something later in the year lol

First of all...I looked at your photos, and your work is amazing. A couple of the cakes you said were your first try and boy-o-boy do you have beginners luck! You are very talented so keep trying to find reasons to make cakes.

I'm a hobby baker, and can't get a home licensed in my state....but I love to bake so, like you, it's a little hard to just bake for no reason. My first cakes after I finished the Wilton courses were for co-workers birthdays in my department. I also do family birthdays, holidays (Valentines, Easter, Mother's Day etc.). This weekend is my niece's baby shower, next weekend is my nephew's graduation (bless my husband and his big family!). Non-holiday family dinners, I test new cupcake or frosting recipes on them. When we get invited to dinner, I offer to bring dessert (usually minatures) and rarely get turned down. I give cakes, treats etc. to my DH to take to work. I also have a small group of friends who I send pictures if there's one I think they'd like to see.

Again, you are very, very talented, so I'm sure the hardest part for you in the near future will be having to tell all the freebie people you've been practicing on how much their 3D carved, fondant rose covered cake is going to be!!

Good luck!

LOL DIane I have been doing the same thing.

Every Thurdsay night I bake something for my husband to take into work with him so I can try new things and get feedback on my recipes, flavor combo's and decorating.

Well that was over 2 months ago and everyone is "Fresh Baked Friday's" LOL

Tonight I made soft and thick sugar cookies (kinda of a cross between a sugar cookie and short bread) covered in orange bc frosting.

Let me tell ya they are delish!

I to have started practicing on dummy's but mostly to perfect technique like smoothing and corners.

I have been baking like crazy for friends and neighbors (birthdays, grads, anything really). I even made a cake for my neighbors grand daughter who learn how to ride a bike without her training wheel last weekend.

I really do like eggsnbakin idea about baking for local churches etc. We have a womens shelter not to far from my home and I bet the ladies and kids would love a lil something sweet to make their day.

Thanks for posting this and to everyone for the great responses

oh...my personal favorite reason for baking? "just because"

Yes! The sugar calls to you, does it not?! It now runs in my veins and when I am old and grey my IV will have a glucose drip I tell you! Rotten to the core.

All good ideas. maybe i will give them ago. Please don't get the wrong idea, i am confident in what i can do most of the time i just have this no confidence thing in taking the next step for stuff eg. making cakes for people outside the family etc. But it silly really as they won't be any different to the ones i make at home and they were fine, so why shouldn't i do it!?

Thank-you for the lovely comments about my work too

ooo p.s we are gonna have a girls night soon and i was thinking of making a chocolate cake with choc ganache on the outside with a ferrero rocher ganache filling......how evilly delicious

that's great congrats!!! I must say i am impressed with how straight you got those music lines on the cake

We have the same problem. I cannot seem to find a reason to make cakes, especially for someone who doesn't sell cakes. I still want to make my life sized dress cake and I am so frustrated because I really want to make it soon. Ahh.. Good thing that there is someone out there who feels the same way.

i remember you talking about the dress cake, defiantly ALOT of work but how cool would it be!!!

How about taking one to your Dentist, Eye Doctor, Gyno, and......well you get the idea. They would love it and maybe you could drum up some business.

I have the same problem...tons of ideas, but no "reason" to make a cake! I've spent evenings making gum paste flowers, and practicing with royal icing. Here are some places that have benefitted from my "addiction":

-friend who had a new baby, and was feeling housebound.
-work. I am very popular in the staff room right now!
-daughter's school.
-my classes (I teach high school)
-"just because" for my family.

I have that problem too. I have about 6 nieces and nephews around here and my two kids. Everyone's birthday is now done until November! Both my kids were born on Nov 30, six years apart. My family used to like all the cakes, but now it's moans and groans, not another cake!!! The only sorta legitimate nice big cake would be for my 10th anniversary in July. We eloped so I never did have a wedding cake. I've got some dummies too. After that is done then I'll be bake to stopping strangers on the street!!

Like RylanTy mentioned...its good to know that someone out there feels the same way! I've told my husband that I'm concerned I've spent a mint on cake stuff (and I still want more btw) and I don't really have any to do. I've started to try to make up reasons to make a cake; I'm making a purse cake as a birthday present for one of my best friends next weekend and I couldn't be happier lol

Also, to the op; your cakes are gorgeous! Your's are some of the pictures that I look at and go..."oooohhhhh I wanna be able to do that!!!!"

I have a similar situation with my cookie bouquets, there are a couple of ideas I really want to make, I wish I had someone to make them for. Its an expensive hobby if you're not getting any money for it.

Take it to the homeless shelter. If you look at my pictures, I made one for Halloween this year and called it Blood on Pumpkin hill. It doesn't look too scary for the small children who are always there. We have a lot of middle class families who've lost their homes and need to keep their hope up. Cake always helps and is appreciated, as are cupcakes. They also like it if people come to help cook a meal.

I think it is great and am very happy to donate cakes and but like previous replies have said boy is it costly to have this hobby. I mean i spent hundreds of dollars on supplies so far and that is cutting down on what i think are the basics lol

And it is frustrating how it cost alot to keep giving away stuff and you don't get any money to cover for costs but then if someone offered to pay me i would feel weird about it lol

Don't get me wrong i have fun giving away gifts and will keep doing so, it's just at the same time i am concious of the money side cose i am unemployed at the moment so that doesn't help.

i am doing my nan a b'day cake soon, a girls night cake and then next month my friends b'day cake so that is atleast something to look forward too lol

Cheers for all the replies, good to know people out there have same prob...not that it's a good thing it's actually bad but ya know what i mean lol

...oh and thank-u puppy_luv!

*edited* this post sounds really bad doesn't it ooooo i didn't mean it to!!

I just try to make something once a week, so that I can get better at what I love to do. It also helps me build my portfolio until I'm ready to open up shop!

Girls, I think we should all make the cakes, get us all together and have ourselves a cake party. We can share our tips and recipes and then cut each other's cake and take it home. This way, nothing is wasted and we are all going to have fun.

Unfortunately, we are far away from each other =[

I have this problem, too. I have eaten waaaaaaay too much since I started trying to learn this art, and I feel like I'm imposing on others to take my practice cakes - especially if I have used a mix So many ideas, so few outlets........ I know - get over it already A Cake Party would be fun, but then I'd have to try all of them instead of just mine. Fourteen more pounds........

and i live even MORE far away lol but good thing is i am gonna make a 'just because' cake today for dessert trying ganache for the first time.