Made A Cake....any Critiques? :0)
Decorating By SugarNSpiceDiva Updated 7 Dec 2009 , 9:34pm by cownsj
Hi everybody!
I finished this cake today. I've been practicing out the wazoo lately, cuz I really want to start supporting my addiction somehow! lol. So me, hubby and everyone else who wants to contribute have been making a "cake idea list." Whenever I get in the mood to make a cake (which is all the time!), we pick a theme off the list, and that is my challenge for that project. Well, hubby picked the frogs in a pond theme. So this is what I came up with.
I learned that, if I don't rush or stress, I do a lot better work. Also, I'm learning how to tweak recipes to find something that suits me, AND I learned to cover up blemishes so you don't even know they are there. (A lot of the grass areas were blemishes showing the white crumb coat. lol) 
This is a butter cake, chocolate filling. All icing except flowers are homemade lemon buttercream. Frogs and lily pads are homemade lemon mmf, and water is piping gel.
Sorry this is so long. So what do yall think? (Oh, it is a little crooked, cuz my two year old bumped me while I was putting on the second layer. I attempted to straighten it, but I don't think it worked all the way. lol)
OK, so I don't know how to add the picture, but here is the link, and there's more in my pictures.
http://www.cakecentral.com/cake-photo_1530541.html
Any critiques? 
I think you did a really nice job. I really like the way you did the frogs and lilypads, and you got your BC really smooth. 
Thank you both so much! I was really excited about this one. I know there's stuff I could improve on, but I'm getting better.
metria,
You are so right! I'm still learning all the tips. I didn't know what that one was, but I looked in up in my wilton magazine, and found out I actually have it! lol. Thank you for the tip. I'll definitely be using that one next time.
Cute idea, cute cake and you did a great job. That's a really good idea you have about challenging yourself to try different things and keeping the stress out of it. I'm going to try that.
You did a great job, the frogs are very cute! If you ever want to make the water a lighter blue, use white icing under it and the water will be the color of the gel you use. I did that for my luau cake and loved the effect. Very nice cake!! Congrats!
the little frogs are very cute and i like the lilypads scattered around!
Looks great, you did an excellent job.
I have trouble getting my edges and corners nice and sharp with buttercream. A trick to help that and overall smoothness is using the Viva towel method.
I love the color and the frog poking his head out of the water. Keep up the great work!
Love the cake. I just don't have the creativity to model characters like that! One tip for the water. It looks great. However, if you wanted to get a bluer effect, save some white buttercream to undercoat the pond before you make it. It will leave the blue as blue. But in this cake, I like the pond effect.
Also, as someone said, play with tips. Get to know them. A simple border around the pond would emphasize the characters and detail in the pond without pulling your eye to the edges.
Love the look!
First and foremost, I think it's a very cute cake so take this post as coming from someone who isn't just ripping it to shreds for the sake of doing so.
I think the green is actually too green. A great tip I got from Leah when I posted asking for help about my very first cake was to always tone down your colors with brown or something so they don't look so bright and straight-out-of-the-bottle. It'll still be VERY green, just not quite so unnaturally so. I've used that tip a million times now.
The only other thing that sticks out at me is that the water looks a bit like oil. Did you cover the entire cake in green, then do a border and fill it with the tinted piping gel? I think you would have gotten a MUCH better look had the buttercream underneath the pond been a different color. Either a light cream or white. That way you could see the beautiful blue of the piping gel without it being overlayed with the bright green.
Otherwise, I think it's a very charming cake and you should be proud.
OMGitsaLisa: Thanks for the tip about adding brown to the green to tone it down. I've never been happy with that shade of green on my cakes, so I will definitely use the brown next time I need that color. That's what I love about this site, everyone passes down tips they got from other cc'ers! My co-workers tell me how much I'm improving every time I bring in a cake - they love each one more than the one I made before. Each time I incorporate tips from my fellow cc'ers!
Those frogs are too dang cute! And I love how you are learning. That's what it's all about!
You're doing a great job! I love the cake overall - it's really cute and well done.
I also thought the green was a bit much.....I'm glad to see someone else beat me to mentioning it. I was going to suggest that you make the pond bigger to help cut down on the over-kill of green.
You've gotten some great tips so far. Cute cake and I do really like the little froggy poking out of the pond. My only advice is to play with borders a little bit, I think they add a lot to a cake when it comes to them looking "finished" if that makes sense. For sheet caks I love how Cakery does her borders, really take it up a level in my book. Also I'm wondering how the lemon and chocolate combo tasted?
Love your plan of working through an idea list, you learn something new with every single cake and you're off to a great start!
Thank you all SO MUCH for your comments and suggestions! I really appreciate the tips!
As for the water, I didn't even think of that. While I was doing the cake, I got in kind of like a "zone." I iced the cake with the green buttercream. Then I just piped the border for the pond and laid on the gel. I did use the Viva towel method, but I'm still perfecting it. I don't think I'm letting the cake sit long enough for it to crust enough. I'm using the Wilton buttercream recipe with my own little tweaks. Is there a better crusting buttercream recipe?
OMGitsaLisa- Thank you for that tip! I will definitely be using it next time. I thought it was a little "green overkill" too, but I sent a picture to my mom ( 
I still go to mommy for advice on everything. lol) and she was like its a frog cake, its supposed to be green. So I just left it.
I'm glad yall like my "idea list" way of learning. lol. I had the problem where I had so many ideas and everyone was throwing ideas at me that I just had to write it down to keep my head from spinning. Plus, when I first started doing cakes, I would just start making it and get the inspiration on the way there. I find I do better when I have a solid plan rather than winging it. Plus, I think it's good "real" practice for when I start selling them. I won't be able to "wing it" on someone else's cake. lol.
Thanks again everybody! CC is all I really have to learn since I live so far from anything else. And I have been learning SO MUCH!
Thank you all SO MUCH for your comments and suggestions! I really appreciate the tips!
Another thin occurs to me about the green overkill. Maybe next time mix up which shades you use. Maybe make each frog a slightly different shade of green from each other, and the grass an even different shade. You can get subtle changes by adding a little bit of yellow or blue to each, along with varying the amount of brown to control brightness. Mixing colors is one of my favorite ways to customize my cakes.
Thank you all SO MUCH for your comments and suggestions! I really appreciate the tips!
Another thin occurs to me about the green overkill. Maybe next time mix up which shades you use. Maybe make each frog a slightly different shade of green from each other, and the grass an even different shade. You can get subtle changes by adding a little bit of yellow or blue to each, along with varying the amount of brown to control brightness. Mixing colors is one of my favorite ways to customize my cakes.
What a great idea! I've been kind of conservative when trying too much of my own ideas, so I would have never thought to do that. I attempted to change the shades of the green by adding more coloring gel, but that didn't work out too well. I guess when it gets to a certain shade, thats as dark as it get?
Thanks again! With all these tips, I can't wait to do another one!!
Oh, I forgot. As for the chocolate and lemon, I don't know how other people would feel about it. But DH and the girls LOVE both those flavors, and they actually really liked how it worked together. DH said the lemon wasn't overbearing so it didn't affect the taste with the chocolate.
Until I just read this post, I'd forgotten that I had someone order a cake for their grandmother who was 101. They ordered a chocolate and lemon cake. I remember thinking how awful that sounded, but if that was what they wanted, then that is what they would get. We delivered the cake and ended up being invited to stay. Came the moment of truth of having that choclate and lemon cake. Surprisingly, and very surprisingly, it was actually very good. I still can't believe it worked, but it did.
Until I just read this post, I'd forgotten that I had someone order a cake for their grandmother who was 101. They ordered a chocolate and lemon cake. I remember thinking how awful that sounded, but if that was what they wanted, then that is what they would get. We delivered the cake and ended up being invited to stay. Came the moment of truth of having that choclate and lemon cake. Surprisingly, and very surprisingly, it was actually very good. I still can't believe it worked, but it did.
wow 101 that is so cute!!!! and I am glad your cake was delicious!!!
Thank you Cristi-Tutty. It really felt like a very special honor to be able to make a cake for someone that age. She was so sweet, and her face just lit up when she saw her cake and she couldn't stop saying how beautiful it was and how much she loved it. Her granddaughter had ordered it for her. I don't think I'll ever forget that day.
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