I've been casually doing cakes for about a year now and they still seem to take me forever to complete! Its starting to drive me crazy how long the process is and I'm thinking I must not be too efficient. I usually bake, level and crumb coat one day, let it settle then cover with fondant and decorate another day, but depending on the decorations, it might take me more than one day to decorate (usually because I can't focus for a whole day on just working on the cake). How long does it take you for the prep, baking, stacking, crumbcoating, fondant and decorating? I attempting to see where I'm spending too much time. Also what are tips for making the whole process quicker, esp. baking and making gumpaste flowers. Thank you!

I used to have the same problem. I bake as a hobby for friends and family. I do small cakes and it used to take me for ever. A few month's ago I decided that I needed to come up with a solution. After giving it some thought I realized that part of my problem was that I was not organized. All my cake supplies were in different places in my kitchen. I even had most of the baking pans in the basement.

I have a walk in closet in the hallway near the kitchen. I decided that I would use it as my "cake closet". I purchased some plastic bins and shelfs at Wal-Mart. I arranged and labeled everything that use for my cakes. I have also set an order in the way I do things. Try to gel all the coloring done at the same time. Fill my icing bags at the same time and so on... I find that all this has cut my time in half! I feel so silly beacuse my big problem had a simple solution.


I hope this helps Good luck

I feel your pain. I'm a hobby caker also and it takes me forever to do a cake. I think it's mostly because I can't keep all my supplies in my kitchen.

I have a designated "corner" in my laundry room and have everything very organized. I have covered plastic bins to keep my things separated by "step"-like everything I need for baking-strips, nails, sieve, etc. and a separate one with stuff to torte and ice-knife, leveler, lifter, spatulas, Viva paper towels, etc. I just pull out the bin for whatever step I am at and don't have to dig through all my stuff.

I also bake ahead and freeze. I try to bake several cakes at once for different due dates. I only make and have to clean up one mess at a time.

The main thing is to try not to get too stressed out about it and just enjoy the process. I have been so much happier since I have learned to do that!

HTH!