This is not my disaster but I thought it was a good lesson to put here. A friend of mine attended a formal event for a high level CEO that her husband worked for. This was a catered dinner plus a custom made 5 tiered cake with sugar flowers. My friend told me the cake was supposed to be from a "famous" bakery in the area (cost of the cake was into the thousands of dollars) and that the CEO and his family were so impressed with the cake and the flowers they had pictures of them taken with the cake. Well, after dinner, the cake gets cut and hmmmm, she takes a bite and then said the cake was dry and tasteless. Her husband had a piece from another layer and he wouldn't eat the cake either. The fondant was so terrible that people were pulling it off the cake and asking "what IS this??". She said she looked around the room and NO ONE ate their cake. I may not be the best decorator yet, but everyone loves my cakes and the way they taste. In fact my friend asked me to make her a 3 tier cake for a party of 60 people. And I expect all of it will be eaten. Just a lesson that if you focus all your energy on the decorations and forget that a cake is actually a dessert, well, you probably won't get any more orders.

I know what you mean, I attended a wedding, and it was suppose to be from a famous bakery in the city, and it was horrible. I couldn't eat it. It was so dry and floury tasting, i couldn't believe a bakery couldn't perfect a great white cake, but then again, I can't. Tried many scratch recipes, and haven't liked any of them.

I'd like to know how all of these "famous" bakeries are staying in business while serving such crappy tasting cakes! Why do we try so hard, folks, when evidently the road to success is lined with "make 'em pretty, who cares what they taste like?"

My best compliment was from a wedding planner who ended up being a great personal friend. She was clearing tables from one of my weddings and came up and told me, "If I had never had one of your cakes before, I'd KNOW it was good just from clearing table today. I've NEVER cleared tables before and found NO wasted or leftover cake on the plates!"

THAT, my friends, is a great testimonial!

I made a cake for a co-worker as a favor. The next thing I knew people were asking me to do cakes for all kinds of events. To be honest it was not the best looking cake - but I used one of the chocolate recipes from CC and of course put a little "love" into the baking and presto...YUM!

One girls said that if I made her cake she would cancel her order at the bakery in town. I told her not to cancel (not cool) but to keep me in mind for her next event.

One thing I love to do when I travel is visit bakeries. It is hit or miss. A pet peeve of mine is FREEZER burn ICK!

This is what I wonder when I watch Cake Boss...they pick those sheets of cake up and when they move them around like they are made of foam--how good do they taste?

Has anyone eaten one of their cakes? Are they as good as their fame makes them seem like they are?

A gourmet shop here in town sells their cupcakes starting at around $6.50 each. Somehow they have built the reputation as being THE place for cupcakes....they're filled and sure look pretty (so are mine and so do mine!). But EVERYONE I've talked to that has had one (of theirs) says they are dry dry dry! Oh well, I'm glad for it because after people have tasted theirs and then taste mine...and see that a cupcake can be pretty AND delicious...I don't have any problem convincing them to order from me.

Debi, beats the heck outta me?! I'm wondering how they got the "best in town" reputation in the first place! Maybe they paid off a restaurant critic to give a great review. (I'm only kidding!!! Of COURSE they wouldn't do that!!! )

Like you mentioned, I've also eaten "famous" cakes/cupcakes and thought...Eh. People stand in line for THIS?? And I'm not being jealous or anything. I will definitely acknowledge when someone bakes a good cake. In fact, there's another gourmet shop in town that bakes a really delicious vanilla cupcake. I sure wouldn't mind getting my hands on that recipe!! But their chocolate??.....Eh. Not so good.

One of the things I said when I started taking the Wilton class was that I wanted my cakes and icings to TASTE good as well as look good (someday they will look good). There was a bakery in my old town that had some REALLY good lucking cakes and cupcakes but man they weren't good at all!

I don't know how some of these big places stay in business if they aren't good. One day I am going to have to go to Carlo's Bakery and try his stuff.

I dont get it. I have people ask me to bake them a cake JUST to eat for dessert. honestly. I go out to breakfast with some ladies I've done PTA with for years. we go to a little bed and breakfast in town that makes cakes homemade daily. The girls insist on me being able to bring in a cake every once in a while. and the owner even ate it and LOVED it. wanted the recipe. (uhhh throw in the dry, add eggs, oil and water) - People that cant bake a box cake blow my mind. and I love the people who will say when your not supposed to hear "well, I dont know how she made it, but I KNOW its not box- its not dry...) I've made scratch cakes and have 2 that are big requests, even when folks have to pay for the ingrediants. (the peanut butter one is expensive to make). I even have friends who tellme to just bring them the scraps. LOL on the weeks that I dont do a cake for breakfast, or if they know I am making a cake and meet at the park or whatever, they want the scraps. LOL I had a kid friend me on facebook (kid kid, like 13) just to tell me she LOVED the cake I made. when a kid takes the time to do that, it means alot.

There are 2 women in my town that make custom cakes. Everyone buys from them, because they get a cool cake for their kids party. I've heard both are not good cakes, and the fondant is awful. I'd rather get mine from the grocery store (not walmart) because they DO have good cakes. just boring ones. Thats why I started making my kids cakes- I wanted a good cake, but a cute cake too, and was tired of the decopak crap.