I'm also a well-known cupcake hater...I figure that just means more for the people who like them 
K8, I'm confused, I thought I have read you saying many times that you don't sell cakes?
I've sold tons of cakes. I'm not currently employed in the caking arena.
Oh, that's a shame. I hope your time is employed doing something as equally (or more) rewarding 
I don't comment much on here but this kind of irked me.
Buttercream piping is a skill that requires a lot of practice and renders beautiful results. I don't think it's "grandma style" at all. K8, & Indy just to name a couple of the more well known on CC, know about piping and it shows in their work. Newbies most likely have not seen any work done by Than Than....jaw dropping to say the least.
This is not to knock fondant covered cakes, but really they all look alike...ribbon, cut outs, or molded fondant lace, a few gumpaste flowers. Hand molding figures, making your own gumpaste flowers, now that takes skill. using a mold, thats something else.
Trends, come and go...buttercream piping and yes those beautiful BC roses will still be around when we are long gone. If 5 tiers of fondant turn you on, so be it, but to publicly put down these sheet cakes or tiered cakes with roses, is a put down of the people who make them and are proud of their work. That is how I took Czar's comments anyhow. Not nice.
every little newbie that ever worked for hours on a homely little cake is now twice as shy to post and ask for critique
Maybe because they are worried you'll tell them their cake is homely.
This is not to knock fondant covered cakes, but really they all look alike...ribbon, cut outs, or molded fondant lace, a few gumpaste flowers. Hand molding figures, making your own gumpaste flowers, now that takes skill. using a mold, thats something else.
Trends, come and go...buttercream piping and yes those beautiful BC roses will still be around when we are long gone. If 5 tiers of fondant turn you on, so be it, but to publicly put down these sheet cakes or tiered cakes with roses, is a put down of the people who make them and are proud of their work. That is how I took Czar's comments anyhow. Not nice.
Well, you took it wrong, then. I don't like sheet cakes, that's my opinion. I'm not putting anyone down who makes them unless they choose to be insulted. I do mostly buttercream anyway, my customers don't usually ask for fondant. Just because I don't like sheet cakes and think they mostly look tired and boring doesn't mean that people don't know how to pipe a buttercream rose. There are lots of strange assumptions and twisting of people's comments on this thread, I find it odd. I've done plenty of cakes that have buttercream roses on them if that's what the customer wants. I don't like them, but I'll do them. If I had to design a cake for myself based on my own preferences it wouldn't have a buttercream rose in sight. And like I said, I'm sure that there are people who are sick of scrollwork and swiss dots, and I do a lot of those. So go ahead and say that you don't like them. I won't take it personally. I'll just make you a different style cake 
every little newbie that ever worked for hours on a homely little cake is now twice as shy to post and ask for critique
Maybe because they are worried you'll tell them their cake is homely.
Brad was worried I wouldn't. Takes all kinds.
[quote="costumeczar"]
This is not to knock fondant covered cakes, but really they all look alike...ribbon, cut outs, or molded fondant lace, a few gumpaste flowers. Hand molding figures, making your own gumpaste flowers, now that takes skill. using a mold, thats something else.
Trends, come and go...buttercream piping and yes those beautiful BC roses will still be around when we are long gone. If 5 tiers of fondant turn you on, so be it, but to publicly put down these sheet cakes or tiered cakes with roses, is a put down of the people who make them and are proud of their work. That is how I took Czar's comments anyhow. Not nice.
Well, you took it wrong, then. I don't like sheet cakes, that's my opinion. I'm not putting anyone down who makes them unless they choose to be insulted. I do mostly buttercream anyway, my customers don't usually ask for fondant. Just because I don't like sheet cakes and think they mostly look tired and boring doesn't mean that people don't know how to pipe a buttercream rose. There are lots of strange assumptions and twisting of people's comments on this thread, I find it odd. I've done plenty of cakes that have buttercream roses on them if that's what the customer wants. I don't like them, but I'll do them. If I had to design a cake for myself based on my own preferences it wouldn't have a buttercream rose in sight. And like I said, I'm sure that there are people who are sick of scrollwork and swiss dots, and I do a lot of those. So go ahead and say that you don't like them. I won't take it personally. I'll just make you a different style cake [/quote
If I designed a cake for myself, it would not have icing period, well maybe ganache or whipped cream. I can't stand the taste of icing, but if my grandkids want that stuff, thats what they get. I guess some people can CHOOSE to be offended by an opinion, I just think there is a fine line between choosing to state a personal preference or choosing an insulting remark. If I took your post the wrong way, then indeed, I apologize.
[
If I designed a cake for myself, it would not have icing period, well maybe ganache or whipped cream. I can't stand the taste of icing, but if my grandkids want that stuff, thats what they get. I guess some people can CHOOSE to be offended by an opinion, I just think there is a fine line between choosing to state a personal preference or choosing an insulting remark. If I took your post the wrong way, then indeed, I apologize.
No need to apologize, but if you have any of that ganache you speak of, send it on over!
I don't like sheet cakes
I don't either & THAT HAS NOTHING TO DO WITH ANYONE ELSE. Call me LAZY, call me whatever, I HATE decorating them. I'd talk myself BLUE to talk someone out of one. But I don't, I give them what they want if I possibly can.
I'm in awe of those that can decorate with buttercream & with fondant. I still have a long way to go.
... but to publicly put down these sheet cakes or tiered cakes with roses, is a put down of the people who make them and are proud of their work. That is how I took Czar's comments anyhow. Not nice.
Well, you took it wrong, then. I don't like sheet cakes, that's my opinion. I'm not putting anyone down who makes them unless they choose to be insulted...
Hmmm...I'd say that you could whip out the roses pretty fast, ice the cake pretty fast, but make it look halfway decent? No sheet cake with icing roses looks good, so I'll assume that this is a trick question.
http://acmecakes.com/images/RIMG0027.JPG
This one is pretty.
I'm not a fan. Too old-lady style for me. But that's just sheet cakes and buttercream roses for you.
That's why people buy them for their mother's 80th birthday. Du-uh.
The last one I did was $200. Yeah it really stunk, man.
Oh, I'm not worked up, I think it's funny to be offended over a sheet cake too.
I have a question are you saying you think it's funny to be offensive about a cake?
You can't have it both ways. If me or someone took it wrong then you clear it up you don't laugh about it. That's called bullying. If you meant it as a put down own it. If it wasn't an enjoyable put down what was laughable?
I am standing up for the chick in the bakery who simply asked a deal breaker question. Hey quess what, people in bakeries don't have time to waste on homebakers who think they are Ron BenIsrael & spend 14 hours making one pirate ship cake. It's a production bakery nothing new here. She cut to the chase with one queston. You insulted her.
Back to the original post, I worked in a Wally world for a few years and yes, I can pump it out in 5 minutes, as long as I don't have to mix colors. (which now most walmarts won't let you do, but mine did.)
True though that I wouldn't want to work for someone who's so smug that they need to rub it in that you aren't the expert you think you are. What a witch. I wanna know if SHE can do that!
I love old fashioned sheet cakes, as long as they are iced smoothly. Big pet peeve. But I can see why someone wouldn't want to do them- if you have the customer base for original pieces of art like costumeczar, then a sheet cake would seem pretty boring I suppose. I love them because they remind me of Wally world, which I totally loved, and they are stress-free, which I need sometimes!
I am standing up for the chick in the bakery who simply asked a deal breaker question. Hey quess what, people in bakeries don't have time to waste on homebakers who think they are Ron BenIsrael & spend 14 hours making one pirate ship cake. It's a production bakery nothing new here. She cut to the chase with one queston. You insulted her.
Perhaps I missed something, but where did OP say she was insulted?
I am standing up for the chick in the bakery who simply asked a deal breaker question. Hey quess what, people in bakeries don't have time to waste on homebakers who think they are Ron BenIsrael & spend 14 hours making one pirate ship cake. It's a production bakery nothing new here. She cut to the chase with one queston. You insulted her.
Perhaps I missed something, but where did OP say she was insulted?
I think she's saying that I insulted the woman who was doing the interviewing, if I read this correctly.
If I get them all lined up for production purposes...very fast!
For example:
I used to work at Walmart as a decorator. We would base ice 32 1/4 sheet cakes (two CASES of each flavor). (We'd mark the bottoms of the boards with what flavor the cakes were) We'd mix up the colors we wanted and place them in bags. We'd do half of each flavor in each color...I could do them all, doing it that way, in an hour or so. (Not including boarding up time/packaging) When it came to the Walmart way of doing things...fast was key! And after 2 years of doing it their way, you got darn good at it, or you didn't have a job!
Same here, it's all about the prep work and setting up for assembly line. At home we're used to working on one or two cakes at a time, but in a bakery atmospher (well production bakery) you have many of the same type of cakes so you can set up an assembly line. I worked in a wal-mart bakery also and did like BethLS said. So in the end it breaks down to 1.87 mins per cake. That is pretty quick, but in that type of environment you're not working on one cake at a time. And yes, my roses still looked good. After doing them that quickly for so long I can whip out a rose REALLY quick, and of course int hat type of environment you don't do a wilton rose with two different tips, you do it all with one rose petal tip.
Okay here is my question: in a bakery like walmart when you are icing cakes do you use that big icer tip to start and then smooth it with a spatula or do you just start icing with a spatula? Do they require a specific way to ice the cakes or you can do it your way? Does it have to be very very neat and smooth?
Sounds like this K8 woman is a bit of an instigator and a 'poor me' person? Looks like she takes pieces of posts and cuts and pastes to look good for her cause, which so far, ain't jack. If I'm wrong, my apologies.
I certainly don't agree with K8's arguments, but ad hominem attacks don't add anything to the discussion and are not appropriate in any thread.
Just an observation from nearly every thread I've read today. No biggie, I don't know the personalities on here yet. Help me out man!
I'm gonna go Google "ad hominem" and then come back and say something totally awesome.
To the man, I got it, you'd think I'd remember that from 4 years of Latin.
Unfortunately I have nothing awesome to say, I lied.
To the man, I got it, you'd think I'd remember that from 4 years of Latin.
Unfortunately I have nothing awesome to say, I lied.
Au contraire... I'd say you said a couple of very awesome things.
Thanks for making me laugh after a day of checking this thread... not sure what I was thinking....
To the man, I got it, you'd think I'd remember that from 4 years of Latin.
Unfortunately I have nothing awesome to say, I lied.
Au contraire... I'd say you said a couple of very awesome things.
Thanks for making me laugh after a day of checking this thread... not sure what I was thinking....
You know you want to look... 
[/quote]Okay here is my question: in a bakery like walmart when you are icing cakes do you use that big icer tip to start and then smooth it with a spatula or do you just start icing with a spatula? Do they require a specific way to ice the cakes or you can do it your way? Does it have to be very very neat and smooth?[/quote]
Ice using the bag and icer tip, adhere with spatula (if necessary), then smooth with icing scraper. I can get them very smooth, and still use it in my studio. When you train, you do it their way. However, one of my coworkers used to take a scoop of icing and ice with the spatula. Our manager always got on her b/c she wasted too much icing. But she was fast. @ Walmart, you do have to limit your icing usage (they wanted us to also use a comb to take more icing off the sides) and I think they limited us to 6 roses per 1/4 sht cake, although I'm not sure I ever stuck to that. We had a pretty lenient manager.
To the man, I got it, you'd think I'd remember that from 4 years of Latin.
Unfortunately I have nothing awesome to say, I lied.
Au contraire... I'd say you said a couple of very awesome things.
Thanks for making me laugh after a day of checking this thread... not sure what I was thinking....
You know you want to look...
DANG! How can I not look? I should be in bed 1/2 hour ago but I stop by to take a peek 
...then...BANG!!!!!POW!!!!BOOM!!!! Total entertainment.
Ok...I'm going to bed now....before somebody jump me 
Good night
I would think working at a place like walmart would not teach you much....they make the sloppiest bc roses I have ever seen, my 11 year old grand baby makes prettier bc roses than that place.
To the man, I got it, you'd think I'd remember that from 4 years of Latin.
Unfortunately I have nothing awesome to say, I lied.
Au contraire... I'd say you said a couple of very awesome things.
Thanks for making me laugh after a day of checking this thread... not sure what I was thinking....
You know you want to look...
DANG! How can I not look? I should be in bed 1/2 hour ago but I stop by to take a peek
...then...BANG!!!!!POW!!!!BOOM!!!! Total entertainment. Ok...I'm going to bed now....before somebody jump me
Good night
DANG IT & I WAS DOING SOOOOOOOOOO GOOD...NOW I HAVE TO LOOK!!! LOL.
cakeville82, Well done with the reply.....I'd never have thought of that.
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