What an interesting post. I am not sure our bakery has a particular or specific style. I would say that our clients do say they came to us for a cake made exclusively or specifically by us. They say they can look at a cake and tell it is one of ours, compared to others in the area. I would guess that it would be our attention to detail and our neat and clean work. Maybe that is a "style"?

I do consider us designers and not just decorators. I know the idea and importance behind concentrating on and developing your own style. I was a Fine Arts major too. At one time or another, all artists have to face the reality that you have to do what will make money.
I personally don't really like cutesy, girly, overly feminine cakes. If that is what makes our client happy, I am happy to do those kinds of cakes.
We are in the business of making cakes and creating happy, repeat customers. Even if I don't like a style, I can find happiness in knowing the client will love it!
Thanks for the post! It got me thinking.

Love this thread.. I would love to evolve to having a style.. I am new and just keeping any design clean and trying to execute is hard enough.. I can say that you don't have to be super ultra famous to have a style.. I can spot one of Andrea Sullivan's (Sweetcakers) cakes anywhere.. she has a definite style which I love and would like to emulate. Thanks for the thought provoking thread.

Colleen

Good question! I'm not quite sure what my style is; as other people have said, there are so many wide spectrum requests, especially with theme cakes, that I wouldn't know how to explain "what I do." I love elegant, stream lined cakes but have a tendency to lean towards fun. I am obsessive over the small details and the preciseness of them...but tend to overlook bigger things like how smooth my buttercream is (lol). I am just starting to come out of the beginners shell and hope to be able to find my signature style. I am waaaay on the learning curve still so that might take awhile.

Some people have already noted that a good way to find your style is to look at your favorites. I haven't made many cakes yet, and certainly none good enough to post, but I know what I like and that's probably what I'll do best because it's fun. I don't particularly like carved cakes with the exception of purses and diaper bags. (Do those even count as carved?) I know when (if) I am asked to make one, I'll struggle with it, despite years of ceramics classes. Ask for something elegant, clean, and feminine, and I'm your girl. I love my handwriting, so quote cakes wouldn't be a struggle. What you like the most is what you'll take the most time and effort to learn to perfect. Therein lies your style.

I've really enjoyed this thread, given me a lot to think about. I feel like my cakes/cookies are all over the place style-wise. People in my town know my cakes right away as I'm obsessive about having "a clean canvas" I can't really commit to decorating a cake unless I have every square inch perfectly smooth first Although I'm having a hard time pinning it down for myself I know my style is somewhat traditional. My customers know I don't do 3-D, topsyturvy, unusual shapes and I do not cover any of my cakes in fondant (just one time last year with a small wedding cake)....Only rounds, squares and sheets. I love using fondant, but for decorations only. I looked in my favorites and was surprized to see that most of the designs were vintage, mod and retro in style...maybe that's my style? Again like others have said it's hard to know when your trying to fufill the customers ideas and themes with every cake.

Corrie...I would say you are definitely retro...but with a modern vibe! Clearly a style...

Cat

Thanks Cat, it's good to know that someone else can see some sort of underlying vibe I have to agree with whoever said your style shows in the subtle and natural colorations and I definintely see a streak of "traditional" in your work, even your last cake with the cute little hippo waterpark thing, you still kept it looking natural with the softer colors and a green leafy outdoorsy feel. Given the same "hippo waterpark" theme, other decorators would have gone all out with bright colors or others might have not been able to help them selves and added a few hundred flowers , I know mine would have been more two-dimentional over-all.You've brough up an interesting topic, it kinda makes me look at my own cakes and think,"I wonder how Kitagrl would've approached this one or what Bobwonderbuns would've done with the same order..."
Great thread, Thanks

yeah, that's one of the things I looked at with the Hippo cake (and, btw, good call on it being a "waterpark" cause that is what it is!LOL!) and noticed that I could have gone very bright with the colors and didn't...in fact, the only thing I considered adding to it at the time was vines going up the trees..hardly a splash of color!LOL! And, yeah, interesting to think what others would have come up with if I'd said "Make me a hippo themed baby shower cake with a Hawaiian waterpark feel"...LOL So yes, I do tend to keep things muted and in a more natural color line. Now, something you don't know about me, yet, is that I worked for many years as a nature and wildlife photographers..this may have something huge to do with my "style" LOL!

Cat

Understated elegance with just 1 or 2 colours and max. 2 design elements (i.e. flowers) and sleek lines is what I would call my "style". Of course I make other cakes as the customer demands, but the pictures on my website and the dummy cakes I do for bridal shows reflect my personal taste quite clearly and the majority of my customers come to me because they share the same "taste". So I think it is possible to steer towards the customers you want to make cakes for

Great thread, thanks everybody!

Well I don't think any of the cakes I made really reflect my style. However, looking at my favorites I noticed I am drawn specificially to cakes with clean lines and a bold contrasting graphic element, and classical/romantic cakes (ivory, clean lines, beautiful scrolls, draping, swags etc). These are the cakes that give me that feel good moment that lasts forever.lol. However, i freeze on a blank canvas.

Painters spend years copying the style of other painters, but in the end their own style emerges, almost in spite of anything they're doing. I think it's the same for us: style, the way I see it, is not just the product of our personal preferences (although that has something to do with it), but is something that emerges over time and comes from somewhere a lot deeper inside of us. I don't think I have a discernible style yet, in spite of my love for bold colors and a good joke, but I hope one day people will say "Of course, Marianna did that cake - who else could it be?" and follow that up with "I've gotta get myself one of those?".

I don't think my saved favorites really reflect my style...haha....I usually just save pictures that are done so well they do not look like real cake...usually spot-on perfection. That, or a really original idea that I want to look back up later for inspiration.

I do like to go with realism though, so I guess that's a "style"....in a way.

My favorite caker in the whole world is Mike McCarey....and he does realistic stuff that doesn't look like cake...so...I guess in a way that might be me.

Even as a kid/teenager, I thought my ultimate goal in icing a box mix cake with canned icing was to swirl it EXACTLY like it looked on the front of the box. I remember even a few times trying to make the cake look on the fork just like on the front.... or other foods too...trying to arrange the cereal in the milk in the spoon just like it looked on the front of the box.

I'm a nerd. haha.

(Must be genetic...I didn't know it when I was young, but my grandparents were both art school grads and then my grandpa's job was advertising, which included arranging food and things for photography....)