Hi Ladies,

I've been doing decorating on a hobby level for the last two years and am getting ready to start selling my work. I have a few questions which I'm sure are common sense to most people but have me really stumped.

1. I'm not a baker so I have to have a recipe for a cake and follow that exactly. I would have no clue how to modify ingredients to achieve different flavors, textures etc. Right now I rely on cake books for recipes and make everything from scratch mostly but wondered if some people do semi-from scratch cakes where they used box mix but add to it? If so what types of changes did you make?

2. The majority of cakes I've made were way too moist to carve into even to trim and crumbled into pieces. I noticed on shows like cake boss or Challenge they always seem to use sponge cake. Is this the only option for carved cakes? How do you work with other types of cakes and not have them fall apart?

3. Are there certain types of cakes or fillings that you should just NEVER use on large stacked cakes or carved cakes?

Thank you in advance for your help. Cake decorating is definitely my thing but the science behind the cake itself baffles me, lol.