I've learned a lot from all you very helpful cc'ers in the past year. I'm just curious to see what everyone else has learned and their progress from their absolute 1st cake to their most recent cake. Sooooooooooo... With that said please post photos of your 1st as well as most recent cake and share with us how long you've been practicing this craft. Since I posted I guess I'm first lol

I've been decorating for a little under a year and even though I am a culinary school graduate, I wasn't trained in pastry. So I am proud to say that I am a completely "cake central and you tube taught decorator"
I'm really bad at updating my cakes on CC , so I don't have my absolute 1st or last cake posted. But to give an example of my progress here's my 1st purse cake http://media.cakecentral.com/gallery/733202/normal_1281144560.jpg

And here's the last purse cake I did
http://media.cakecentral.com/gallery/733202/normal_1299898068.JPG

I will upload my actual 1st and last soon.

I think this would be a fun idea and brown_suga yours were great. Although my first ever cakes are not here sooo what is here is here and my last cake was a rush job for my grandson that I did not expect to be with me so did what I couldbut here are mine.

http://cakecentral.com/gallery/1771325

http://cakecentral.com/gallery/2123613

Thanks for sharing

http://cakecentral.com//gallery/1321111
http://cakecentral.com/gallery/2160619

The first one is not my "first cake" but it is the first I did for someone. The second I just finished tonight.

Thank you guys for sharing. Crazaboutcakes... Your donkey cake made me smile, he's my favorite "shrek" character.
Baking at the beach... I love your pumpkin cake, great inspiration for the season.

http://cakecentral.com//gallery/1659036
http://cakecentral.com//gallery/2132120

There is about a year and a half between these cakes.

Thanks for looking!

My first:
http://cakecentral.com//gallery/1545762
My last:
http://cakecentral.com/gallery/2159534

I have been at this for about 2 years, and the cakes keep getting bigger and crazier!

What a fun thread! I haven't been able to upload any pics (apparently there is some problem on the site), so I'll have to provide links to my shutterfly account.

Here's my first cake done in March 2010:

http://christinascakes.shutterfly.com/pictures/134

and here's my biggest cake project so far, done for a 100th birthday party on Sep 17, 2011. This is a 14" Red Velvet, 12" Chocolate, 10" Lemon Poppy seed", and 8" White with raspberry/bavarian cream filling. My very first gum paste flowers are the decorations.

http://christinascakes.shutterfly.com/pictures/335

Wow, thanks brown_suga, the donkey was actually for a high school kid that didn't graduate from highschool becasue as we know "they know everythng" lol but his mom called him a Jack a** , so hence donkey , bakingatthebeach, what great pumpkins, keep em coming it nice to see than to nows the progression are wonderful for everyone.

Hi!
I recently wanted to have a go at cake pops, I posted a pic of my first attempt and a pic of my second attempt, I learnt sooo much from messing up the first attempt! and the second time they were a bit better, Hopefully when I make them a third time this week they will be a bit better again!

first attempt,
http://cakecentral.com/gallery/2139106
second attempt
http://cakecentral.com/gallery/2139107

I started a year ago this month. My first cake was the graduation cake from Wiltons course 1. My latest is one from the begining of this month. It's one of my better ones.

http://cakecentral.com/gallery/1820114

http://cakecentral.com/gallery/2143721

This isn't exactly my first, but the first I felt comfortable posting. (LOL)

http://cakecentral.com/gallery/1649434

This is the last, (I can't do piping anymore - carpal tunnel)

http://cakecentral.com/gallery/2150762

I added my favorite!

http://cakecentral.com/gallery/1948928

Here is my first..
http://cakecentral.com/gallery/1960132

One of my most recent:

http://cakecentral.com/gallery/2120538

http://cakecentral.com/gallery/2160933
my VERY VERY first Cake

http://cakecentral.com/gallery/2160934
the first time making a cake for someone else

http://cakecentral.com/gallery/2160938
my very first tiered cake


http://cakecentral.com/gallery/2150724
my most recent cake

This is truly my first cake...made in my first Wilton class (May 200.


And this is my last one (July 2011)....http://cakecentral.com/gallery/2135035

Thanks for starting this, it makes me feel a little better about my cake decorating abilities! LOL! Love seeing everyone else's too!

This is fun! Self taught and a CC addict. I contribute nearly everything I know from the CC forums and practice, practice, practice.

My first cake made for my son's 2nd birthday (2005) - All boxed mix, canned frosting, and store bought food decorations - I knew nothing!
http://cakecentral.com/gallery/1308916

The cake that turned cake decorating into an obsession (I went from making 1-2 cakes a year before this to making 2-3 per month) (2009):
http://cakecentral.com/gallery/1414259

My most recent cake:
http://cakecentral.com/gallery/2160206

Thanks for sharing! It's wonderful seeing your cakes =)

i also want to thank all the cc members here, i leaned so much from this website, trics , ideas...
here s my first cake that i have a picture of:[img]http://cakecentral.com/gallery/1262027
my last:[/img]http://cakecentral.com/gallery/2158931
my favorite:

What a great thread!!! Thanks so much to the OP for starting it. I love looking at all the cakes and seeing skills progress....however so many of the "first cakes" are awesome.. you all have some raw talent. I am posting mine but they do not compare to what I have seen.. I learn so much from everyone here.. thanks!!

First cake for my daughter for valentines day.. just wanted to try something new..saw the puppy and had to try making it
http://cakecentral.com/gallery/1582548

My most recent is traveling so it was not really a finished cake so I will post the one before it. I thought it turned out well.. I really enjoyed learning how to make a shoe.
http://cakecentral.com/gallery/2140218

And my favorite to date... for my daughter's sweet 16
http://cakecentral.com/gallery/2010406
I started making cakes about a year and a half ago now

sorry i just don t have success at the attachment thing...didn t work in my post

This is my first cake from 2 1/2 years ago...

http://cakecentral.com/gallery/1325432


And this was my most recent cake, done in July...

http://cakecentral.com/gallery/2099534

Cakecentral has been responsible for about 95% of my improvement and inspiration.

My first cake ever.. http://cakecentral.com/gallery/1958444
It was made for my son on his 10th birthday in February 2011.

My most recent cake from last weekend - http://cakecentral.com/gallery/2160994

But my personal favorite is this one - http://cakecentral.com/gallery/2061252

I have never taken any classes, and I really am just learning..

This is such a great thread. I love seeing everyones work. The elephant cake is amazing as are so many of the others. I have been back into cakes for a while now. Probably 3 or 4 years. I loose track of time I have learned so much from CC and my Sugar Shack DVDs. I have a whole library of her DVDs.

My first cake I have no pics of because I took the Wilton class as a teenager. But this is my first cake that got me back into cake decorating as an adult.

http://cakecentral.com/gallery/1640729

This cake was soon after and one of my worst...because I had serious bulge problems.

http://cakecentral.com/gallery/1640742

My latest cake
http://cakecentral.com/gallery/2159516

My most recent tiered cake (you can see I learned to fix the bulge )

http://cakecentral.com/gallery/1959305

Wow... that's all I can say... there is some serious talent here... so much so that I almost hesitated to post my links! lol!! Some of those first cakes... yikes!! You guys are amazing!! I only started this in February when I decided I wanted to make my son's 3rd birthday cake.... and from then on.. I was hooked. I've learned so much from you cc'ers.... all the help and advice has been incredible.. and for that I'm forever grateful! I still have a whoooooole lot to learn.. but I can only hope that one day I can be as talented as some of you! Keep up the great work guys!!

Anyway... since February i haven't done a huge amount of cakes... but the very first was for my son's nursery bday party.. and was using the Wilton 3D chop-choo train mould... and just decorated it to resemble my son's favorite train from Chuggington. Here it is...
http://cakecentral.com/gallery/2148551

My first cake that I did for someone else... was also another series of firsts... first time using fondant... first time carving... It was a running shoe for my friend's husband's bday. It's based on an actual shoe he owns... I got so frustrated with the fondant cracking... but it was a great experience!
http://cakecentral.com/gallery/2148585

My most recent cake was for my bill's bday just last week... He loved it.. but I obviously need to learn more about stabilizing cake layers! lol! It was made out of 2- 6" cakes... each done to 3 layers with bc frosting... The cake was great... till the next day when it was bulging and falling over... thankfully it was just a cake for us at home.. but just goes to show I have a lot to learn! hehe!
http://cakecentral.com/gallery/2157466

Thanks so much for sharing everyone!!! And thanks to the OP for starting this thread!

Vicky

Here is my fist "wedding" cake
http://cakecentral.com/gallery/2161191
I will have to dig to find my very first cake! And here is my latest wedding cake
http://cakecentral.com/gallery/2146587

This was my first tiered cake, I didn't upload it to this site because it was that bad. I'm all self taught. I did this June 2010.

http://www.flickr.com/photos/51423045@N07/5689408323/

I made my first wedding cake 5 months later in Nov 2010.

http://cakecentral.com/gallery/1875575

Another 9 months and I made my favourite cake to date in Aug 2011

http://cakecentral.com/gallery/2118353

Here is my first I did for a groom's cake for my younger sister's wedding. Nothing fancy, straight box mix (no add ins) and DH frosting from a can! Saw the strawberries done like this on google and tired it LOL!
http://1.bp.blogspot.com/_1OXDo40NMSw/THsNC2-MV8I/AAAAAAAAAAw/evmR3VrjYQc/s1600/107.JPG

And one of my most recent that even made it to the #4 spot on most saved for the day

http://cakecentral.com/gallery/2143175

I am self taught with help from CC and youtube! I decorated my first cake a year ago in August, and now I am in the process of opening a home bakery!

This was my first decorated cake.



This was my 1st fondant cake.



This is my last cake. I finished it yesterday.

This one was the first "seriously" decorated cake:
http://cakecentral.com/gallery/379113
And this is the last one, done in September for my granddaughter's Christening:
http://cakecentral.com/gallery/2161219
I learned a lot, I mean really a lot being a CakeCentral member.
Thank you all for sharing your knowledge, tips and tricks and photos.

Those are awesome

My very first cake was 2 years ago this November and it was for my daughter's 1st birthday.

http://cakecentral.com/gallery/1733017

My most recent cake was an engagement party this past weekend.

http://cakecentral.com/gallery/2157675

Everything I've learned I have learned from Cakecentral and all the wonderful decorators here! Thanks for looking!

Everyones cakes are so awesome,

Here is my first cake ever, Even before I took the wilton class
http://cakecentral.com/gallery/1750970

This is wiltons last day cake
http://cakecentral.com/gallery/1848075

And thes two are the ones Im most proud of
http://cakecentral.com/gallery/2036069

http://cakecentral.com/gallery/1895332
Oh and my granddaughters shoe
http://cakecentral.com/gallery/2054328