I love decorating cakes and have been doing it for about 2 years now. I know that I still have a long long long way to go, but it's been quite fun. I saw someone else do this and was hoping ya'll wouldn't mind going and looking at some of the cakes I've done and give me any critique/helpful hints.

www.facebook.com/thelittlebakerboy

You have some good decorating under your belt. The main issue I see is the cake boards. You should definitely cover your boards with something besides foil. To me it just makes the cakes look unfinished, especially on the fancier ones like the wedding cakes. I buy cheap Wilton fondant with a coupon at Michael's and use that to cover my boards. I also use ribbon around the outside of the board to make them look neat and finished. You would be surprised at how different a cake looks when the board is decorated as well.

Ya know... I never even really paid attention to that until you just pointed it out. As soon as I went back and looked, "Owwww that's kinda bright" lol. Thank you

Am I to understand that the retirement cake at the top of the page is supposed to be . . . a fewmet?

Interesting "Hello Zombie" concept.

I have no grounds to comment on the foil-covered cake boards: my own cakes either get plated on a dinner plate, or are served in-pan.

Lol... Yes, it was ordered for a man that was retiring from the Cattleman's Association.. so they wanted a cow patty.

And I had never even HEARD or thought of Hello Kitty Zombie until someone ordered it.

You are off to a good start. Besides the board covering, what I noticed are your b'cream iced cakes. They are not real smooth. It looks to me like your icing is not soft & creamy &/or you are not mixing it enough. Do check out this post: http://cakecentral.com/recipe/2-icing#comment-23358

I hope you remember about copyright issues. Be careful. You might want to remove those pix.
Covering boards: you can use fabric, Contac Paper; wrapping papers or freezer paper. Just put your cake on a board the same size before placing on the covered board.

Agreed on the buttercream... instead of viewing it as a challenge/goal, I've been treating buttercream as my enemy. I just recently decided that I really need to start looking for another recipe. Thank you so much for posting that. I'll try that one soon! I'll have to experiment with the mixing too..I had always thought not to mix too much as to not create air bubbles. But I'll try to do exactly as that recipe says.

If I'm making American-style buttercream (with fat and powdered sugar), I cream the fats with some salt for at least 15 minutes. After I add my sugar and cream I don't mix it for very long at all. If you keep mixing it all it will do is get fluffy and full of air. So I don't see the point in mixing it for that long after everything gets added together. Don't treat buttercream as the enemy because there are a ton of people who prefer it over fondant. Every cake I do is buttercream with fondant accents.

When you ice your cake, put on twice as much as you need. Icing a cake smoothly is all about removing excess. Get a bench scraper if you don't already have one and use that to ice the sides. A good turntable is a must if you don't have one of those already.

Unfortunately we can't always control what the person asks for. I have been asked to do a Confederate flag cake for a friend's father. If I had a business I would decline the order, but since he is a very dear friend I told him I would do it.

Hmm. When making my usual cold-process buttercream (the recipe that's been on the back of the . . . . .), I start with the powdered sugar, add the butter (and jam, for my strawberry variation), and mix by hand, with an ordinary dinner fork, until all the sugar has been incorporated (and the tiny little lumps that look like the curds in cottage cheese smooth out).Then I add the vanilla, and just enough milk to bring it to a spreadable consistency (or the entire amount of maple syrup, for my maple and maple-cinnamon variants).

(And yes, I'm aware that even the back of the powdered sugar box now calls for an electric mixer, but it's the way I, my mother, and my grandmother before her, have been doing it for decades.)

James, you must be ripped. I am way too lazy to mix buttercream by hand. Maybe I should start doing it that way to tone up my arms.

I'm sure 65 pounds of that is in your buttercream mixing arm.

My, that was quick.

Ha! It must have posted while you were editing.

This is great. Scary, but great.