Hi! I am fairly new to cake decorating but I have been considering turning this hobby into a part-time business. Do any of you have the Silhouette machine? Would you recommend it? I'm thinking, if I had this machine, it will make my life easier. Not sure if it's worth the investment. Thanks for your input!

I have the Silhouette Cameo. I purchased the fondant blade from Linda McClure.

Does it work ? Yes

Is it tricky and tempermental?  Yes

Do I use it often? No

Could it be an asset ? Possibly upon more experimantation.

Not using it may be in part to it not being in my kitchen.

Also I am usually in too much of a hurry to roll out my gumpaste to the perfect thickness, freeze it, boot up the computer and cutter, create the image or font, size it, and cut it.

The frustration I have getting the thickness and texture of the gumpaste correct and adjusting the blade properly so far hasn't been worth using it much.

In it's defense, I was using it primarily to cut out letters in a variety of fonts and too often the blade would drag and tear the letter. Sometimes it worked perfectly and save me a lot of time. I'm pretty sure it's 100% user error.

I still prefer the old fashioed way of using a cutter, or creating a template and using my exacto knife to cut designs.

A

EXACTLY!

When I need it for a project, it's valuable. However, I rarely use it.

I found the electronic cutter sheets available at icing images far easier to use than making gumpaste. That's too frustrating & time consuming. Even with the sheets, it rarely works on the first try. The settings are always the same but it is very temperamental.

If you are choosing between this & a cricut, silhoutte wins hands down. If I'd known then what I now know of the limitations, I wouldn't have made te purchase.