All That Effort

Decorating By KimAZ Updated 19 Sep 2005 , 7:44pm by BritBB

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KimAZ Posted 17 Sep 2005 , 5:45pm
post #1 of 16

Hi Everyone,
I was thinking about my cakes and wonder if any of you feel this same way. I'm getting more and more busy with making them which I totally love but I wonder if people really understand the effort we put into making these cakes. So many of the cakes take hours and hours just to decorate let alone the baking, mixing frosting & colors and clean up time.

For those of you who do very detailed designs and for those who do things like fondant figures or gumpaste flowers, I wonder what kind of reaction or replies you get about all your hard work on your cakes?

I'm assuming most people don't eat the fondant or gumpaste but they pay for the design anyway. Do you find that it's a lot of effort only to be thrown away? That part really gets me. All that time and effort just to be thrown away.

Anyway, I'd be interested to read your replies.
Thanks!
KimAZ

15 replies
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Kiddiekakes Posted 17 Sep 2005 , 6:20pm
post #2 of 16

Hi Kim


I don't do alot of Fondant work as fondant cakes here in Canada are not as well received as maybe England or the US.I have done a few fondant wedding cakes but they are very expensive to cover($10.00 a square inch) and I have experienced most guests peeling it off anyway! I absolutely adore and admire the cakes that many seasoned decoraters have achieved and wish that I too someday could muster up the confidence and patience, but I have yet to conquer that one!! Ha! Ha! Many of the brides do not want to pay the extra money for a fondant covered cake but some will because the overall effect is Fantastic. I guess as a decorater and I am being paid handsomely for the cake asked by a customer to design and decorate then whatever they do with cake is up to them whether it is tossed away,icing scraped off etc...

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candyladyhelen Posted 17 Sep 2005 , 6:44pm
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After many years and experiences, I do now charge for all the extras that I put into a cake. I have a note on jy business cards & contracts, that the cost for flour, eggs, and ingredients are all nonimal, but it is my TIME that I charge for. I have my cake flavors & frosting recipes perfected now & I am comfortable in how I feel about my cakes. There are so many techniques that I still have to master. I do tell customers if I cannot do something. They like that I am honest. JMHO. Helen

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tcturtleshell Posted 18 Sep 2005 , 5:56am
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Yes, wasting of the cake bothers me. It didn't until the last wedding cake & groom's cake I did. My husband & I were wedding guests so we saw all of the waste. The wedding cake was 8", 12", 16" rounds. The 8" was cut & 1/4 of the 12" was cut & put on plates. Hardly any of the cake the was on the plates was touched!! The groom's cake was a 8" & 12". Only the 8" was cut & it was eaten. When me & my husband decided it was time to leave I didn't know what to do! There was so much cake! We got a "to go" plate for ALL of the wedding cake & just left it on the table for the bride/groom's families to take home. The groom's family took home the groom's cake. Then we gathered my cake supplies together & went home. I worried & worried about them throwing the wedding cake away! What a big time waste!

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ivanabacowboy Posted 18 Sep 2005 , 11:21am
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I would never do a fondant cake for others again. If I need rolled type decorations, I will use marzipan or rolled BC or even candy clay. The only time I would use fondant is to do a centerpiece maybe with dummies, not for eating. I love the gorgeous designs you can get relatively easily->but it is wasted for anything beyond a centerpiece if people dont enjoy eating it. I would never do a wedding cake in fondant either-I have heard so many brides that were soooo disappointed because they paid all that money for the cake and while it looked pretty, no one ate it, or the ones that did picked off the fondant they paid all that money for.

IMHO, I was a baker long before I decided to do cake decorating. I want my creations first and most importantly of all to taste good and be enjoyable. Second of all, to look good. I will not sacrifice the taste and enjoyment just for appearance.

FWIW, I think a lot of decorators around me feel similarly. I have never been to a wedding where the cake was done in fondant. They have all been BC or ganache. Or maybe us Ohio people are just relatively unsophisticated lol! Even the professional bakeries and high end restaurants around here do not show a lot in fondant.

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MissBaritone Posted 18 Sep 2005 , 2:38pm
post #6 of 16

It must be different tastes in different countries. Over here all my wedding cakes are covered in fondant or royal icing and in fact the icing is the first thing that gets picked off and eaten. Even kids over here would rather have the icing than the cake. That goes for both fondant and royal icing

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itsacake Posted 19 Sep 2005 , 1:14am
post #7 of 16

I did a group of themed cakes this weekend that were covered in fondant with gumpaste decorations for a couple of parties for my father-in-law in San Francisco. It was about 200 servings of cake. Most people did not peel off the fondant and throw it out. In fact there were requests for the end pieces with the most fondant. Almost every scrap was eaten and people came back for more. I used both chocolate fondant and white fondant, some of the white flavored with orange oil. There were some decorations made of chocolate fondant to which I had added Tylose (in effect, making it into gumpaste), so I when the myriad of children who were there asked if they could eat them, I told them that they were edible but not very delicious, since I think the taste of Tylose ruins fondant. When I was cleaning up and expecting to find gumpaste to throw away, every scrap had been demoslished.

I keep reading, here and other places, that fondant does not taste good, but my experience doesn't support that most people don't like it. Of course, nothing is 100 percent, so some people didn't eat the fondant, just as at most events some people eat cake and leave buttercream and others eat buttercream and leave the cake. Ya just can't please all the people all the time.

I am puzzled as to why my experience is so different from most of the rest of you, but having had success with it so far, I will continue to use Bakels Pettinice. I tink I used at least 10 pounds this weekend! ( BTW, I'm not related in any way to the Bakels company or anyone selling Pettinice....icon_smile.gif

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debsuewoo Posted 19 Sep 2005 , 1:38am
post #8 of 16

You know, the way I figure it, if someone is paying me to make a cake and they don't eat all of it then they ordered too big.
This may sound really callous, but I'm being paid to decorate the cake to the best of my abilities. Once my job is done and the cake leaves my hands I bear no responsability for it. Especially if people don't want to pay a delivery fee (which is inevitable in this time ofall time high gas prices).

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wifeshelper Posted 19 Sep 2005 , 1:45am
post #9 of 16

So far my wifes cakes havent been wasted theres not even crumbs left when she goes to get her cake boards back or the boxes that get saved.

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sunlover00 Posted 19 Sep 2005 , 2:04am
post #10 of 16

I agree with debsuewoo! As long as you charge enough for your time and effort, you get paid for your time and effort. What they do with it is up to them. I know it is sickening to see it all go to waste, but they paid for it and it would be no different if they ate every scrap.

That being said, if it were me though, and I saw lots of my hard work going into the trash, I'd want to run over and gather up all of the flowers and use them somewhere else too! icon_wink.gif But I'd just have to say to myself that I did my job and I was paid for the work.

I wonder if restraunt chefs feel the same way when we leave food on our plates....hmmm icon_confused.gif

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ellepal Posted 19 Sep 2005 , 3:19am
post #11 of 16

Here's a suggestion for the fondant not getting peeled off: make your own. DON"T USE WILTON FONDANT!!! I make mine, and it tastes like candy. People enjoy it. It's not the same as buttercream, but it's still very good. Wilton fondant tastes like Play-dough in a sugar coma!!

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lastingmoments Posted 19 Sep 2005 , 5:52am
post #12 of 16

Yes i agree with ellepal at 1st when i did not kow better i would buy wilton and always it would get thrown away........ALWAYS....

ever since I started making my own it almost always get eaten....I usually make marshmellow fondant due to the fact that it is cheaper but I add flavorings to mine to compliment the flavor of cake im making and that works great....Loranns flavoring is easy to find ( hobby lobby in candy aisle) I never add much just a drop or two being that they are usually strong. and that helps.

In fact the last two cakes "I saw decorating hording.... " The babies on my baby shower cake where being stolen from the cake and the mom took them off as soon as they cut them and saved then in the freezer....... After I saw that she was sad because she lost a few....I gave her the extras I made. ( I always make extras in case of breackage.)

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vitade Posted 19 Sep 2005 , 9:44am
post #13 of 16

I know what your saying KimAZ, you feel like it's a personal thing. I have a hard time with this issue to. Because I feel like I represent the cake and the cake represents me, I almost can't breathe when people start looking and eating it. I am getting better at taking compliments, to me I always think "Well there being nice because they feel they have to."

Everyone is right, if you give them what they wanted, and they were happy, the rest is out of your hands.

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adven68 Posted 19 Sep 2005 , 1:45pm
post #14 of 16

I love the reactions I get from fondant cakes. I get asked so many questions...get so many compliments....people always want the edge pieces to actually get more of it! I use SatinIce and my kids hover over me when I decorate just for the scraps.

It is sad when all your effort is eaten, but if you can take a photo...you can adore it forever! It's the same feeling I get when I sell a painting....I feel like I'm giving up one of my children!!!! But...I won't make anything that I personally don't LOVE...even if it specifically requested. I ask for a guest count, an idea or theme...but the design has to be my own. I guarantee that they will like it.

I do this because a few years ago I was commissioned to paint four large paintings for a Japanese restaurant...absolutely no offense to the Japanese style...it is just not my style and I was miserable painting them!
LL

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aunt-judy Posted 19 Sep 2005 , 6:48pm
post #15 of 16

i used to use the most wonderful rolled fondant, made by a company called CSP Foods here in Ontario, which i believe got bought up and the product is no longer available. it was WONDERFUL -- incredibly soft and flexible, like bubble gum but not sticky, so it could be rolled really thin and it had a mild, nougat flavour. i miss it!

i think the key with covering a cake with fondant is that the undercoating of buttercream and the fillings should be made as tasty as possible, since the fondant itself is not acting as the constrasting or complementing flavour or texture to the cake as might be the case with other "frostings".

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BritBB Posted 19 Sep 2005 , 7:44pm
post #16 of 16

I agree with Miss Baritone - I think this side of the Atlantic prefers buttercream, whereas we're used to fondant in the UK. However, it does taste much better than the stuff I've tried over here (Wilton). As I said on an earlier post, I've not yet plucked up the courage to try the marshmellow fondant, but I'm gonna try it, honest!

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