Hi everyone,  hope you had a good holiday.

A few months back, I entered my first cake competition...it was great fun and loved every minute of it.  Upon getting to speak with the judges, one of the pieces of feedback I received was that they wanted my cake to have a design all the way around, as opposed to having a very definite front and back side.  I heard similar comments passed to other competitors as well.  Don't get me wrong, I am very grateful for their feedback and will certainly take it on board for the future but now every time I design a cake, especially a fairly 'simple' one (with large flowers as the main detail etc), I can just hear the judges voice in my head saying 'it needs a back'!

So generally curious - when designing your cakes, are you conscious of making your designs go all the way around a cake or do are you content with a focal point on the 'front', providing the design is balanced?

Many thanks from a very very wet UK! x

and a warm post to you from a very cold u.s.--

to me competition cake is a completely different animal than celebration cake--if a cake is getting shoved up against the wall--why decorate the back of it? 

if it is going to be a 360 presentation--or if there's a mirror on the wall behind the cake--decorate the heck out of it and prepare for a fabulous photograph--

but no i think that's good advice for your next competition ;)

ADepends. If the cake will be displayed in the center of the room, i design accordingly. If the cake will be displayed so.that ghere is a front & back, i sometimes take advantage.

I can appreciate both styles.

I would take the judges feedback and run with it for your competition cakes but I would also take into consideration what Delicious Desserts says for cakes that will be served and are on display, like at a wedding venue.

Competition is one thing but what people will pay for is another - so it comes down to " it depends on what you're doing".

Thanks everyone :-)  That was kindof what I was thinking but I couldn't get her voice out of my hear as I was sketching a cake which is going to be displayed in the corner of a room (thereby only really showing the front 33%).

Hope you are all keeping safe over there in the US - they are showing some pretty amazing/scary snow storm photos on the news :-s x