How did you get started?
When my son turned 1 year old I got a Big birds cake pan at party supermarket. I ordered a cake from a cake lady, but every body loved mine. I was so happy that I spend a whole year giving away cake to who ever had a birthday. Then a friend asks me if I could bake her special cake for Valentines, and she offer to pay, and thats how I got started.
How did you get started?

paolacaracas ~ That's a really neat story. My MIL decorated a few of my kids birthday cakes and some I ordered from a local grocery story. I sure couldn't afford to buy a cake from a nice bakery so I decided that I could learn to do it myself. So I rented a Thomas the Tank Engine pan and followed the instructions (to the best of my ability ). It wasn't until I started making my own kids cakes that I realized why they were so expensive.

My SIL asked me to make my niece's Christening cake. I got lots of great compliments from it. Then I got brave enough to make cakes for our church fellowships. Again, I got lots of great compliments and people suggested I go into the cake business. Well, I sure still didn't have any confidence in myself.

I offered to make a cake for my cousins when they were planning their parent's 50th anniversary. Word got around about that cake and next thing I knew a lady called for me to make her wedding cake. I was shocked that anyone would want me to make her wedding cake when she had not personally seen one of mine. She was easy to please and was calm. She gave me confidence as she said, "I heard about the anniversary cake and I know you can do this".

Well, that's what it took ~ a total stranger having confidence in unconfident me. I've come a long way in 2 years and a long way still to come. It brings joy to my life

Well I haven't gotten started yet but am working on it. My dog will soon be an outside dog and then I will have the Dept of Agriculture come and inspect my kitchen. Then I will spend $25 to get my catering license and everything will be all set up. I am working on designing a website for myself. Thinking up business cards and my MIL does accounting so she will help me set that up. I have another website that I post on and everyone there tells me I should do this and so do a bunch of friends and family. Actually a few weeks ago I made some cookies and flower pot cakes (in my photos) for a friends baby shower. All I could see were all the flaws but everyone LOVED them. I am making a friend's wedding cake as a gift coming up here in March so I will get even more exposure.

I've always dabbled in cake decorating. 4 years ago I tood Wilton Course 1, then this past fall I retook it, along with course 2 and 3. Now I'm doing it out of my home, getting ready to get a home baking license and will SOON be getting help in starting my own business. That would be renting a building and the whole shebang! Right now I already have business cards, flyers, invoices and am working on my price list, as I've had several requests for it. So far I've done birthday cakes, a baptism cake (free for a family member), and cut out cookies frosted and drop cookies. I'm loving it and am so looking forward to opening my own shop!

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Well, that's what it took ~ a total stranger having confidence in unconfident me. I've come a long way in 2 years and a long way still to come. It brings joy to my life [/quote]

It's true, you can make many cakes for your friends and family, but the moment a total stranger whants to pay for a cake you make, that is when it starts felling like bussines

When I was about 13, I had a piano teacher who had 4 children. Every time I went to her house for my lessons, it seemed she was always busy in the kitchen finishing a cake for one of her kids, their school, or for a child in the neighborhood.

I thought "COOL! Something like that made of food HAS to be fun to do!!!" So I asked her if I could help her a few times, to learn the basics. I had a BLAST! Then I started borrowing her supplies to make things for my family, and before long. I was borrowing her things so often, that I had to buy my own with my allowance money, or she'd never get to do any for herself!

Then, when I was about 14 or 15, my maternal grandparents had their 50th wedding anniversary. And I got to make the celebration cake! I was honored, and SO scared, that so many people I didn't even know were going to see and taste this cake. I didn't want to let my grandparents down. Everyone loved it, and that gave me the boost I needed to continue with it.

I just recently found the photo of that cake, from 1984. I will scan it and add it to my photos this weekend if anyone wants to see it.

It depends on what you mean when you say how did you get started. I don't have a business so I'm not started in that respect. There are so many techniques I haven't tried yet so I'm not started in that respect either, although I have a lot of pictures posted and more I haven't even posted.
We've always had cake tips in our house but I never saw anyone use them. We had a bear shaped cake pan but I never knew where that came from either. My friend started getting interested in cake decorating so I baked the bear and she decorated it. That was on my daughter's first birthday. I decided if my friend could do it, I'd give it a shot since I already saw so much equipment in the cabinet. My kids haven't had a store bought cake since.

Mine was just a hand me down kind of start. I never EVER had a store bought cake for a birthday! When I was little, my grandmother made my cakes, and she had taken the wilton classes. Like many, my mom saw the advantage in it, so she herself took the classes and bought the stuff. In fact, she may still have a shoebox of royal icing flowers in that cubboard, cause she just couldn't find it in herself to use them or lose them...

By the time I was in my teens, I was making my own cakes for my birthday. That got me a summer job at Dairy queen, where I learned some more about speed..... Then, i had a job where I made paper jewelry and we talked a lot, and i mentioned that I knew how to decorate cakes... so she promptly asked me to do a 50th anniv cake for her parents.... oh gosh, what I didn't know! But she loved it. THat got me a job at Carvel as a cake decorator, then the job at the supermarket as a cake decorator.. and then I REALLY knew what I didn't know. It's a lot easier to ice an ice cream cake than a crumbly cake.

The first time I had to decorate a dozen cakes for the case, I cried. Almost quit.... but the manager had faith in me, encouraged me, and I stayed. Now it's almost 10 years later and I still learn something new every day! I want to move to a bigger city and work in a upscale bakery (40 cakes a week instead of 60 a day would be heavenly) or even open my own shop... I sent hubby back to school for two years, so now is not the time--but now that he is what he wants to be when he grows up--it's my turn!

Oh, and I was a Wilton instructor for a while, and once, I was at my Grandmother's doing a demo cake for a seminar... I didn't have the right tip, and was on the verge of freaking out, when she said, 'honey don't worry..." She went down to the cellar and brought up a box of tips... They had been a wedding present to her over 50 years before... We both cried.

I do a few cakes here & there and last weekend a wedding cake as a gift for a friend. But I don't have a business and with other interests and my work schedule I will just keep it this way. When I get in a time crunch with a cake deadline I tend to freak out, so this is probably the best situation for me. I worked with Wilton/Hobby Lobby in the fall to become a cake instructor but so far not enough interest to hold any classes I do look forward to teaching the basic courses though.

I started when my daughter was 2. Looking back, it was the most pathetic cake but I was so proud of it! She wanted a Pocahontas and a Lion King cake. I took a coloring book cover and cut it out and laminated it and put it on the cake and did star tips around it! After I found out that the star tip was so easy then I ventured out to the character pans. I look for every occasion to make a cake. I am making my cousin's wedding cake in June and have been practicing already. Maybe one day I will try to venture out of my house and do more than just for family and friends.