I absolutely love this site!! If I don't check it everyday, I feel like I'm missing something! Which lead me to some pretty basic questions:

How did you get started decorating cakes?
How long have you been decorating cakes?
And, how do you stay inspired? What makes you keep doing this?


I think it would be interesting for some of us newbies to hear from the experts.

I had no choice but to start. My business partner in my catering business (who did our cakes) decided that she wanted to focus more on her kids (which I applauded her for, she wasn't doing much work anyway!!). I had no choice but to start practicing. I am a far way from most of the people on this site but I'm starting to get better every day. I'm now addicted to cake decorating and finding new things to use. I was looking at a paper towel in my office bathroom and started thinking what a great pattern it would make on a cake!!!

expert i am not but i will be happy to answer

i got started because my neighbor sells avon and she always gives me a book. well one day i was looking in an avon book and they were selling a cake decorating book for kids and i thought some of the pictures were great so i bought it for $10 and i havent stopped yet

i have been decorating since July of 04

every time someones eyes lite up when i have made them a cake it makes me keep going. i have a SIL that i have done two birthday cakes for her and both times i brought out the cake she cried. now she says they were tiers of joy so i just hope they were and not tiers of disgust..

Oops! I guess I should have said how I started. I've always liked baking. I like one of the first cakes I ever did was for my sister's baby shower. Ever since then I've done all my family cakes. This past fall I finally took the Wilton courses I had been wanting to take for years, and it re-ignited the fire. Then I found this site and realized some of the techniques I now know can help make great cakes.

I started decorating cakes at a very young age with my mom. She was self taught using Wilton books and her cousin taught her to make roses. I just started doing it. No formal training. I come from a long line of artistic people. But, I cannot paint/draw real well. I can create, not draw. I have taken many art classes (20 years ago).

I made my first official cake for my 4th grade teacher (I was nine). I made my first wedding cake in high school. I'm forty now so I've been doing this for 30 years. My mom laughs that I took over and dominated her niche in the family.

I stay inspired by the new techniques that come out over time. Like the current trend with fondant. I made my first fondant cake over five years ago and the only option I could find at the time was Wilton (YUCK). I'm loving the MMF now. Have made it in so many colors. I've got big colored blobs all over just waiting to be used.

I got away from cakes for about four years - pregnancy and toddler years. I just now got back into it in the past year or so and LOVE this site for the inspiration and friendly feedback.

I also do cookies. Have always done cookies - never took a break from these. Been making cookie gifts most of my life. Am amazed at how the cookie business is booming. My girlfriend laughs because 15 years ago she wanted me to launch a decorated cookie business. But I have a fulltime job and could not give it up for cookies. Still can't. Although, I did have orders for 10 cookie mug boquets this week. I don't charge much. 10 - 15 bucks each. The extra money will just go back to buying more cookie stuff. My SIL wants me to expand for extra money. Fortunately I don't need the extra money, but I have to admit a hundred bucks for shopping online for new stuff is more fun when it doesn't come out of your hard earned dollars.

I keep doing it as long as its fun. If I turn it into a business, it becomes work and is no longer fun for me. Plus with cookies, my daughter gets to help me. So we have quality time together. And she may one day be doing cookies with her daughter.

Believe it or not I started when I was knee high to a grasshopper. I used to bake cakes for my Mom and Dad for their birthdays (wasn't exactly great - but they loved it!) I stopped for a while then I had children. I didn't want grocery store cakes for my kids so I had my mother send me my stuff. Since then I've done lots of cakes and getting better all the time. My customers keep me challenged - that's what keeps me going.

I started out very young, too! My grandmother and her sister ran a catering business and I was enlisted at the age of five to help out in the kitchen. It just progressed from there. I've never taken any decorating courses - I've just taught myself from books and good ole' trial and error.

I can remember decorating some cakes here and there in my youth....but I just started doing this stuff 5 or 6 months ago (now in my 2nd youth). I'm a little obsessed....I mean....I scour the internet for info on everything cakes! This site is a Godsend for people like us.

I think I liked the look of Fondant and one day when I was in Michael's, I bought a pack of it (Yech!! Wilton!!) and that's what got the ball rolling...

I got cake decorating fever after I saw the cover of a Wilton Year book in an advertisement. I was self taught for many years, but when I felt I hit a "wall" in my decorating, I took Wilton #1, #2, and #3. Since then I have taken a course here and there from Colette Peters, Toba Garrett and Scott Woolley. I have a library of cake decorating books, I tape every possible cake decorating/competiton show. Now Cake Central is part of this obession! I have 1 minute left to my lunch hour and I'm taking to you guys. I come from a family of fine artists and through cake decorating I can really satisfy the need to express myself artistically.

Happy Decorating!

I took some cake decorating classes from a lady who had her own shop, that was 24 years ago. She was a great teacher; she taught us how to do a lot of different techniques plus making candy. I have been doing it off and on since then. It was easy back when I started because living at home my brothers would eat the practice cakes, but now my kids and husband don't like the buttercream icing. So when I make practice cakes I usually have to give them away. I would love to practice more often but after working 10 hours 5 days a week...well i'm kinda tired. I really enjoy make cakes, cookies and candies. I especially love baking for the holidays.

I always loved cooking and baking with my mom so that's what started it. When I was in flight school and my husband was across the country I would get very bored and spend lots of time in Hobby Lobby and they offered the classes there. I actually never took a class there but once I was disqualified from flight school and moved up here I have taken 2 wilton classes and 2 classes at the local community college. I love to bake and decorate but with working full-time, have a 2 year old and having 4 shoulder surgeries in about 3 years it has limited my time in the kitchen. I am hoping to get out of the Navy soon and be able to stay home with our son and maybe have another baby. I am also hoping that being a stay at home mom will give me more time to bake and decorate. I am having shoulder surgery tomorrow so won't be baking or decorating any time soon but I have checked out a ton of library books to keep me occupied during my recovery. All my friends say I need to quit the Navy and use my creativity and talents elsewhere. Also I just hosted a bridal shower for my SIL and all the girls there wanted me to cater their weddings. Haha. Here's the cake I made. I flew down there and had to bring my supplies in my suitcase. I am sure the airport security people wondered what the heck I was doing what all that stuff.

It was crazy how I started. My husband and I had an argument so that day I told myself, we are not about to stay mad at each other all day. So I went to the store and got some of the most basic decorating tips. They were plastic and it was only 4 in the package. So I made this pathetic looking cake. The icing was blue and the border was pink and I wrote on it with some red gel. It broke the silence between us for sure because he wanted to know how I did it. And the day after that, I woke up and said I WANNA DECORATE CAKES. I've been doing this now for 8 months now. And I don't plan on stopping any time soon.

I had been wanting to learn how to decorate for a long time, but I never felt that I had the time in the evenings. Well there is a store near here that does classes during the day, so me and my friend TinaRe took the classes together while my husband was overseas. Ever since that has been my stress relief. So it's been a little over a year now for me, and there is no end in sight!! It kept me plenty busy while he was away. So the next time he deploys I am thinking of going to a course at Wilton

I started because when my daughter graduated from high school I was so busy with the dinner menu that I forgot to order her a cake. She said a plain cake would be fine, but the occasion was special and I felt terrible so I decided to do it myself. She was so happy with it that she said when she gets married in a few years she wants me to do the wedding cake. I decided to take the Wilton courses. Course III to go!!!

I just started decorating a couple of months ago. I met a girl last year that loves to cook and bake. When she spoke to me about her interest in cooking and baking, I told her I was allergic to the kitchen and preceeded to tell her how much I liked the convenience of store bought stuff!! ... throughout the year .. I've watched her make all kinds of goodies which she gives as gifts ... and started thinking ...wow! that is a NICE gift!!! ...

she talked me into making everything from scratch for my daughter's birthday party ..we came up with these butterfly cupcakes that were pretty good considering we were complete novices.... we made a bouquett of cookies for party favors using wilton ready made fondant (yuck!!) Everyone thought the cookies were proffesionaly made ... .. I wish I would have know about MMF......that was the start ...a couple of months ago she asked me to join her in the wilton courses they were having a promotion bring a friend for free ....and I thought ...sure why not?.... the first time I tasted royal icing it brought back memories of my grandmother and how as a child I would spend hours in the kitchen just watching her do her magic .. she was an absolute magnificent cake decorator.... now I'm hooked .... and my kids are loving it .. the love to be in the kitchen helping and ofcourse tasting...lol

I could definitely do this for a living ... but unfortunately after seven years of being a stay at home mom, I go back to corporate america to earn a living (double yuck!!) lol ... maybe some day I can do this full time

I got into cake decorating seriously about 3 months ago. My grandmother and mother both decorated cakes on the side. I would always be in awe of the wedding cakes they would make. I started baking and decorating here and there and would enjoy it, if you look at my pictures you can see they aren't anything like others here on the site. When I really got the bug was this July when I wanted to make a special b-day party for our little girl. I went all out and did the carebear, the rainbow cake and the cupcakes. I had a lot of fun, very stressed but a lot of fun. To see the expression on the kids faces meant everything to me. My mother was very pleased and impressed. From that cake I got two things....my first orders (one was the duck for a babyshower, the other two will be for December b-days) and most importantly admiration and support from my husband to start my own business. The party was early July and by the end of July my husband told me to quit my job and he would help me start my own buisness. I started the Wilton courses here in town, I want to take THE Wilton course next. My business which is mainly cooking at this time will be operating soon, the cake orders are word of mouth and done on the side since I'm not very confident of my cake decorating skills yet. I wish everyone luck with their cake decorating experiences and thank you for sharing!

My grandmother always did the birthday cakes and things like that for us so when she and my grandpa had their 50th anniversary coming up I wanted to do something really special for them. I started taking the wilton courses and was in the middle of course III (and drove my poor instructor crazy-our whole class was that way-we all wanted to jump ahead!!) when I made their anniversary cake-6-9-12" petal pan stacked and decorated like a wedding cake with ivory icing and I made the topper too! Everybody loved it and my grandma was very touched. That was in 2000. I didn't really do a whole lot after that just little stuff here and there but this past year have really gotten back into it and I am so glad I found CC!! Now like most stay at home moms I'd even like to make a little money on the side to boot! We'll see what happens. I'm just having fun learning new things!

I have enjoyed reading how everyone got started in cake decorating!

In 2004 my daughter was turning 4 years old. We had just got a Joann's store in our town in Alaska and she saw the strawberry shortcake pan and wanted that cake. So I decided to give it a try.

The first cake I made stuck to the pan because I didn't know I had to use cake release. The second cake came out perfect and I left it overnight to cool on the back of the stove. I got up the next morning and couldn't find the cake. My hubby had moved it to cook breakfast and the dog had gotten to it and ate it!

So the morning of the party I baked another cake (third one) and got it decorated. I was so stressed out and in tears at one point I just walked away from the cake and took a nap. I decided that even if it was the strawberry shortcake cake from H*LL I was going to finish it. We could always eat the evidence and I did have a store bought cake as a back up just in case...

I finished it and it didn't look bad. I told my hubby to be sure and get a pic of the cake (after all we had been through so much together, LOL) and he did. It was the tiny dot in the pic with the glowing candle on top! He didn't take a close up so there is no picture of that cake.

My daughter loved that cake and I have been doing it ever since. I stay motivated by coming here and another board I am on. There are no classes here so I have learned most of it online and in books.

Oh, and back in fourth grade my mother talked her friend (who was also my teacher) into giving me a cake decorating lesson. I only took one lesson and made one cake for my mom's birthday. I don't even remember what it looked like except that it had shells and she taught me about hot knifing. Never touched cake decorating stuff again till my daughter's birthday, LOL.

Mrs. Mitchell would be so proud of me if she knew, LOL. She was one of my favorite teachers. Not so much because she was fun, she was very strict and made me work hard. I did like her though and will never forget arguing with her that she shouldn't have counted trouser as incorrect on my spelling test and she asked me if when I got up in the morning did I get up and put on my trouser? Or my trousers, LOL.

I'm with okieinalaska! I love reading how everyone got started!!! It's funny how some people 'accidently' get involved And I know I'm not alone with I say how happy I am to have found this site and how willing I'd be to do this full-time!

Have baked ever since my mom or grandma began letting me "help"! Became interested in decorating about 20 years ago right out of college. Recieved Wilton stuff as gift and bought magazines for ideas..........taught myself. BAD PLAN! Dabbled for years for friends and family....not selling. Impressed friends and family....WOULD NOT HAVE IMPRESSED ANYONE ELSE! Bought Holly Hobby and Super Heroes pans!!!!! LOLOL

Recently my youngest left home for college and I saw Wilton classes starting locally. Told husband my plan to enroll. Husband looked at me with "deer-in-headlights" look.....ignored him. Took all three courses rapid-fire. Am hooked. Made business cards...donated cakes any and everywhere.....and I'm on my way! Bought 4 complete sets of wedding cake pans from lady at church who's retiring. Sold first wedding cake last week, to be delivered Sat. after Thanksgiving. Have enrolled in a gumpaste class in January. WOOoooo-HOOoooooo!

Hi,

I desperately wanted to do my second daughters 1st birthday cake so I did. It was a butterfly theme and I did the butterflies for the cake in pink and purple. Then the oldest daughter also wanted a cake that mummy makes so I did hers a month later. i was really impressed but my husband was even more impressed and he encouraged me to always do the birthday cakes. With my daughters last birthday i did an edible image cake with whipped fresh cream. My husband and family were so impressed and asked why I was not doing this to earn so extra cash and that's where it all started. I was a little scared at first because now people were paying me but with CC and my families support I know I will do well.

So nice to read about other peoples experinces .

regards
Shamani

Well, i started by fluke really...i was always the baker and cooker type...and then this girl that I worked with had an older sister that was the baker/cooker type in her family and she took those classes at Michaels..so one day she told me about the classes...

I signed up right away and the rest is history!

After I get my degree and my Canadian Securities courses done..2 more years..and before I get married, I'm going to George Brown College to get Professional Cerificates in Cake Decorating and i might do some culinary studies too!! YAY!!