I thought it might be fun to show off how far you have come in decorating skill by posting or linking your 1st cake and your most recent creations.

Here was my final cake from Wilton 1 in Feb of 2006:
http://www.cakecentral.com/modules.php?name=gallery&file=displayimage&pid=48428

This one I just finished this weekend:
http://www.cakecentral.com/modules.php?name=gallery&file=displayimage&pid=955883

The first one well you can tell! LOL It says it in ugly letters!

http://www.cakecentral.com/modules.php?name=gallery&file=displayimage&pid=72039

Heres my last cake


http://www.cakecentral.com/modules.php?name=gallery&file=displayimage&pid=927343

trying to improve....

Both of those cakes are beautiful!!!! Im faving your last one merissa

How fun! Well I've only done about 8 cakes from first to last (wow, it's hard to believe it's been so few...because each one takes about 3 weeks LOL) but I'm going to cheat and show my first and one from last month. I just today posted a shower cake that I'm proud of but I think my July tea party cake shows my growth better, because they were both for the same group of friends, same size cake and even same cake and icing...but the decorations are like night+day. I feel like I owe the first gal a "redo" .

First cake http://www.cakecentral.com/modules.php?name=gallery&file=displayimage&pid=52979

Last month http://www.cakecentral.com/modules.php?name=gallery&file=displayimage&pid=727883

Well I couldn't find any pictures of my "first cake", I think I have gotten rid of those I did however find a picture of the first wedding cake type cake I tried for my J&W final in my first cake class. I warn you its awful! My last cake I was pretty proud of, it was done for a couple of close friends. I was rushing at the end and the little cakes didn't come out as smooth as I had hoped, but overall it looked nice.

First Cake: http://www.cakecentral.com/modules.php?name=gallery&file=displayimage&pid=971453

Last Cake:http://www.cakecentral.com/modules.php?name=gallery&file=displayimage&pid=814113

I know I've come a ways Here is my one of my earlier cakes pre-cake class...before I learned the art of how to make smooth icing, how to make level layers and pipe well LOL
http://www.cakecentral.com/modules.php?name=gallery&file=displayimage&pid=367623

And here is one I made earlier this month for my daughter's birthday:
http://www.cakecentral.com/modules.php?name=gallery&file=displayimage&pid=877033

I'll play!

One of my very first cakes:
http://www.cakecentral.com/modules.php?name=gallery&file=displayimage&pid=13413

One of my most recent cakes:
http://www.cakecentral.com/modules.php?name=gallery&file=displayimage&pid=687143

Good idea for a thread!

I think all of you have done a wonderful job on your cakes...they are all amazing. Here are mine....

My first one was my first fondant...had many issues with it and not to mention that the poor babies faces look horrible! Oh well..there is a first time for everything!
First http://www.cakecentral.com/modules.php?name=gallery&file=displayimage&pid=620663

Most Recent:

http://www.cakecentral.com/modules.php?name=gallery&file=displayimage&pid=918933

My very first cake was for my DD almost 8 years ago and then I didn't do any more cakes until my Wilton classes last spring. So all but that very first cake has been in just the last year or so. I can tell you that CC has been a blessing for learning how to decorate!! My latest cake was for my other DD that just got married Aug. 4th. I don't know how to link, sorry, so I'll have to post.

one of my first cakes, during wilton classes
[img]
my most recent for my daughters 4th bday

i hope this works. i tried using img links from photobucket[/img][/url] since i deleted all other pics of my first cakes

It's neat to see how far we've all come. I attribute a lot of my knowledge to the great folks here on CC. Thanks so much!

I've only been making cakes since I took cake decorating classes earlier this year.

Here's one I made in May (a little lumpy)...
http://www.cakecentral.com/modules.php?name=gallery&file=displayimage&pid=542963

Here's one I just made a couple of weeks ago...
http://www.cakecentral.com/modules.php?name=gallery&file=displayimage&pid=898903

Merissa, you have the best idea's for fun forum posts! My first 'real' is from April this year. All butter buttercream, before I knew about Viva:

http://www.cakecentral.com/modules.php?name=gallery&file=displayimage&pid=512713

This is my next-to-latest one:

http://www.cakecentral.com/modules.php?name=gallery&file=displayimage&pid=950933

It's so cool to see how far everyone has come, you guys are doing an awesome job!!!

Ok ,I'll take the leap and post mine ,I made this and my friends insisted that I take classes

What a fun topic!

Here's one of my first cakes, came out cute but that lovely messy foil covered board really adds something, doesn't it?
http://www.cakecentral.com/cake-photo_673983.html

Here's the last cake I did, this past week. This site can take all the credit for the vast improvement:
http://www.cakecentral.com/cake-photo_954213.html

oh I forgot to add the new one .I made this on Saturday
http://www.cakecentral.com/mod.....pid=965263

what a great post idea

I have a pic of my very first wilton class cake and I'll put it in the post and link to my newest cakes:
A sheet cake:
http://cakecentral.com/modules.php?name=gallery&file=displayimage&pid=950143
A small wedding cake:
http://cakecentral.com/modules.php?name=gallery&file=displayimage&pid=931853

I love to see all the improvement, and I am guessing most people learned most of their skill from CC?? I have learned so much here--so much talent!

Here is one from my Wilton classes. My first and last cake covered in fondant (It is pretty lumpy!):
http://www.cakecentral.com/cake-photo_327003.html

My latest cake from my first wedding I did last week--a very untraditional wedding cake, and I love how it turned out (although lots of work!):
http://www.cakecentral.com/cake-photo_961773.html

This is too funny. The buggy is literally the very first cake I made. I made it in my first cake class.

I just looked through everyone's pics! I have added several to my faves!

Great idea for a thread! It's amazing how far we've all come!

My first decorated cake was for my DD's birthday 2 years ago. I had no idea about how to smooth buttercream or anything about crumbcoating (and it showed ):

http://www.cakecentral.com/modules.php?name=gallery&file=displayimage&pid=72917

I didn't make another cake after that for about a year, when my friend asked me to make her DD's cake, because she loved the Homer one. That's when I found CC, got the decorating bug and I haven't looked back! I've learnt pretty much everything from CC - there really is no better teacher than the combined talents of this site!

Here's my most recent cake:

http://www.cakecentral.com/modules.php?name=gallery&file=displayimage&pid=959923


Kelly

This is a really fun topic! My first cakes were too bad to even post, but even some of the cakes I was really proud of at the time are kinda sad now that I look back at them.

I was SO proud of this one:
http://www.cakecentral.com/modules.php?name=gallery&file=displayimage&pid=45924

But I can look at this one now and see how things have changed in two years:
http://www.cakecentral.com/modules.php?name=gallery&file=displayimage&pid=726703

Here is my first cake...thomas the train. My then 3 yr did not even recognize it! In my defense I was doing it in my MIL HOT kitchen (who needs ac?) and using canned icing. Hopefully his standup rocket ship cake next week will be better.

The next one is my last...OBVIOUSLY I have been practing the last 3 years.
http://www.cakecentral.com/modules.php?name=gallery&file=displayimage&pid=952103

I can say this is my first cake, but not... this is my first photo of my cakes.....

http://www.cakecentral.com/modules.php?name=gallery&file=displayimage&pid=386383

I did this cake for my son's teacher in the last Easter.... She likes so much... and she gives me the idea of taking photos of my cakes....

thank you for looking...

Okay, this isn't my VERY first cake, but it's close. It is the last cake I made for the Wilton Course 1 class.

http://www.cakecentral.com/cake-photo_11561.html

And this is the last cake (well...cakeS) that I made two weekends ago. It is a collage of 4 cakes that I made for a Vegas themed home reception. The ribbons are real.

http://www.flickr.com/photos/creativecakesbyheather/1182534658/

Thanks for looking,
HeatherMari

*Edited because apparently I think a 1 and a 4 look alike! Sorry for posting wrong pic first!

Well this isn't my first cake ever, but one of the first I did after moving here (6 years ago).

  http://www.cakecentral.com/cake-photo_25671.html

This is the most recent cake I've decorated (last week):

  http://www.cakecentral.com/cake-photo_949523.html

My first cakes are regular photos and not scanned in to my computer, but here is one of my firsts.

http://www.cakecentral.com/modules.php?name=gallery&file=displayimage&pid=39616

and here is one of my more recent and most expensive, ones:

http://www.cakecentral.com/modules.php?name=gallery&file=displayimage&pid=787223

The professional photography doesn't hurt, either!!

Oh, my! Do I dare? LOL!

My first one is before I discovered CC (in fact, it was the very thing that drove me to the Internet looking for ideas and thus finding CC!). I knew nothing of smoothing or Viva at that point, obviously!

The first link below is the latest. I do not care for this cake at all! I'm posting the one before this one, as I think it turned out much better.

http://www.cakecentral.com/modules.php?name=gallery&file=displayimage&pid=893403

http://www.cakecentral.com/modules.php?name=gallery&file=displayimage&pid=832223

This is a really fun thread! Thanks for starting it!!

I think we should vote on who has earned the most improved CCer Award. What do y'all thiink??

That would be a great contest! In that case maybe we should start a new thread with the first cake to your BEST cake. Since maybe your last cake isnt the best. That would be fun. What do you think?

As I've been reading through all of your posts, I've come to realize that I am in great company! For me, it's nice to know that most of you started out with the same problems as I did. Of course we all look back at our firsts that we were so proud of and say, "Hmm. I'm so glad those days are behind me." Well, I hope to join most of you in that category some day. I've just recently decided to make the commitment to take the Wilton's courses that I've wanted to take since I was a kid. I am by no means a great talent like most of you, but hopefully with a little bit of training and practice, my cakes will be up in that prestigious Top Row on the home page.

Anyway, enough of that. Here's my cakes. The first one I did a couple of months ago before I discovered crumb coats and the correct way to position your tips.
http://www.cakecentral.com/cake-photo_972563.html


Now, almost 2 months later, I'm going to officially complete Wilton's Course 1 tonight and here is my final cake that I made the other night.
http://www.cakecentral.com/cake-photo_968553.html

Hope you all enjoy and can marvel at the little bit of improvement I've had since I started.