Hi all,

I just finished my 20th cake today and realized that there are things I like about cake decorating, there are things I love about it, there are even things I don't mind so much, but there is only one thing I still hate.

I love designing the cake, drawing the cake, conceptualizing the colours etc.

I don't love, but don't mind making the fondant and colouring the MMF. I like making the BC and icing the cake. I even like leveling and torting and filling. I like trying to get the fondant smooth.

I love the act of decorating the cake, making all the little details, putting it all together and seeing my ideas come to life before me. I don't even mind the cleaning up after.

I realized though, that even after 20 cakes I still hate the actual act of BAKING the cake. I don't mind mixing the batter. It's the baking itself because it takes so much to get the perfectly moist, yet light and not over-baked cake.

I am getting better thanks to all the advice found here on CC from using a pan of water, to using flower nails, bake even strips and an oven thermometer. So thanks everyone. One day - maybe by my 50th cake - I won't mind the actual act of baking so much lol.

What are some of the things that other CC'ers don't like about cake decorating?

I totally agree with you...but I like experimenting with the flavours of the cake anyway. I hate not knowing how it is going to turn out....flat, domed, cooked??? ARGH!!

Cutting bags, sometimes coloring the buttercream but that can be fun when I stray from the well blended colors and go for something only partially mixed.
I think at various points I get bugged by different things, for awhile it was the clean-up, then it was the baking, after that it was making the buttercream, now it's the bags

CLEANING UP!!!

Beth in KY

The clean up, washing the bags, or tips...anything I use...putting it all away...baking ...its ok...love the smell of it baking...but the clean up!!!!

oh yes i hate the clean up. i wish i could hire someone to do that for me. it takes so much time.

I love trying to new recipes, but wish someone else would tort, fill & ice the cake, and then give it back to me to decorate.

I hate cleaning up too.

I also hate covering cake boards.

right now i am VERY lucky,

my mom cleans up for me well okay she does about 80% but still!


I hate baking too. oh how I would love to just have someone plop down an already iced/fondant covered cake and say go to town...

overall I like it all.

I HATE most when things don't go as planned.

I can tolerate the baking. I absolutely HATE the cleanup!

I love all of it except mixing alot of colors all at once. I had a cake this weekend where I had to color like 10 different colors and shades. I actually put off doing the FBCT for that very reason. I finally got it done but avoided it like the plague!

If you want to see all the colors, it is the Easter Birthday in my pics.

My husband hates cleaning up!

I hate constantly stopping the mixture to test the consistency of my BC. Too thick? Too soft? Oops, was that too much milk? I wish it just came out the same way each time without me wondering.

HATE cleaning tips!

Love the rest, especially the baking, and I love touching the top of the cake and getting the bounce-back and knowing its done.

I hate mixing the colors in frosting!

The mess!!!!..coloring buttercream!..
Edna

i hate making buttercream and cleaning up

I hate the clean up and the tips as well...but the one thing I hate the most is the way friends and family see all the trouble you go to make a cake and they still expect for you to give them away to them free and that you can pop out a cake the same day that they need it. I love the baking and trying new recipes. The one thing I love the most is the look on the people's face when they see their cake for the first time.

Funny that I just came across this post because I was just thinking about how much I hate mixing colors and cleaning all of the different frosting bags so much that I'm considering not doing anything except wedding cakes.

I hate that I spend all that time mixing and filling and cleaning the bags and then make $25-$30 for a stinking birthday cake. The crazy part is that I love the actual decorating. I like being creative and seeing my end products. But I just have reached my wits end with the colors, bags, etc.

I'm thinking of doing fondant only (yes, there's mixing but at least the fondant keeps much longer) and wedding cakes only.

Whew- done ranting. Thanks for "listening."

I hate with a passion:

making BC
leveling and filling
coloring fondant and BC
rolling out fondant
cutting and covering boards

I do not love but not quite hate:

baking
icing or covering in fondant
rolling out fondant in pasta roller in large quantities

I love:

decorating

I hate icing the cake. I've tried the big icing tip from Wilton - hate it. I've tried crumbcoating and then final coating, but it takes so long! My next try is the upside down method.

Oh, and I hate cleaning tips too. Grrr. Need an automatic tip cleaner. My BF will do all the cake dishes, but will leave the tips at the bottom of the sink - says he doesn't know what to do with them. He needs to be taught, but I'm too tired.

Ok, long, sorry

*lol* I'm totally new to caking, but so far, here's my take (from a happy hobbyist point of view)...

my least favourite part is the decorating...I'm not at all creative, I'm a technician, so this part I find tedious. I usually end up asking my creative DH what I should do.

I love the baking and the mixing and the making of buttercream and royal icings. I like making royal icing flowers (in advance). I like making gumpaste flowers too, but my goal is a completely edible cake, so no wires or stamens if I can avoid it!

I HATE using fondant. I dislike the taste, the texture, the handling of it. I loathe the idea of eating a cake covered in fondant (in part because it's handled SO MUCH - shudder) and ALWAYS peel it off. Yuck.

I like the challenge of getting the buttercream smooth - preferably without paper towels and the like. Mind you, my last cake was a PITA - the top tier anyway.

Not crazy about the leveling and torting, but that's partially because I wish I had something better than the small Wilton leveller, but for a hobby I don't want to pay for something better - not when I can use that money for things that are more fun.

I use Toba Garrett's technique of an 18 or 21 star tip to cover the top and sides of the cake. It takes a bit longer than using a 789 cake icer, but it means I don't have to buy a new tip, cut new bags, plus the smaller tip allows me to fill in any slightly uneven areas with extra frosting right then and there.

I only like decorating...I hate preparing, baking, cleaning up, etc. I especially hate the act of baking, also. The stress of, is it going to come out...howwill it taste, will it be too dry, did I undercook it? All that crap.

i hate making the icing, as it tends to be messy (plus the fact that i don't own a KA or any standing mixer, just a good ol' hand mixer, bleahh).

i love baking, i love decorating.

and of course, who doesn't hate cleaning up?

I love:

designing a cake, baking (YUP, I LOVE to bake!!), torting, filling, icing, decorating

don't love but don't hate:

coloring icing/fondant

hate:
cleaning up. seriously, I loathe this part. I wish I kad a magic wand for this. I used to HATE making BC, but me and BC have come to an understanding now

I really don´t like preparing royal icing to decorate cookies, getting the perfect consistency it´s really hard, then color the icing ,etc....... I hate that part, but when I have everything ready to decorate cookies, I love it. I love to do details on cookies.

I'm so glad to see others who don't care too much for baking. I totally love coming up with my sketches and color schemes. I love my icings, fillings, torting, buttercreaming, and using fondant. I just wish someone would bake up the PERFECT cakes for me every single time and say here ya go...do your thing.

Oh, and to piggyback another lady in this post...I hate the fact that my friends and family think I can make extravagant cakes for them for free and the day before an event...go figure!!

I hate cleaning up more than y'all hate cleaning up because I have to do it twice! Before I get started doing anything and after I get finished!

I live with two teenage boys and a preteen daughter who pretend they don't even know we have a dishwasher. My husband cooks, but he does not clean. Needless to say, on any given day my kitchen is a disaster.

I want my own cake kitchen. It would be so neat and clean and I could walk in and just start baking or making candy clay or anything else I wanted to do and if it got late I could just shut the door and leave it until the next day....sorry...got lost in my fantasy.

Yep. For me it's the cleaning.