My cakes are all baked and thawed on the counter waiting for me to torte, fill, and carve. But I'm STILL not sure about what design I'm going to do. I know the shapes (2 butterflies for diff people), and I have the main colors decided, but that's it. I haven't made my cake boards yet because the cake board design be determined by the cake design, so I sit here piddling around on the computer thinking inspiration will strike me at some point.

Am I alone in this? Do you just dive in and see what happens, or do you have well laid plan before you start decorating?

Generally, I have my cake sketched and planned before I start baking. For me, the baking, filling, and crumb coating are what I procrastinate one (I hate doing that ~ the decorating the the fun part!). BUT, once I am sure about the basic shape of the cake, my ideas might evolve and change, depending on how my decorating comes out. Sometimes what I sketch does not come to life the way I think it should, and I have to step back and make adjustments. But all in all, I really can't decorate an ordered cake unless I have an idea as to where I'm going with it. Maybe taking a pencil and paper and working through some ideas will help you get started. Good luck!

I am generally too nervous to just "dive in" on certain cakes, and generally nail down a design with the customer as far in advance as possible, BUT, as for cakes that I do for my family, I can tell you that this is something I have done. I have a basic idea, and challenge myself to see what comes of it. Sometimes, those can be the most artistic and creative cakes! You'll figure out what will work best for you!

This is a mixture of baking for customers and baking for fun (friends have requested cakes for big parties). So they told me they didn't care about flavors or colors or anything. So THAT took me some time to decide. Guess I just need to cruise through the galleries again.

I always have a general idea of what I'm going to do, but never down to the Nth detail. I never pre-sketch or draw it out. So I guess that makes me a "dive right in!" person.

But when I started making cakes, we had to learn by looking at a photo. So that's what I do. Whether the photo is in a book or in my head, I look at it and just do it.

I like to have a sketch to work from...I almost always deviate in some way from the sketch...but I still like to have it to help me head in a general direction.