Despite All The Growth I've Made...
Decorating By mrsright41401 Updated 2 Mar 2007 , 6:45am by Aliwis000
I feel like a failure. The ideas that are in my head simply will not come out when I work. I still can't pipe roses right, they are flat, they don't stand up like they're supposed to. I never can figure out from the book how to do a rosebud & my teacher never showed me.
Today we went out and bought cake supplies and part of me felt like it was an exercise in futility.
I'm just in a funk, I'll get over it. I love doing cakes. I just... suck.
Rachel
Don't give up, you certainly don't suck at this!
about your roses, if you are producing roses, like the ones on your course 3 cake, you are doing fine. They are different from some, but perfectly acceptable as icing flowers.
My buttercream roses are less than perfect. I have learned to make gumpaste roses, instead, and I am very happy with them.
Your other cakes are colorful and creative. Try reproducing a cake, using the techniques for that particular cake. that will give you a target you can SEE. Then, you can be more experimental in putting your own ideas into sugar art.
You are being too hard on yourself. Your cakes look really good! I especially like the Princess Frog cake with the adorable fondant animals. I have only been doing this for a year but each cake I learn something new and feel I am making progress. Even though I pretty much avoid flowers because, like you, I am not comfortable with them yet. Focus on what you are great at, fondant molding for example, or anything else that you enjoy and feel confident about.
Rachel - I just noticed after I posted that last message that we share the same birthday! Gemini's are the best!
girl your cakes are great! i love the waterfall cake and the silly pumpkin cake..i always thought my buttercream roses were bad too!! yours look just fine!!
i wont do buttercream roses anymore..ill buy royal icings ones or gumpaste ones (too lazy to make my own) from wholesalesugarflowers.com
roses may not be your forte (they are not mine) but your cakes are great!!! 
Rachel I think we all go through that from time to time. You feel like you will never have an original idea, and then suddenly something brilliant pops into your head or you dream about a cake design. You are doing very well with your cakes, but maybe there are areas that you feel you excel in. Stick to those for awhile and little by little try introducing something new to your design. A chocolate wrap, a Pirouline cookie cake. Just some little something that is pretty easy to do and yet wows people who see them. Don't get discouraged and certainly don't give up. If you have any interest in gumpaste flowers, buy a Nicholas Lodge video and sit down and follow along. Maybe you might like to try modeling with fondant, 50/50 paste or the modeling chocolate you used for the fist of rock cake. I am just not good at carved or 3D cakes, but if you are, try making something really unusual and you may find your niche. Not every decorator is good at every decorating technique. I think you just haven't found your specialty yet.
I feel like that sometimes too .. there's all these ideas floating around in your head, and so many great cakes and ideas here on CC ... and things in my head don't always translate to cake directly either.
keep going! we will master stuff in our own time and with practice!
Thank you. I really wasn't looking for sympathy, more a place to get the thoughts that were running willy-nilly through my head out so that they wouldn't pollute my thoughts anymore. AND - literally seconds ago - I picked up a piping bag that had some extra buttercream and a rose tip in it and I piped a perfect rose.
From an analytical standpoint, the problem w/ my roses seems to be the instability of the middle cone, maybe I should try using hershey's kisses or a cone of fondant as Toba Garrett suggests.
I think the funk came from failing to bake 3 cakes, nevermind even getting them decorated. My husband, noting the funk, has commanded me into the kitchen - to bake a cake and than to decorate it.
So off I go.
Thank you again.
Rachel
I too feel like my cakes aren't pretty. I feel like that tons of times and everyone tells me that my cakes are great. It helps a bit. I think we're too hard on ourselves sometimes because we see the tiny mistakes that no one else catches. Your cakes are great. Keep up the awesome work. Your husband is a great guy for keeping you going.
have you ever tried to pipe your roses on the bottom of the nail? you know the pointy part? It is the only way I can do a rose out of icing. You just have to pierce a paper square on to the nail and instead off piping a cone use the point for the centre. Continue your rose as you normally would (just be careful it can get a little heavy and start to slide) and when its done slide the paper and rose off. HTH
I have never heard of that! WOW! I'll have to give it a try.
Rachel
Okay...I could have written this post! But, then I look in your gallery and your roses are AWESOME!!! I am also insecure, especially since I'm completely self-taught. I don't have time for classes and the orders keep flying in, which means I have even less time for classes. Then I worry myself sick about whether or not I can actually make the cakes that are requested because my skills are so limited.
You can stop worrying....your cakes are gorgeous!
Derby,
With that purse cake in your icon - you dont' have anything to worry about either! SO AWESOME!
Rachel
mrsright...I think I know what you're saying because I've felt very much the same way. I finally had to admit to myself that most of my disappointing cakes have been that way because I did not take the time to do EVERYTHING perfectly. For example, if I piped a buttercream rose that wasn't excellent, I'd use it anyway because I wanted to hurry up and get through. I'm starting to slow down, take the time to do every step of the decorating to the BEST of my ability and my cakes are starting to be much more to my liking. I agree with Joanne...do something until you do it very well before trying to add a lot a "new" design features. This has worked for me. I was beginning to think that I wasn't going to be able to be a cake decorator...but now I think I can. And business is starting to pick up even more!
Ok heres what you do. 1. Grab something with caffine in it (perks you up) (side note: caffine can be substituted wiht ahochol) 2. Go to the bathroom 3. sit in front of your comp on cakecentral.com (aka best website ever) 4. Look up Aliwis000 in the users list 5. view the pics 6 thank God for two things a) they are not your cakes and b) you went to the bathroom because you would have peed yourself other wise.
Your cakes are wonderful, dont feel down! I am still working on getting ideas to come to me in the first place, actually making them work is years away from me
~alicia
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