My husband is awesome with design, has his undergrad degree in Architecture and graduated top in his class. So, that's cool and everything, but sometimes when I'm decorating a cake he can make me a little nuts. We've been communicating through a large number of emails all morning about what our son's bday cake should look like. He seems to forget that I've already shaped the cakes! All I want now are ideas for ways to decorate them, but he's throwing out suggestions of sorts on what I should do with the actual shapes and sizes, which like I said has already been determined. He's truly my biggest critic when I make a cake and that motivates me in a number of different ways, not all of them positive!

My son's bday them is outer space, so I'm making a cake shaped like the moon... now might be Saturn, and a rocketship cake headed it's direction. Think it will be cool, just hope I haven't pulled all my hair out before it's finally done!

Anyway, just needed to vent a little frustration here, so now I'm done... sigh.

I hear ya!

My husband has absolutely no background in design and, in fact, tends to burn ready to bake cookies! Yet, he's very fond of telling me how I should do my cakes, what they should look like, what colors to use. Honestly, it really ticks me off. Here's this guy who can't ice a Toaster Streudel, and he's telling me my mermaid looks all wrong??? Sheesh. He's lucky I can see that sometimes he has a valid point or a good idea, and he's darn lucky I don't give him a buttercream moustache in his sleep

I had to laugh out loud on that one! Husbands can be so funny! Everytime I ask my DH for his opinion on my cakes, he just says "it's fine". Doesn't matter if I think it's the best or worst cake I've ever done, It's always the same reply. "It's fine". Drives me nuts!!!

My DH is very artistic and wants to sit down and help! I tell him, this is my hobby, go find your own! Although he did make my butterfly templates for me since I couldn't find one that I could trace well enough. (I can't draw worth a dime) But one thing I can say, after 24 years of marriage, he's learned to back off when I say "GO AWAY"

So I sympathize.

I say make them an extra cake and let them do their ideas themselves. When my DH starts making all kinds of 'suggestions', I hand him the bag and tell him to have at it. He usually gets the point. One or two ideas or critiques is fine, but too many...

I feel your pain wendysue!!

so funny..........I'm on the other end of the spectrum.......when I make cakes I ask my DH......what do you think........his response is always......"Looks good honey"...even when it looks terrible!!!!!! He has no artistic talents and just has the same response to everything I create...when I press him for more feedback....he always says....I don't know ......and then suggests something totally impossible and off the wall........LOL.......so now I just say thanks baby..when he says Looks good honey!!! hahahaha

When I brought home my final cake from my Wilton Course 3 (the tiered one), I thought it was pretty good despite the fact I experimented with a cake and it was not as high as it should have been..... matter of fact was proud of what I had accomplished over the past 12 weeks. When I asked what he thought, the first words were "the cake is too short"! No duh! So I asked him how it looked - shrugged his shoulders and said it is a cake with roses..... men!!!

Deb

I'm VERY thankful that my DH doesn't critique or criticize my cake's (well, most of them) but thats the ONLY thing he doesn't critique!!!!! IT doesn't matter WHAT else I'm doing (or not doing), or what ideas I've come up with, or how hard I've worked on something, or how much stress I've gone through, or even how sick I am.....he's ALWAYS got a "better idea", "works MUCH harder", "Has MUCH more stress", and is "SICKER" than me when we're sick!! (big baby) Like it's a competition or something!!!!! He's got the BIGGEST EGO I've ever seen in a man like He is just KING!!!!! His attitude is "There is NO ONE ELSE better than me!!!!" Make's me gag!!!!! I can't figure it out.....he has either changed since I married him 15 yrs ago, or I was blinded by love and didn't see it!!!!!! (personally I think he's just jealous!!! =o)

Hang in there Wendysue!!! YOU'RE the decorator!!!!
blessings
elly

This is too funny!!!
My hubby does all the same things....when I ask his opinion, it always...Looks good ...nothing more...when I ask how a cake tastes (say in a taste test between 2 cakes) it always "tastes good"..no description, nothing.
When I ask his opinion on what else to do....he either says "I can't think of anything right now..." like he'll go off and do some thinking about it..yeah right!
Or he will come up with these grand ideas that are not even feasible or not with the design at all, and when I explain they are not possible he gets defensive!
Men, you can't live with them, and cake is not a good way to hide the remains!!

Well My husband just stands there and says why are you doing that? over and over and over!

I am very furtunate, my boyfriends mother decorated cakes so he has been around this most of his life so knows a lot of little tricks to help me and some very good ideas. He also knows me well enough to know when to back off. I just did a small birthday cake for a co worker, I tried a new fondant and was having a few problems and was getting frustrated. He tried to help but just one look at my face told him to go to the other room and leave me be for a bit!!!!!!!

Too Funny!
My husband usually doesn't give an opinion unless asked! He knows better than to bother me when I am working on one, besides all I have to do is give the man some scraps and some frosting and he is history!

Tell me about it!!!! my dh has a construction back ground and lord help me when I start a cake.. I was playing around molding a baby the other night and boy..The heads too big..the arms are too small, what's that, finally I just threw it at him and he got the picture...MEN

My hubby drives me crazy for a different reason - because he's never taken a single cake class yet he can figure out how to do anything and everything with cakes! He is very artistic and if he ever got into cake decorating - he'd be into the really high oend ones, I'm sure, whereas I feel lucky when my cakes don't collapse! He's so smart at everything and for once - just once please - can I be better at something? But nooooo - he has to go and be all talented and everything! Oh well. I am grateful because he's saved me from quite a few cake disasters - that he never would have gotten himself into if he was doing the cake cuz he would have known better! Ha ha.

Ok Let me tell you about mine now and I have to be careful because if I leave the site up on the computer he actually reads the post and cruses the gallery. I said the other day honey come here and read this joke...his reply...the one about the drunk at the grocery store. UGGH

The worst part is now he says he thinks from looking around here--he can do that!!! NOT Sometimes I wonder if he married me out of fear he would starve to death. The boy can't make toast!!

Sooo Funny

I think that we should sign our husbands up and have a cake decorating contest. Then we could see the end result. ( a heart attack from laughing!)

chrisj
way too funny! I was laughing at the front desk (I am filling in for our receptionist) and someone walking by want to know what was so funny. I knew it would take too long to explain so just said nothing. which got me a weird look

Funny you should mention it - I do cake decorating parties for kids on the side, but one of the the moms ordered a different type of party for Mother's Day! They're going to have all the moms, aunts, grandmas, etc have a cake decorating contest - and then the guys decide who the winner is! Doesn't that sound like fun?! Not for the guys - they'll get in big trouble if they pick the wrong one! Ha ha. But I thought that was a great idea that she came up with - I never would have thought of that!

I don't think mine would actually do it. But of course always gives his opinion on mine. Could you just imagine....... A men's cake gallery@!!!

Yay! I am not alone! My hubby is painful. I like all my cakes to be cartoony so they are not supposed to be exactly accurate and all he says is "it's not in proportion!" He tries to support me but is so harsh with his criticisms that my dad calls him "the constant critic"!!
He loves to say that looks good but..... One day I might go at him with my KA!

My husband doesn't really want anything to do with cakes at all(not even eat them ). But, He does come up with some pretty good ideas to save me from disaster. He and my olodest son are both very artistic so if I need writing or tracing done I go to my son. If it's a construction problem I go to my husband. In fact the first wedding cake I ever made I didn't know about pillars and such and just used dowels to support the plate. .................... He saved the day by actually making the dowels support the plates and cake. You can see what I mean by the tiered red and white in my pix.
Tabby

It's me again! My hubby was a bit helpful in the end. Told me to add rivets in my cake... anyhoo, here's a link to another thread with photos of my cake. If anyone would like to check it out.

http://www.cakecentral.com/modules.php?name=Forums&file=viewtopic&t=21714&postdays=0&postorder=asc&&start=15

He did stand and watch me do the lettering though, which wasn't good. I don't do well when someone watches me work!

Wendysue: I just wanted to say your cake came out AMAZING! Absolutely PERFECT. Thanks for starting this thread...it was very amusing and entertaining.

My Dh and I have a deal...he stays out of my way and keeps his mouth shut and he gets to eat all the cake scraps and leftover filling and buttercream.

Haven't heard a word out of him yet.