I have a confession to make. I don't really like baking! I know it's a sin, but I'm not a big fan. I enjoy decorating and I love when people enjoy what I make, but I just don't really get into it. It's grown on me more since I started years ago, I even went to culinary school for pastry and baking (don't even get me started on how I feel about pastry!). I have ADD and maybe it's the waiting for the product to be done that kills me. When I first started I used to get nervous about how the product was going to come out of the oven, that's past now that I have good, solid recipes. I still love decorating and maybe when I'm big and super successful I'll hire someone to do all my baking and icing and leave the decorating up to me, wouldn't that be great ?!?!?

I'm the same ....i don't ge too excited about the baking side of things.....and don't start me on the clean up But designing and decorating ....well I could do that all day every day!!!

So I suppose we can be hated together ...always safer in numbers!!lol

I like to bake but when I go to design a cake and execute it I get lost in too many ideas and so my cakes end up looking a cake deco fairy just threw up all over them!!!!
So I'll bake and you decorate.

That's why I never took to knitting. My grandma tried to teach me several times and I would be so upset if I missed a stitch. I couldn't wait to see the end product! With baking it's only a few hours and voila!

I am with you!!! When I watch Ace of Cakes and see all those cakes already baked just waiting to be decorated, I just sigh... I don't mind doing it so much, it's just the decorating part is my favorite, so I am ready to get to it. But the clean up!!! EEK! Given a choice between a baker and a "cleaner-upper," I would take some cleaning help anyday. Just to be able to look at a finished cake, smile and walk right out of the kitchen....

I don't like baking, either. But, I have a worse sin: I don't like cake! I might have two slices a year, and that's enough for me. I force myself to taste-test my cakes to be sure they're good.

Cheesecake, however, is an exception!

I LOVE baking and I mean anything and everything cakes, pies, cookies, breads, all of it lol maybe because I seldom have a flop but when it comes to decorating well now thats a different story lol I dont have the imagination or the artistic ability to execute it well. I always wished that someone in my area that decorates and hates baking would call me up lol I would so enjoy that.

I don't mind the baking; it's just the making of the icing and mixing the colors that I don't like. DH said that if I ever go into business that he would do all the baking, making of the icing and cleanup and just leave me with the decorating (but I'm not that good yet). So, the other day I asked if he would help and make some icing; he said that I didn't have a business yet and that all he'll do now is the cleanup!! Just don't let him throw more of my tips away!!!

I agree with you! I don't like baking or making the icing.....I especially can't stand the mess that it all makes, but I love to decorate. I am with you on having someone make everything and clean up...just leaving the decorating to me!!!

I think a lot of people feel the same way too.

I've already decided that the first employees I will hire (someday down the long, long road) will be a baker and someone to clean up.

I've been in busines for more than ten years, for the first 5 I did it all, now I have someone to do all the baking for me, so don't give up, there's hope

I can relate to y'all! I don't like to eat cake either, and I hate buttercream icing! Honestly, I prefer the Betty Crocker or Duncan Hines tub icing. The only part of the cake I like is the warm hump you cut off to level it out.

I also have a lot of trouble coming up with ideas. My cakes never look as pretty as they do in my head, and sometimes I don't know when to stop decorating, so they usually pass the point of pretty to obnoxious!

I know exactly how you feel. I too hate the baking part. I don't like to cook or bake. I don't like mixing ingred. or colors, AND I HATE THE CLEAN UP! Now don't get me wrong, I'm not a lazy person, I'm just one for immediate gratification. I can't start to see a creation until I'm about half way there. As far as having ADD, I don't have it, but my oldest son has ADHD and I know several people who have it at different levels. Those people tend to have the most creativity, but the least amount of patience for prep, baking, etc. They too are for immediate gratification, so don't feel bad, no it's not a sin, just get to the point where you can hire people, take it out in trade or have kids and when they are old enough, you can have your own little "sweat shop". Pay the kids to do what you don't want to. It's a win win for everyone.

Like Paola says there's hope one day we would all have someone to bake for us, but we must do it first,

I HATE BAKING TOO! I have girlfriend who eventually wants to go into business with me, who loves to bake and wants to do that part of it and leave the decorating to me. Can't wait for that day to come!

I don't blame you. I was up til 3 am last night finishing 2 cakes for my family bday party today because of the prep work. The actual decorating took half the time because I could picture what I wanted, and then the last hour was just cleaning up and rinsing out frosting so I could actually wash dished the next day, or actually would it be later that day?

Anyway I would love to just walk in and start decorating.

I was SPOILED ROTTEN when I worked in a bakery last year. Someone else did the baking, torting, filling, icing, fondant covering, and then just handed me the cake to decorate!! Not only that but I had someone making my cookie dough, rolling it out (on a fabulous sheeter), cutting the shapes that I chose, baking them, then rolling the rack over, ready for me to decorate. Clean up was a short walk to the huge sinks where the guys were scrubbing all day.
So now that I'm on my own, you can imagine the rude, cold-water-in-the-face-wake up call that I had!!!!!
But I enjoy baking and especially experimenting with new recipes. Clean up , though, always makes me

I remember years ago someone who posted in Mail Box News had a little saying under her user name "The lifes work the cake, the fun the frosting" and that is true, baking takes time, makes a mess, and I can hardly wait till I am finished and can get on with the decorating. But the rewards in baking is hearing positvie comments from people on the taste or moistness of your cakes. It doesn't matter how beautifully decorated they are if they don't taste just as good as they look.

Just goes to show, "There's a butt for every seat", as my grandfather used to say.
This may be a shocking cake central confession, but I don't really like cake decorating. I do it because I have to in order to charge what I want to charge. I hate all the fake ingredients ( color, faux flavors, shortening, corn syrup...ech!) I hate the way my hand feels after so much piping, I hate the taste of powdered sugar frosting. They offend my pastry chef sensibilities.

Give me a perfectly executed ganache glazed pound cake and I am as happy as a clam.

Thanks for all the replies. I'm so glad to know I'm not alone. My favorite part of baking is scratching each layer off of my to-do list. Nothing feels better after hours in a hot kitchen than seeing a cake list covered in black lines! Myu husband always gives me a hard time when I take "small" orders, birthday cakes and such because it takes me way more time than what I'm getting paid for the cake. But I tell him that I have no choice, the whole process takes time and I can't turn people away just because it takes me alot of time. I really think our husbands/partners just want to make sure that we aren't getting screwed by customers. If you ask him I never charge enough (which is probably true for non-wedding cakes).
The cleanup is actually not a problem for me b/c my kitchen is a 2nd kitchen in my parents house. When I leave to deliver the wedding cake I come home and almost always the kitchen fairies have come in a made the mess disappear!! I'm very lucky in that sense. They are very cheap labor and quite satisfied with cake leftovers! Maybe I should talk them into renting their services out!