I Sold My First Cake-Now What?
Decorating By olana11 Updated 11 Sep 2006 , 1:38am by faithsfancifuls
I've been making cakes for many years but on an amatuer level-my kids'(and their friends) birthdays,family members and as gifts for teachers etc. This cake was a request from one of my best friends for his co-worker. So, right of the bat he was going to be forgiving of any imperfections. He said she loves pink and anything to do with Princessness. So this is what I came up with-getting ideas from various cakes I've seen. I'm ALWAYS stressed when making a cake but this was worse because I knew I was getting paid- The pressure was on!! 
When you make one as a gift of course people will be like "wow, cool!' because it's free. My worry is How can I pull this off on a professional level as far as selling them? I know there was quite a bit wrong with this cake even though I tried to hide it as much as possible. I guess it's just the worry of customer satisfaction.
Some questions arising from my problems with this cake:
What's your best method for a level cake?
What's the correct way to attach a fondant bow? They're heavy! 
I just stuck it on with some royal icing and prayed it didn't slide off or worse, pull the fondant off the side of the cake.
Is there something you can add to MMF to make it harden faster?
And how the heck do you know how many people a particular cake will feed?
What about transporting the cake? I made him drive to work while I held the cake suspended above my lap to absord the shock of any bumps in the road. All the way hissing at him about driving too fast!
Any advice would be appreciated 
That's a lovely cake. You could try adding gumpaste or gumtex to the fondant, so that you can roll it out thinner, that way, it wouldn't be so heavy. Best way to level a ckae is in the tin, just level out whatever sticks out the top and use the bottom for the top, that's always level, so you just flip the cake upside down. HTH
To know how many people a cake feeds, you can go on the wilton website. There is a chart on there that should tell you for each pan size. Also when you buy the wilton pans on the back of the paper insert it gives baking instructions as well as servings per pan.
Maybe this will help
http://www.wilton.com/cake/cakeprep/baking/times/index.cfm
It is cute! Congratulations and welcome to the addiction of selling cakes.
The only thing I'd recommend if you're going to do cakes this size is that I noticed that it's sitting on what appears to be only one cake cardboard, which is not enough support for most cakes, unless you already put it on something else after you took the picture...in which case, nevermind this advice...
For any cake I deliver, even an 8" round, I use 3 cake boards 4" larger than the bottom cake (14" boards for 10" base cake, etc), taped together and covered in foil...and I turn them so their corrugations run at 90 degrees to each other each layer. It needs to feel really sturdy underneath to support the cake's weight and prevent cracking. For larger cakes I deliver them unstacked, (but I have driven them stacked and hissing like you said lol!), and there are solid bases you can get that will hold them too. Just my 2 cents...
Other than that, great work! 
Thanks everyone,
Homecook, I realized AFTER I finished the cake and went to pick it up that it was way too heavy for that single cakeboard 
Out of panic I just used a large book underneath to transport it. I will definately use your method of stacking and alternating 3 boards-awesome idea! Thanks!
Thanks luv2giggls for that link!
I will try the gumpaste and leveling right in the tin,Ursula40 , I don't know why I didn;t think of that.
Your cake is cute! I use the wilton cake leveler and really love it! It makes it so easy to torte and also to level without the guesswork!
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