I searched many years for a hobby that I felt passionate about...I tried aerobics instructing, sewing, painting, writing etc. Then this summer I finally went to my first Wilton class and I knew immediately that I had found "it". I love cake decorating, it gives me little things to look forward to everyday. It's also a way for me to be creative since I always considered myself as being not creative at all. I love the look on my family/friend's faces when they see my creations and say "how did you do that?" In short, it has changed my life in a major positive way.

So....how has cake decorating changed your life?

Like you, I'm really happy to have found a hobby that I enjoy so much. I also get less sleep because I have to decorate at night after my 9 month old is in bed. And, I spend WAY too much time on CC's website!

I gained about 20 lbs......

Ok, that's probably not what you meant!

I think the way my kids look at me when I make a really cool cake is the best gift... they love getting to pick out whatever design they want for their cake each year and watching it come to life.

Cake decorating also forces me to keep my kitchen extremely clean!

Cake Decorating has given me a deep passoin for my creative outlet.

It has also made me more positive cause I know that this passion is God given.

Oh & an addiction to cake central & new friends

I'm with you cakediva, 30#'s was my first thought. Fun with my grandchildren and nephews and nieces, letting them pick and design their birthday cakes then helping them decorate. It is something we all do together even though they are diffrent ages. (4-13). We laugh, make a mess, clean and WE EAT!!!

Well, it has given me a new way to drive my DH crazy and that's always a good thing LOL j/k........It has given my kids something to look forward to on their birthdays....they too love to design their own cakes and "see if Mommy can pull it off"...so far I've been lucky...I'm sure when they get older they'll be tougher critics so hopefully I'll improve before that happens. I feel like it gives me a creative outlet too......I love looking at sculptures and different things and just imagining how you could make that out of cake!!! It gives me a reason to spend money on myself (icing colors, spatulas, etc.) and it gives me all the extra calories I could hope for LOL

I ran out of things in my home to decorate - cross stitch, sewing, painting, rubber stamping, scrapbooking - the next logical step was to decorate food. I love when people say "Wow - how did you do that"

It was my "it" thing too. Last month I was so busy I went three weeks without decorating a cake. I literally didn't sleep for three nights in a row at the end of the three weeks. I finally told my husband I had to decorate or I would go insane! Instead of sleeping I was designing cakes in my head!

I had taken up beading & crocheting since my kids grew up and I found myself with a lot of free time. Recently I added cake decorating & just love it! It is my stress relief, just being able to dive in & forget about the stresses of work & life, and being able to see a finished product pretty quickly. Crocheting a blanket takes months . My granddaughters also love asking Nana to make them a cake and I love to oblige them

I've always had to have an artistic outlet, needlework, sweing, beading, etc.... when I was in my 20's, my mother said she would pay for me to take some cake classes if I promised to make her the first cake. Mom paying? Why not? So, I went to a non-Wilton class and rather enjoyed it, but I lost the passion, and here I am now, 20 some odd years later, taking refresher courses and making my kids beg for icing....... Icing is power!!!

It means to me that I NEVER have to buy another Wal-Mart cake!!!!

it has alienated my family,

destroyed my knees,

kept me broke...broke my back.

Given me sleepless nights, stressful days...

fluctuates my weight

made me doubt myself at times

but I wouldn't trade it for anything in the world!

I started course 1 so that I could make a birthday cake for my soon to be 1 year old son (7 months ago) and pictured myself making sheet cakes just like the grocery stores (that was my THEN goal) found out about this site, and the rest was history...now I am in course III and looking forward to making some cute 2 tiered b-days in the near future...who would have thunk it!

I love being able to do something that my friends and family are amazed by (even though I have zero talent next to all at this site)....

It has given me an outlet for my creativity. I took the Wilton classes over 5 years ago, became pregnant with my first daughter and had to give up decorating while pregnant, the smell of icing made me sick. Then when she turned 1 I did her a Pooh cake and have been off and on decorating ever since. I am in the process of researching to start my own business. It has made me realize what I truly love to do and that is to bake and decorate. My grandmother started baking with me when I was a little girl, but it took 30 some odd years and a cake decorating course for me to realize my real passion. I love that my oldest daughter loves to watch me decorate and that she helps me with the baking, as much as a 5 yr old can.

Definitely the weight for me too - I mean, who turns down samples?

It has given me an appreciation of the hard work that goes in to this food art! I had NO idea it took as long to do some of the things that it does. Wow! Like others, I've learned how much I love to bake - even more so than I knew before. I enjoy seeing things come together, and even if I can't do everything I want to - I have aspirations of practicing and getting better. I love the CC site - up late WAY too many nights looking at everything, laughing, smiling, and even crying with everyone. I feel like I'm a "part" of something big - a community that is there to support you, regardless of how "good" you are - it's nice to know that I have people out there to talk to. People that don't know me, and unfortunately, probably never get to meet, but I know they are there.

Wow---got a little mushy, didn't I? Well...... I can say that I consider myself a pretty creative person, and am always doing something crafty, but the cake decorating just adds to it. I've had many dreams of living in a house with a shop where I'd wear overalls and pig tails all day baking, decorating, stamping and making dog treats! Some dream, huh? Some day!

I fell in love with cake decorating after my first class too. I must say that if I could afford to, I would quit my full time job just to decorate. I eat, sleep and dream about cakes. My house won't stay clean because I'm either at work, on cakecentral or baking a cake. :lol

It is the best hobby I have chosen. If I could go back in time I would attend Pastry/Culinary Arts school instead of getting an undergraduate degree. Isn't life funny?

vww104...when reading your post, I was like "ME TOO!" I was not talented at anything. I really never had the desire to fully get into one thing. Then after my first Wilton class, I was hooked! My mom keeps on telling me she never knew I had all this talent in me. (And the sad thing is that I'm just a beginner and have soo much more to learn).

My family and friends lives have changed too! No more boring sheet cakes for them either! They look forward to each upcoming party to see what I will create next!

And AgentCakeBaker, I feel the same way also. I wish I could go back in time and go to school for this. I always thought that when my kids are in school full time, I would go back to my old job in the executive world. But now that I found my new talent, I want to make wedding cakes when they get into school. That is my new goal!! To get good enough to make wedding cakes. Never thought in a million years I would want to do that. Wow, has cake decorating changed my life!!

CMMOM....your cakes are just great....I think you are good enough to make wedding cakes (certainly 100 times better than me).......

This may sound crazy, but for me is a stress reliever. I work as a customer service rep and after a full day of phone calls. All I want to do is bake and decorate. It makes me happy , I make other people happy and that is priceless.


Would not change for anything else.

And something else that makes it even more wonderful is knowing that I have this in common with great people all over the world!

For me, it ended up to be such a passion that I quit my stable, full time teaching job and just launched a cake business that won't let me get any sleep!! And I'm pregnant!!! (My husband says he is tired of getting blamed for everything, so we'll blame it on cake decorating!!

For me it is a stress reliever as well. As long as I wait until everyone goes to sleep and then start to decorate. It's so nice to do it in piece and quiet without the baby biting my toes or pulling my pants down when I have my hands all covered in icing. And without the 2 older ones asking me to do something for them every 5 seconds. Of course my DH can't stand the fact that I stay up all night long, it was bad before but now I'm pregnant and of course that only makes matters worse.
He hates me doing cakes because the house is trashed for a few days after because I'm so exausted from staying up all day, all night and then all day again plus with the 3 kids. When they're up there is no time for anything it seems. Oh well, summer is over and I be able to do things when the 2 older ones are in school.

I also feel as you do - I love cake decorating and to me each cake is unique with alot of thought and planning - I'm retired after working 30 years at a mental institution and my business is picking up although I am still a bit hesitant to go on a larger scale - the Culinary Institute is less than 2 miles from my house and I wish I had gone there instead of SUNY New Paltz but back then I wanted to teach - how things have changed - I truely love this website and communicationg with so many folks who have the same passion as me - thanks guys!!!!

Beyond making me crazier from time to time by stressing over the cakes, I have met the most wonderful people. I have so many friends now from all over the world.

It's also helped me be on The Food Network, write a cookbook, and gives me an outlet for my perfectionism.

Michele

Geez, Lousaria, you crack me up! I'm reading your post thinking that I'm exhausted with just the thought of decorating with three (soon to be four) small children at your feet. You must get to bed with the DH sometime since you are pregnant with your fourth so he shouldn't get too upset!!!

At my house, DH hates CC 'cause I'm on it so much - but I remind him of all I've learned and how it will pay off in the end because knowledge is POWER.

Sugarflowers...you were on the food network....please tell what show?

I started decorating 5 years ago after my wedding. I'm 46 so I started late I guess but I love it!!! It's a stress reliever for me also. I've always been "crafty" and like others, have nowhere to go with stuff I've done. With cakes I can take a picture and then it can be "destroyed" and I have a photo album (ok, so I'm going to have to buy another soon) of things I've created with cake and icing. One other reason I do it and enjoy it.....when I started doing cakes, my grandfather just kept saying how proud he was of me and would tell everyone what talent I had. It was embarrassing at the time but also of course made me feel good. He only got to see my cakes the first 7 or 8 months I did them but when I do a cake that I'm proud of or especially when I do one that I'm not so happy with, I think he's watching me and praising me anyway!

Well...

I'm bipolar and have always struggled with many aspects of what most people consider normal life. Ever since I've found cake decorating, it has made the rest of life seem bareable. When I'm depressed, I decorate. When I'm manic, I decorate. My husband loves it and is super supportive because he sees the massive changes in me.

It's wonderful.

Rachel

I think I'm the only person on this site who is not passionate about cake decorating. I took my first Wilton class out of boredom and the need for a hobby or something. With one taste of a cake by a coworker, my business began and snowballed. I work full time and decorate for extra money (which I could live without if I had to). Decorating has become a JOB and not a hobby or passion. I do love the reaction from customers and children when they see their cakes, but actually doing the shopping, baking, and decorating is so tedious to me. I've invested too much into this to just stop, plus my customers expect cakes. I told my DH while setting up a wedding cake "If I ever say that I want to do this full time, you have my permission to shoot me!" I am so sick of people asking me when I will quit my job and open a bakery cause "you must make more on cakes than at work right?" HA yeah right, more like 1/8th the amount. I'm like RisqueBusiness:

I alienated my husband, almost to the point of divorce
I spend too much money on supplies
I have absolutely no free time
I'm fatter than ever which just makes me a depressing person to be around (see what I mean from reading this)

I would love to have time to try out new recipes and different things, but there's just no time between the orders. I AM SO SORRY TO VENT, I GUESS I JUST NEEDED TO GET IT OUT.

On a positive note, I have met so many wonderful people here at CC and learned more than I ever thought. I am proud of my business and my success, and my family is proud of me as well.

Thanks for listening