I just wondered how everyone got their start decorating cakes. I always decorated my kids birthday cakes by buying Wilton type frostings in a tube with the plastic screw-on tips until the day my friend called while I was decorating one of those birthday cakes. We were talking, I had the phone between my shoulder and ear, when blammo, the screw tip blew off of the frosting tube, depositing a huge wad of that yucko frosting right in the middle of Happy Birthday! I said "@#*&," and my friend said, "Hey, why don't you take the cake decorating class with me at Hobby Lobby?" We can get buy one get one free on the tuition.... So I did and was sort of hooked and took all 3 classes. Then another friend convinced me to make her daughter's wedding cake--She was, of course, desperate, could find no one else, and let's face it--I was her last hope.... The resulting wedding cake is in my photos with pink roses on top and petals around it. I spent so many hours worrying about it, but hey, I have been totally hooked ever since!! How about you?
I took my first cake decorating class with my best friend at a local shop. The icing they had us use was gross and I just wasn't that interested, even though I did somewhat like doing it.
I normally bought my cakes from Sams for my lil' kids birthdays. One day my friend bought me a kids cookbook and in it was a cute little dino that was carved. I made it for my son's birthday (green tinted cool whip frosting, with gumdrops and good and plenties for decoration) I thought it was cute. (I now see that pic and cringe) I started to only make my kids b-day cakes when I couldn't find what I wanted, boy....they were rough looking.
Decided to take a cake class last year at Michaels and learn how to properly make a cake instead of having to buy them or making another questionable looking cake. I then went for course #2 and continued to make cakes. I still need to do course #3, no one else wanted to take it but me so they cancelled it.
I'm still pretty wet behind the ears when it comes to cake decorating it seems, cake and I have a love/hate relationship. I want to get better but just don't have the time to practice like I want, once I graduate I hope to then.
I took the 3 courses at Michael's. This is something that I wanted to do when my children were little but no time. Now that I am a "Mimi" I can at least do for my 3 wonderful grandchildren. It is still a true hobby for me and unfortunately I don't get a lot of practice time but still have fun and continue to buy. One day when I can retire hopefully I will use everything I have bought.
Linda 
i started when a co-worker of mine asked me if i wanted to take a cake decorating class with her, as she knew i want to make my own wedding cake...good thing i took the class with her cuz once i got into the cake decorating i realized i would have been a mess had i not taken the classes....(shhhh...i had never even baked a cake before i took the class....what was i thinking)....but we took the forst class together, then she had a trip to go on while the second class was going to be, but i took the second class and well now i am just waiting for some free time to take the rest of the classes....
I started in high school, afetr my mom took a class. I would make cakes for my friends. Then I stopped while I was in college. Then I started making cakes again in the early 90's.....and that was when I played around with ginerbread houses. Then I stopped for awhile then about 5 years aga I started up again, making cakes for co-workers.
Through out the years I would make the occansional cake for family birhtdays and social gatherings.
I wanted to make my kids birthday cakes so I bought a Wiltons Yearbook from Walmart. My son wanted the Pichachu (Pokemon) cake. I bought what I thought was all of the supplies I would need. One of each tip, 3 vinyl bags, two couplers 
. Well, that cake took about 4 hours since there were at least 7 different colors of icing and many used the same tip and I only had 3 bags 
! I was exhausted, but I loved the way the cake came out. So I bought more supplies and kept doing them and now I'm completely hooked. It's never a chore to decorate a cake, I love it 
! And now people pay me to do it 
.
As a little girl I loved to read. It was and is my favorite extracirricular activity. When I was 10 I pushed my brother off the top bunk 
. My grandmother gave me a spanking 
(this was back in 1976) and my mother took away my books for 2 weeks . The spanking was easy. So the only thing I had to read were my mothers Good Housekeeping Mags and some of her manuals from the Wiltons class she was taking at JCPenney . And thats how I started decorating cakes.
I started working for a Super Valu chain store bakery-deli back in 1978 while I was still in high school. I did my first wedding cake at the age of 19. They just told me one day that I was going to start decorating cakes. They sent me to a couple of other stores to watch their decorators and VOILA! Here I am. I have learned the most in the last month since I have been here on CC.
WAYYYYYYY back when, you could get the wilton course through the mail.All the pans,tips,bags,everything was included.I ordered the first one then the second and the third,so on so on.......Well then life took me down another road and Cake went on the back burner till I started watching Duff.I took all 4 wilton courses and the rest is history. I have been decorating for about 9 months now and love it. I did my first wedding cake(in my photos) after course 3. It was great.
Hi All,
Well, for as long as I can remeber I have always liked to bake ( which has been a long time..lol I am soon to be 37 and a mom of 6). I love to bake and try new things and always have. I started working for one of our local supermarket chains when we moved back to FL in 1994. Well, I got a job in the bakery dept. and was loving it!! I went from working the counter, to icing the donuts, to then of course learning to decorate. The lady who taught me, who is now my BFF took me under her wing. I was a decorator for that chain for almost 7 years before I went to their corp. office and then retired in 2004. I usually do the cakes for all of my kids and then got into doing it for family, friends, and people they know. I love to do the baking and decorating to this day every chance that I get. Each year at Christmas my BF and another great friend of mine have a baking day and we bake and eat and drink..lol all day long. So, after that long boring story that is how I started in the decorating field..Thanks!
Dawn
This is still just a hobby for me, but I love it. I started making my children's birthday cakes when I couldn't afford to buy them (with the theme they wanted). My first one was a winnie-the-pooh shaped pan for my daughter's 1st birthday. She is now 6. I have not yet taken any classes, but I would love to do so eventually. I am very greatful that this site is here, because as bad as I think some of my cakes have turned out, my family and friends always rave about them and ask me to do something else. So a great big thank you to everyone for all the resources and encouragement available here.
I started a new job about a year ago. In the office there are old, very old Family Circle magazines. I was bored and didn't have any work to do so I grabbed one and on the front cover was a picture of a decorated cake. It was a beach theme with teddy grahm bears on the side and so on. I thought to myself, I can do that. Well I haven't stopped making cakes ever since. I love it.
I actually just got started a few months ago...I'm just one of those people that LOVE BC Icing and have always wanted to learn how to do it myself....a coworker has been doing it for years...so, I started asking questions. She turned me on to the CC site, and I read...read...read...and then started practicing the techniques I really wanted to learn.
In just a short time, I've learned sooooooo much! I now, have started selling to people...with rave reviews....haven't taken a class one..and not sure if I ever will. I love doing this....and continue to try new things...techniques...and hope to someday be able to create something half as gorgeous as some of the ones I've seen here. With every cake, I learn something new....and I take a chance on a new technique with every opportunity.....
Have always enjoyed baking and trying something different. in 1997 I was on an archaeological dig and there were so many summer birthdays,I wanted to do something special. So I made a cake to look like our excavation pit. Completed with soil layers ( marble cake), rock drain (jelly beans) and a worker (fimo). Never took a pic. Then to get out of the house after the baby, I took wiltons courses a year a go. have not stopped since. There always seem to be a cake or two to do a month just for friends birthdays. love it. although I stress out to much to be perfect.
Ever since I was little I have always wanted to be just like my older sister (her user name is cakeasyoulikeit and she makes awesome cakes!), so when I visited her her for a month and a half (I was 11 yrs. old) and saw her decorating cakes I knew it was something I wanted to do to. So I went home and about a month later I took Wilton 1, and now 3 yrs. and with Wilton course 1 and 2 behind me here I am and I think I am doing pretty well for a 14 yr. old!
So thanks Angela for all your encouragement and inspiration, I love you!
I have always loved baking and trying new recipes. I moved to a new city, about 2 years ago and 1.5 hours from where I grew up. I didn't have any friends in my new city and my fiancee was working full time along with taking his MBA. I had a lot of free time on my hands, so I thought I would take the Wilton classes for fun. I have taken all 5 of their classes and I loved every minute of it. I wish I could do it full time, instead of my current office job!
When I was a little girl there was a bakery in our local mall. The bakery had a huge window where you could stand and watch the ladies decorate cakes. I was soooo! facinated watching them and I thought the cakes were sooooo! beautiful. I wanted to just stand there at that window watching while my mom did her shopping.
It never occurred to me then that I could actually learn how to do that! When I was about 26 (I'm now 44), my mom heard that they taught Wilton classes at JC Penny. She also remembers how I was about that bakery window at the mall. We took the first class together. She decided she didn't really have a nack for it, but of course, there was no question, I was hooked! Took courses 2 & 3 and was making birthday cakes for my family when next thing I knew, I was doing it for others and getting PAID!
I decorated for about 4 years but then quit when I was diagnosed with a sugar disorder. Luckily, it turned out to be a misdiagnosis, but it was 14 years before I picked up another decorating bag. Now I'm decorating again and I LOVE IT! I regret having quit for so long because I think of how much better I might be at it now . . . lol (oh well).
I've been a fellow CC'er now for about 2 months. I'm really grateful to have found this website! As I read and learn so much from all the posts and pics, and I see how KIND and ENCOURAGING and FUNNY (you all keep me in stitches reading some of your posts) all of you are, I feel SO PROUD to be a part of such a group.
GOSH, didn't mean to ramble.
I'll stop now.
I got a Wilton dessert decorator pro from a friend and made about a million cream puffs. Then I started searching for more ideas of different shapes I could make. Found out that Wilton had a ton of cake supplies, and classes. I couldnt take any classes at the time so I bought the course books and the beginner kit from ebay and taught myself.
Through this site Ive found that you dont really need all the Wilton stuff you can do it yourself, sometimes with better results! To this day Ive never tasted Wilton fondant....
Well, my son turned a year old in June and I was determined to do his cake myself. So my step mom helped me out and we created my first cake - Finding Nemo after 3 1/2 hours of stars with tip 18.
I found my tip sets on Ebay for real cheap....save my Michael's coupons and now am looking for reasons to make a cake and hope to make a little money on the side.
I've done four cakes - no classes - just read about it online and have tried it. My first cake was Finding Nemo, second a book cake, third a crown cake, and fourth was a cake for my bible study which had a tree and fruit on it. All free handed.
I have my first paid cake this weekend which is a plain sheet cake but I'm planning on sprucing it a bit. I have plans to take the Wilton cake classes starting in September.
That's my story.....
I started decorating many many years ago about 40 to be exact....a friend taught me to make roses...and I was off and running.....Did my kids cake, my parents anniversary cake.....to start....it was just for family for the longest time....then my kids got married and all their friends asked if I would do their cakes.....so I did......and loved it.....
I come from a very large family and there is always someone needing a cake.....
I still do it as a hobby......I'm self taught and still learning....there is always somethingl new out there......like I have said before...this site has been a blessing for me......a learning center......we great teachers....
Hi All. Well here's my story.... I was watching the FoodNetwork Channel one day and seen paul Deen doing a cake and I thought wow I can do that. So I called my sister-in-law and told her that I would love to try to decorate cakes and she told me that she knew someone that was a cake decorator and she wanted to sell here stuff so she called her to see what she wanted for it and we went to this lady's house and I looked at everything and she toldl me a price of $200.00 and I mean I got everyhting!!! I really didn't want to start classes because of the cost really so I thought I can sit here and teach myself so that's what I'm doing.I know my cakes aren't the Best but I think they look pretty good for someone that has never taken any class.My husband and my family thought I lost my mind and they kept on saying you can nver do that.So here I am
Thanks so much for everyone here You All have been such a big help!!!
stacy
Well, I was always able to bake delicious cakes and swore that one day I would learn to decorate so I would not have to settle with what is offered in supermarkets.
I took the Class 1 at JC Penny's in '91 and was hooked. I was so afraid of making a rose I could not sleep the night before that lesson. 
When I discovered how easy the rose is I could not believe it. I was hooked. I've only taken the courses 1&2 and am self taught on 3 and using fondant but still want to sign up for the gum paste course. I have not purchased a decorated cake since.
I love cake decorating. I have been told many times by many people including pros that I should open or work in a shop. But as a single parent I just don't have the resources to do that. So, I just keep telling people I am practicing for retirement and future grandkids. 
I love to bake.(hate cooking though). I have made cakes for church bake sale for the past few years. My decorating wasn't the greatest but they all sold quickly. My hubby suggested that I take classes. So I did at JoAnns. I think now he is sorry that I did. I have been in the cake zone as he has put it for the last few months. I have only been doing this since June of this year. I love it. Wish I could afford more equipment. But in time!
My Mom always made our cakes when we were kids, she also started with the Wilton character pans once they came out (mostly for my youngest sister!) When I had my own kids I decided to be the mom that makes her kids homemade cakes - and started with the character pans. I did this for a few years until it was my husband's 30th birthday and he is a huge Edmonton Oilers fan, so I decided to freehand the Edmonton Oilers in stars - turned out good! Then my friend was looking for someone to do a wedding cake and couldn't find anyone, so she asked me, then I was hooked (obsessed is more like it)!
My mom always helped my sister and me to make a special cake for my dad's birthday that involved decoration. Sometimes she did ours too. Then I didn't do this for years. I got interested in the courses, but never took them. Then we found out that my son is allergic to peanuts right before his 2nd birthday. Since we can't order from bakeries due to the risks of cross-contamination, I began baking his cakes. I finally took the Wilton Course 1 in July this year (he just turned 4) and am currently in Course 2. I made his Spiderman cake (Wilton pan) after just one day of class. I was nervous, but it turned out fine. I like it and will keep it up, though I may do more in the summers since I am a teacher.
Quote by @%username% on %date%
%body%