I've noticed that decorators tend to have specific talents with their cakes. Some are fantastic with piping and delicate string work, others can make amazing figures, some are very elegant, and some are more funky.
What's everyone's style? I think I tend to be better with gumpaste-piping is my nemisis.

I enjoy doing the trompe-l'oeil thing....a term usually associated with painting (French for trick of the eye)....you know...making the cake look like something else...

I also like sculpting fondant

hmmmmmm, sure wish I had one of those specific talents. As you can see by looking in my gallery, I'm more "impaired" than tanlented. I love to see work of people that have a certain skill down to a science.

I have to honestly say that my piping skills... SUCK! I'm the only baker I know around here that charges less for fondant than I do for smooth buttercream because I'm an absolute perfectionist in that respect that the sides of the cake should be smooth and not splotchy with spatula marks (unless it's intended to be rough iced).

As for style, I'd have to say mine is definitely to the more complex than what a lot of the licensed bakers around here are willing to do. My area of expertise is incorporating the little details into the designs and working with crazy themes with over the top, but not TOO over the top cakes (apparently around here, except for Moydear and myself, a Wilton design is "over the top").

I'm coming off of a 5-7 year hiatus so I am going to just pull an Indydeb and say it like it is...

I currently suck at everything equally while I come back up to speed.

While there are tons of decorators that are WAY better than me...
My talent is really connecting with the customer and knowing what they want..and actually producing a product they were looking for.
I have had so many..."you seemed to know exactly what I wanted" comments!
Also...I come up with original idea's. ..oh ya..and my ruffle trim on my slabs seem to be a hit.. lol

I'm still so new at this, but I like to push the envelope and try new stuff.

I take a theme and try to combine fun stuff.

I learn so much from everyone here, I dont call it talent yet as I am still looking for some!

Right now it's just what I do.


Thanks to everyone for such wonderfull inspiration.

Good Luck

My only strength right now is my imagination and the wanting to do spectacular cakes......but my ideas never seem to make their way down to my fingertips ; still a beginner but longing to do phenominal cakes like the ones I see on this site!

deb

I guess my strength would be 3D cakes. I'm still working on it, my goal is to make cakes that don't look like cake but sometimes it still does look like cake. haha.

I won't be happy until I can make on like Mike on Mike's Amazing Cakes though. haha. His Peter Pan cake for that competition was AMAZING and that's what I wanna do when I grow up!!!!

I'm pretty good at writing on cakes, but sucky at string work! Sometimes my friend and I trade off on our skills - she is great at string work, and hates writing...it works out well since we live a block away!

Ummmm....well,.....I can terminally mess up a kitchen in less than an hour. Thank the Lord my DH doesn't mind helping clean up!

I'm not GREAT at anything but I am the self-proclaimed Extruder Queen. I love that thing!

Elle McG
part-time Cake Queen, full-time Supermodel
(it's a joke people)

I, too, am still waiting to achieve "talented" status . . . but I do love chocolate transfers and have had lots of luck with them.

OH, I just thought of my talent! I have an amazing talent of coming up with more 4 letter words in one cake decorating session than at any other point in an entire year!!!! I'm almost proud of myself now that I can claim to have a talent.

adven68, I'm a long time fan of your cakes! The fireman cake is my favorite.

As for me, my interest lies in fondant figures. I have a long way to go, but that's what I practice the most, so I think that's what I'm best at. I never have been able to do much with the buttercream flowers. I should play around with them more, but just don't seem to have time to fit everything in!

HMMMM I'd have to say my talents are short. I learn very quickly and enjoy what I'm doing.

I think my strongest talent is that I can replicate anything. IE: Pictures, Characters.... I say if you can't find it I can draw it. That is how I got into caking I couldn't find anything I needed.

I love creating things with Fondant.

And I like creating things with a combo of all kinds of Ideas.

I am also a perfectionist, so it takes me a little while longer than most but I don't send a cake out unless it up to my standards.

cCc

I would say my talent lies in my creativity. I like to combine a bunch of ideas from different cakes and make a one of a kind cake. I am a little shaky in my execution of the design, but I need more practice.

I guess mine would be FBCTs. I love doing those things.

I don't know if I have specific talent yet but I do enjoy working with fondant. I found I have a fondness for fondant...ha,ha. I do know that my flowers are my weakpoint. I just can't get them realistic looking.

I can't really give myself an A in any area other than effort and flavor. I usually produce a great tasting cake and filling but I have a long way to go with decorating skills. I can have a delicous cake in less than no time and without making a mess. Then the decorating begins and it takes me way too long to finish an average decorating job and a total mess in the kitchen. Tell me why I love doing this?

I think this is interesting. Everyone on here are cake decorators yet there are so many different styles involved. Unlike most of the decorators on here, I work in a commercial bakery...and I love it. I take real pride in the fact that when someone calls with a special request I can come up with a design and have it decorated in 30 minutes and ready for pick up. Today, a gentleman called and wanted a half sheet cake. He wanted the background airbrushed to look like Mexico. He wanted a big sign, written in Spanish, saying, "Welcome to Durango". He also wanted some cactus, chilli peppers, and a scorpion. Twenty minutes later it was iced, decorated and boxed. A couple of weeks ago a gentleman called and wanted a cake for his wife. He wanted a lady leading a quarter horse and in her other hand he wanted a bouquet of balloons. A week later the same gentleman wanted a horse jumping over a fence. Orders like this get my adrenaline going and I am in a decorators dream world.
When finished my cake ...still looks like a cake....but it also has a piped on scene that only the recipient really understands.
I love looking at pictures of cakes where the decorator took a week to put the whole thing together, and in another decorator's words, " It doesn't look like a cake." Somehow, to me...it should look like a cake.....just fancied up a little for their special day.
I used to do demonstrations for the art classes at the local high schools. I would ask the students to shout out an animal, a flower or a person doing something and I would pipe out whatever they came up with. Great fun and good practice for me.
And that is what my special talent is. I love buttercream and sheet cakes. I don't have very many pictures of my cakes, because I am too busy decorating.

I have no idea what my strengths are....
But there are some really talented people in CC..

My talent is baking and piping. I've mastered some great recipes. In my opinion, the talent doesn't just come in the form of decorating. I think I've nailed the customer service aspect also. I have a knack of figuring out a bride's style within the first few minutes of speaking with her. It makes life much easier when coming up with designs. My husband is the artistic one. We tag team most of the time, and he is very talented when it comes to sculpting and doing 3D cakes. He can freehand any design on a wedding cake. Makes me sick. I suck when it comes to smoothing buttercream, and he is my savior most of the time. We compliment each other's talents, and it works out great.

Can't say I have the talent to decorate. But man there are so many really great talented decorators here at CC I just am amazed at the cakes, I love looking at all of the pictures.

Well, for me, my main talent is in the baking, however I am learning and improving on my decorating everyday. (Thanks to CC!)

My favorite thing to do is to take a portion from the Bible or from a story and pull something from it that is representative of a theme and design a cake around that. This has mostly come out of doing Bar and Bat Mitzvahs, but I just find this really fun.

My least talented thing is definitely writing on cakes!!

Kathi

Jack of all trades...master of none...


that would be me.

I've played with everything, never fully developed a skill level with any though.

I'm a heck of a good baker- cake bread etc. I love fondant heck I love it all my greatest strength is I can copy or replicate almost anything I can see.

I love painting cakes with an airbrush