maybe im wierd, but im curious as to what makes people choose to decorate/bake cakes as their hobby or job/career... i mean...i cant really explain why i do it or why i like it.
is it cuz it comes easy? or is it cuz u like the challenge?
how do u work up the courage to make your first "stranger" cake?
i guess just why do u like this kind of stuff in general? what draws so many people to cake decorating?
maybe im just sleep deprived and am rambling....
oh! and doesnt it make u sad that all u have is pictures, and not the real thing cuz people eat ur work of art!? sometimes it bothers me, but most the time, it doesnt....
welp, time for sleep... i got work tomorrow..ugh.
and thanks ahead for any imput!
I don't eat much cake...and I hate cutting them up. That job goes to anyone else who wants to do it. To much blood and sweat goes into them. Why do I do it? I really truly LOVE decorating and the challenge keeps me on my toes as well. I can't even draw a stick man, so I wasn't artistically gifted, but for some reason cake seems to be a medium that I can work with and at least get my point across...most days...LOL
same here, I prefer to eat salty things, but caking and decorating keeps my brain alive and helps me to express myself artistically in ways i never before imagined. I just need a bigger house and kitchen for all my toys. Also I love the oohs and aahs i get most of the time
Well I've never had any formal training but I have been an artist all of my life. I was always doing craft projects or painting or writing poetry or decorating a room in my house...you get the picture. I've also always baked, whether it was cookies or a cake or bread. One day my sister-in-law called to ask if I would bake a cake for a birthday get together because no one else had time to do it and I wasn't working at the time. I said sure. I baked the cake and was going to just ice it and write something on the top and when I was about to put the icing on I thought "why not do something cute", hence the start of my cake decorating career (I use the term career very loosely since most of my cakes have been done for free up to this point) The cake is in my pictures. It's two different shades of blue with pink elephants and pigs wearing sunglasses. I saw it in a Wilton book one time. But I have found that I get a lot more exposure from my cakes than any picture I have ever painted. Everyone needs a cake at some point or another and once the occasion is over and the next one comes up they need one again. They only have to buy a painting once and then they have it forever. 
I've always been into anything to do with art I guess. I draw cartoon characters, as well as paint them onto wooden boxes and I just love baking cause it's something I was always good at. I can't really cook that well...haven't really tried, but I love to bake.
One day I made chocolate lollipops with my campers, and discovered Wilton...and I got to looking at the stuff online and just wanted to "try it". Now I'm hooked!
I got started as a "tween" because my mom would decorate birthday cakes for us and in my niave little mind that was one of the things I needed to know in order to be a "good" mom. I love it! My husband is my biggest supporter so I just kind of fell into selling them because of his pride. But now we have moved to Nebraska and I am greatly restricted in what I can do. I tend to be a stickler for rules and won't do anything illegal and we just can't afford for me to be legal at this point.
I got started because i signed up to the wrong course at college. I was going to do cooking. I was very surpised but i loved it and my teacher said i was doing very well so i never gave up.
I love doing it because Im proud when i have created something special. I dont mind it when they get cut, cos i have the pictures.
I am a junky, cake is my addiction and the reaction I get when people see and eat my cakes is my high. I've never used drugs but I have a pretty good feeling this is what it feels like. I started because my favorite bakery closed a few years ago and I refused to eat cake, because if it doesn't taste good why bother, they're pretty fattening you know. Now I am the cake lady, don't sell any but every birthday or occasion has my cakes. I love everything about cake. Decorating is a fantastic creative outlet. I love the challenge of creating something wonderful. I don't have a problem with cutting and others eating them, its part of why I love cake. I think when someone tells me how great it tastes its like another form of satisfaction, way better than something I made that hangs on a wall. But the best is when a little kids eyes get really big and wide and is usually followed by "can I eat it!"
I've always been pretty creative, so I wanted to find something that I could use to supplement the family income while at home and use my "artistic side". I had been making cakes for family and friends for years, so decided to chuck the office job, start my business, and THEN take my courses so that I could do the big wedding cakes! LOL! 
Talk about jumping in with both feet! I'm lucky, it worked out for me! 
I actually started when my kids were young, son was 2 at the time. He's now 33, man he's OLD ! LOL ! And i make sure i tell him he's old, cuz he told me i was short for 25 of those years. Anyways, then i quit for awhile, and came back after my grandkids came along. I love to just go to stores, and slobber all over the cake decorating stuff. Know what i mean ? ( I'm wiping off my mouth just thinking about it. ) By the way, you only live a short distance from me, i live in Fort Madison, Iowa. Just across the river, and 20 miles south of Burlington.
I started because I wanted a fabulous birthday cake for my oldest when she turned 2. I couldn't find anything to my liking, and had a thought...I could do better than that! So I did. Then my mother in law told me about Wilton products and books, and I discovered how fun and cool it was. There is nothing better than walking into a party with the cake, every crowds around you to get a peek, then you hear the gasps and exclamations of praise!! 
It's kind of a rush.
Funny about not wanting to cut the cakes, I made a cake for a lady at work and she wouldn't cut it. She said she was going to take it home to shellac it. I enjoy making people happy with the work that I do and that makes all the time spent worth doing it.
I have always baked cakes and cookies especially at Christmas time and what I'm famous for is my pumpkin bread. I would make at least 50 loaves of bread for my husband for his co-workers. I enjoyed it. My 2 sons had gotten a part-time job at Carvel/'tCinnabons and I used to take my kids lunch and I got to know the Manager. This past Feb. she had offered me a job and one the jobs was making and decorating ice cream cakes, but I didn't know the correct way to shell borders. They tried to show me, had trouble. The manager suggested we both take a cake decorating class at our local cake shop. I've been hooked ever since and I no longer work at Carvel/Cinnabons; quit after 2 months,(too much work for little pay, made more @ my 2 hr job @ school then I did in 5 hrs.)
For me it is just rewarding to create something by hand and have it turn out just the way you want it to. I have always loved to cook. When I was little I would watch my Grandmother cook in the kitchen. She was always making cookies and cakes and I cherish those memories. I have only been doing cakes for about a year and I just love the look on peoples faces when they receive your cake. It is at that moment that you know why you do what you do. Cake decorating can be stressful at times and you can loose a lot of sleep over a cake, but rewards out weight the bad. I am so glad that I have this site to come to everyday and see and discuss a love for cakes with people that feel the same way I do. Thanks Cake Central 
I've only been on the cake decorating scene for a couple of years, but I've been baking for as long as I can remember...I took over the baking duties for my family when I was probably 10 or so. It seemed only natural that I would get into cake!
It's funny, but for the first time in my life I KNOW what I want to be when I "grow up"... a pro cake decorator!
I started on a whim.
3 years ago my mom TiVo'd a cake competition to show me for the fun of it, my aunt watched it with us, and we thought how fun it looked to do those really cool fondant cakes. The next weekend we played around with fondant and I realized I truly had a flair for it, so the very first cake I attempted was a topsy-turvy cake for my daughter's 1st birthday. It was huge!
No training, I just love to do it and get a thrill seeing my finished cakes, no matter how stressful they were to begin with (lots of learning from mistakes, lol!).
I am not an artist or artistic, but I love to work with my hands. I like making something nice to look at and you can eat it too. I love it when the cake (or whatever) gets eaten, that brings a great satisfaction to have it taste as good as it looks.
I like just having the pictures, because I don't have room to store a bunch of my crafts just to look at them. If I wanted to keep my cakes, I could do them out of styrofoam, but again, who has room for that?
As for selling to strangers, I can't do that because of California law, but it does take time to feel comfortable and confident enough to make a cake for someone else. So take your time and just enjoy.
In my case when my daughter turned 4 the cake was SO bad! dry and tasted like alcohol. It was her 4th birthday. That made me decide to go to Michael's and take a class, so I did and fell in love with it and the pride on my daughter's face is still priceless. She is almost 16 now.
The worst part of having my cake eaten at the parties is that people are not used to our kind of cakes. They only know how to cut sheet cakes so they make me cut it!
I've always loved to cook. In college, I was in band and we took turns making small "jiffy" cakes for band members on their birthday. I was so frustrated when I couldn't decorate it like I wanted.
Several years later, my bf's (ex-bf now) and I took the decorating classes together. I've just always enjoyed it, along with scrapbooking, photography, crochet, gardening, etc. I have too many hobbies and not enough time to devote to them. Jack of all crafts, master of none, I guess. 
I do it by default, I guess. I've always been the cook/baker in the family, and I'm not afraid to try new things. I took a class a few years back and really liked it. I've been the one to make the cakes for office birthdays, the dessert or cake for family events, etc. My kids love for me to make their cakes, especially my DD. They pick something out of a book or magazine and start telling everyone "my mom can make this" I look to come up with creative ways to do things with what I have--not necessarily by the book. I love the challenge, even when it looks not that great! Recently, I've started to take more classes to improve my skills and see what else I can do. And boy, do I love CC!
It makes me happy to make people happy. Really, I would like to be Indydebi when I grow up. Would love to go to culinary school and have a catering company. But then, I would have to face my fears 
For now, I'm happy just doing cakes here and there for family and friends.
I do it because it makes me happy. I love to see the look on the faces of friends and family when I present them with a cake that was created just for them! 
I use their favorite colors or try to make the cake reflect their personality. Their cakes are unique to them. Not a kit, or something that everyone else has.
Well I don't sell cakes at all and I don't make cakes for strangers either. I only make cakes for family, friends, school teachers etc. (people I care about)
I started baking & decorating cakes so that I could make my own kids birthday cakes....that's what got me started. The thing w/ me is I always look forward to it but then in the middle I kind of get stressed because I want it to be perfect which NEVER is LOL) So everytime I decorate a cake I usually tell my hubby I'm never decorating a cake again but I always go back on my threat...LOL
I baked my first cake when I was 5. I continued to bake cakes for family birthdays until I left for college. I always enjoyed cooking and baking while I was growing up. I went on to college and received Bachelor and Master degrees in Music. After I received my Master's I was over qualified and could not get a teaching job. I moved to LA and found jobs unrelated to music but did manage to be a church organist/choir director at the same time.
One day I walked into a cake decorating store looking for something to put on a cake I was taking to a church potluck. While in the store the lady asked if I would be interested in signing up for classes. I did and 6 months later I was asked to do my first wedding cake for 200 at the Palos Verdes Country Club. I continued to work fulltime and do cakes on the side. Most of my business was by word of mouth. I decided I wanted to move back to Iowa and do something I enjoy before I croak. I moved back to Iowa 4 years ago and began to do cakes out of my home. After being here 4 years this past June was my first really busy month. I really enjoy cake decorating and only wish someone had encouraged me to pursue it when I graduated from high school.
I have always loved making desserts since I was little, especially pies. My mother baked cakes very rarely and only used 7 minute boiled icing - it made firm, white shiny peaks (almost like marshmallow) all over the cake...I was never exposed to anything remotely like cake decorating till I was an adult. Not unless you count those crunchy candy letters, numbers and roses on a card that you get from the grocery store to decorate a cake. My mom used those sometimes.
My first job right out of school was as a commercial artist. I hated the competitiveness of it. So I went back to school and became a nurse, and worked in the ER for 10 years and then in an oncology clinic for 3 years. A sorority sister of mine had found a 2 for 1 coupon for the Wilton course at JC Penney and asked if I'd go with her. I loved it so much. As a SAHM, I started making cakes for my son when he was a baby. His friends' parents saw the cakes and asked if I could do a cake for them. And so it began.
I baked and decorated cakes for every conceivable occasion/school party while he was in elementary school. I made cakes for friends and friends of friends. I always knew the people. Everyone who ordered a cake was a friend/acquaintance or was recommended by a friend. I can't remember ever baking a "stranger" cake until the past couple of years. But even those people got my card from a friend of a friend of a client of mine. I won't take an order from someone who can't/won't tell me who recommended me. Some of my clients have been with me since the beginning. In a couple of instances, I made a baby shower cake back then, and then in the last year or two made a high school graduation cake for that same "baby."
20 years and 2000 cakes later I'm still at it. I'm a buttercream decorator. I have never done anything with fondant, though I have bought a bunch of fondant tools and supplies to use when I get up the nerve to try. I feel as if I have come full circle...I began as an artist, and I am an artist again...this time the art is edible
shturpin, my husband's family is from Iowa and MIL lives in West Burlington. We go through Ft. Madison almost every time we drive up from Little Rock, to visit her. We don't make that trip quite as often now though, because she goes to South Texas from October till March every year, to escape the snow.
I started cooking and baking at the old age of 9. My mom couldn't cook. Seriously. I had her show me things, then I started reading a cookbook. Voila! I'm almost 34, baking a long time. Decorating for about 6 years. I only do maybe 1 cake a year. That might total 6 months of experience. ha ha ha. My 3 girls do not want decorated cakes. They just want a cake with icing. My oldest daughter's favorite is my vanilla/caramel latte cake. My middle girl, plain vanilla(yuck) youngest girl, good ole' chocolate with Heath bar crunch.
I found out a couple of years ago, my grandmother was a cake decorator at what I think is the best bakery in my town. Must be inherited. he he he
She passed away before I was born. I think it's cool... I'm the only grandchild who does cakes.
From the time I was young, there has always been something completely mesmerizing to me about food that looks pretty. I've always loved food but am fascinated by food that is art, from watermelon baskets to a shaped cake.
I hate to cook and only like baking slightly, but give me some buttercream icing and a blank cake and I am overjoyed.
The absolute best part is seeing people's reactions, especially the kids. I don't have a problem at all with people cutting my creations. It's all part of the fun.
I've tried other creative outlets like drawing, painting and scrapbooking, but I never felt really satisfied with how well I did those things. Making food that people enjoy eating is something I've found a lot of satisfaction in and cake decorating is a perfect merging of the artistry and food. The cakes are delicious and I like that aspect, plus they are an artistic expression that when I'm finished I feel very satisfied with. I know what I've made is not perfect, but for some reason I'm content with my product, whereas in my other artistic forays I just was not. Its a skill no one I know personally has and deep down, I really love the attention I get when I produce a beautiful and delicious cake. Okay, so now you know my deep dark secret...I love the attention.
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