So, whenever I decorate a cake, it takes forever. My mother in law asked me to do a birthday cake for someone at her office, and as she put it, nothing special, just simple....Well, I don't want it to look like it was picked up out of the cooler at the grocery store, but I don't have much time either. Does anyone have any favorite cakes they may want to show me for inspiration? Thanks in advance.
Kym

Do you "take forever" because you're new to doing this and it's a skill level thing, or because you are really really picky over the details?

The solution to the first is practice and more practice.

The solution to the 2nd is "get over it" and stop stressing the details!

Ok, now that the jovial part is done, it's a serious question because it does make a difference in the answers.

What is it ... what part of the decorating process ... do you feel is taking you longer than you think it should? This may help us narrow down some suggestions for you.

I have a couple of cakes that I think are a bit more simple - though the one requires a little bit of advanced planning for the fondant bow.

Here's one - though I would have made the cookies around the outside taller next time...
http://www.cakecentral.com/cake-photo_1083713.html

Here's another one - requires a little advanced planning for the bow, but overall very simple and can be decorated in just about any way
http://www.cakecentral.com/cake-photo_858123.html

Hope this helps!

Interesting questions, I believe the whole process is time consuming, from smoothing, mixing colors, making fillings, to doing the actual decorating. I guess because I mostly make kid's cakes, there are often a lot of small details. I just want to look at some simply decorated cakes that people find attractive and draw from them. It just isn't possible to search in the galleries for a "simple" category. Not that I don't want to work at it, because I love doing this, I just want to see some cakes that didn't take tons of time but were still nice.
(not sure I am making sense, it is way past my bedtime )

This one's pretty simple -- it only requires some "embroidered" flowers -- which are actually super easy to do. If you don't know, just use thinned bc and pipe the outline then use a paintbrush to "pull" the icing in from the outside to the inside.

This could be easily modified for a sheet cake. Hope this helps.

S.

Do you know if the cake will be for a man or a woman?

Here's a design that I fall back on a lot.

Deanna

Here's a cake that was so simple I didn't post it here. Very tastey iced with chocolate ganache and almonds. Hope you can see it, I'm better with an oven than a computer! Good luck, and let us know what you decide. <<Cheryl

Heres one that didn't take too long, I just had to make the daisy's up ahead of time. But, you wouldn't really even have to do that, they can go on soft.

Do you do things in "assembly line" style, or do you find yourself stopping a lot? Every 2 minute interruption slows you down by 4 minutes because you lose your momentum until you gear up back to the point that were at before the interruption.

Here an example of what I do that cuts down on the steps, just to give you and idea.

Before I even turn on the mixer, I coat my pans with the pan-grease and wrap the baking strips around them. (When making a wedding cake, I may have 6 pans prepped and ready to go, lined up on the counter.) All ingredients ... cake mixes, eggs, oil, measuring cups, p. sugar, etc..... are either lined up on the counter or within easy reach. Oven is on and preheated. Cooling racks are set up and ready to receive the cakes. Trash can is next to the counter for easy access.

So once I start making the batter, it's just a matter of mixing and pouring into the pans. No interruptions to prep the pans, find the oil, go to the 'frig for eggs, etc.

Same when I'm ready to decorate ... everything lined up, ready to go. If I'm using different colors, those are already mixed and in decorating bags so all I have to do is pick up a new bag (instead of having to stop, mix the color, fill the bag, THEN decorate).

Sorry, Couldn't get it to upload....

I have a few quick, simple cakes in my photos. The 'pink swirly' and 'blue swirly' only required one color of icing. The sunflower is surprisingly quick and easy. The pink and brown, or turquoise and brown, and 'dad's cake' are very simple.... I get a lot of requests for that one. HTH!
I'm enjoying this thread.... lots of good ideas!!
-kim

kymscakes - I can relate, and then there's the mess to deal with. Making cookies can be an ordeal for me. Indydebi's format is a good plan. One thing I like to do is have everything pre- measured. Then I'll usually take a break because I just can't seem to get it done all at once. ( the kids factor plays a big part) I'd always forget to get the cake pans ready, but did that first thing the other day... so much better.

Simple to me - plain ol' butter cream w/ bc flowers. Probably because my mom seemed to just get it done in no time.