i can see where the icing got a bit close, but it really is a beautiful cake. both for that matter!

Saber...

Your too hard on yourself. Your cake (yes, yours) is beautiful! Now you have time to let all the new things you did sink in and how you would do it different the next time. Relax take care of yourself and your lil one. Hope he breaks his fever soon.

My hat is off to you, Saberger! I have a 20 month old and I just started getting into cake decorating. She is a handful and I have to work around her nap/sleep schedule to do my decorating or she is into everything! I can't imagine trying to do this with three kids, let alone having one of them sick!!! Not to mention that I could only hope that my cakes could look as good as yours do! You are doing a great job and sounds like you are a good mommy too! "Pick yourself up, dust yourself off, start all over again!" (as Ginger sings)

Indydeb is right! That cake looks great. You should compete.

So my friend/customer called and left a message saying that I have outdone myself and the cake was the centerpiece of the entire affair; it was wonderful; she is honored to call me her friend; amazed at what I can do; and the check is in the mail. oooookay? My dh doesn't think I should say ANYthing about my disappointment and just say that I am glad that she liked it.

I know that I am (we are) our toughest critic, but I am shocked. Is it April 1st? I guess I am happy that I didn't ruin her party, wait until she sees what I could REALLY do! But I am wondering if the guests went home saying "oh my gosh did you see the cake looked like.....she must have been drunk while making it!"

Okay, I will stop beating myself up about it. Now that it is over, I am not ready to give up, but I am really questioning as to whether I should even venture into the wedding biz of it. Not sure. But I can promise you that I will be making another three tier with the design I originally wanted and have it look amazing like it should have! I don't care if I have to do it 10 times! Although that is A LOT of cake

I still don't know why the stencils didn't work though. By the by......I did discover two things! FIRST....I was trying to pinprick a design on the side, which failed miserably, but I pricked the design on the paper on a cake board which creates the holes and the paper sticking out from the back and then I pressed that into the cake and it left an indentation. Pretty cool. SECOND...if you put a little crisco on the fondant it helps the stencil stick to the cake a little.