How do you all do it? Mine are just so terrible. They stress me out twice as much as any tiered cake and look so much worse. I pretty much given up on even taking pictures of them. Why do people stuck on those? It's not that I'm too good for sheetcakes, it's quite opposite- I'm not good at them at all. I'm starting to honestly dread and hate them. I can never get the design, spacing, writing, colors, or proportions right. How do you get better at these things?!
P

I know what you mean. I hate them too! It's like having a huge blank sheet of paper.

The only thing that has helped me in the least was looking through oodles and oodles of other people's work and trying to mimic them in whole or in part.

There's quite a few CCers that are incredibly good at them and are great for inspiration

i have no problem with sheet cakes of any size, i actually enjoy decorating them with whatever design.. i have gotten where i am pretty fast with them.. been decorating for 13 years. but have always like to do them..

I hear you with the writing. I would practice writing common phrases (Congratulations, Happy Birthday, Happy Anniversary, etc.) so that you get the idea of about how long you write each word. That way when you're writing on the cake you can visualize how much space you would need. My biggest hurdle is straight lines. My writing always ends up lopsided, like this:

http://cakecentral.com/modules.php?name=gallery&file=displayimage&pid=1307775

So after a while I just gave up and started making it look like I meant to write that way. Like this:

http://cakecentral.com/modules.php?name=gallery&file=displayimage&pid=1307759

Good luck! Just keep practicing!

you could choose just not to do them, sell your customers onto a regular round/ square instead.
xx

Thanks you all. I've looked at tons of sheetcakes here on CC, it's just I cannot really replicate any of them. Just sheetcakes I guess, all that empty flat space. They don't look cute or well-done, everyone of them seems to look like my first one... Really big confidence downer. Anyone else got any more tricks to make them look good?
P

Are you kidding! I LOVE your roller skate sheet cake! I love all of your cakes. You do amazing work...I think you are being your worst critic!

and you've looked at cakery's
http://cakecentral.com/modules.php?name=gallery&meta=allby&uname=cakery&pageID=7

work???? The way she sections off the surface of her sheet cakes makes it not seem like so much empty space to deal with...kinda like the sides of a 2 tier cake...or bcjean's http://cakecentral.com/modules.php?name=gallery&file=displayimage&pid=643563
way of doing scenes

or the florals done by Roland Winbeckler

http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/images/0930113101/ref=dp_image_0?ie=UTF8&n=283155&s=books

If the space seems too large, mark off an area and pretend it's the top of layer cake and the area outside of that marked off area is the sides of a layer cake/tier.

I agree that your cakes are great. I think that a lot of people like sheet cakes because they are easy to cut and serve. Transportation is easier also.

Don't give up. You are doing great.

Cindy

Here is an example of a sheetcake that looks classy.

http://www.cakecentral.com/modules.php?name=gallery&file=displayimage&pid=31698

One word:


PROJECTOR!

A Projector will solve all of your spacing/handwriting problems As long as you can trace, you'll be fine ::thumbs up::

Another CCer to look at is GWU90 -- she does a fantastic job on all of her cakes - but I truly love her sheetcakes! Most of my orders are 90% sheetcakes - (note see where I am from!LOL!!). My customers refuse to order anything but sheetcakes - because they don't know how to cut anything else!

I haven't had time to download any new photos for months - but I have been talking with and watching gwu90 and learning alot about decorating sheetcakes.

Just keep praticing - and I also usually draw out my design on scratch paper to start with for placement preference and writing style/size.

Good luck!


Suze

Thanks you all! And I LOVE cakery and gwu90, and that's exactly what I'm talking about-their stuff looks easy and effortless, especially cakery's, it's just looks like she doodled on the paper. I tried drawing stuff out on the paper and it looks okay, but I start putting things on the cake and everything is off. It's like my sheetcakes are... well.. tortured... Maybe I just need to go back to filling images with stars, at least I have some control over that. Thank you for all encoraging words, that really helps. I really like the idea of trying to section off parts of the cake, maybe making the field smaller if I create an additional inside border. I definitely will try that next time! Thanks again, P

Pebbles1727, looking at your gallery and the sheet cakes you've got in it, I can't see where there is a problem. All of your cakes, sheet cakes included, look fantastic.

That skating cake is sooooo cute! I love the colors.
I think people are just so used to seeing sheet cakes in Walmart and such that they think it's the norm. Like sheet cakes are for birthdays, and other shaped cakes are for weddings.

By the way, I love the "classy" sheet cake rylan posted. That is one beautiful sheet cake!

Seriously, your roller skates sheet cake is amazing!!

you really have to practice at it...it does take some time. i had those same problems when i started doing sheet cakes, but as i did more and more, i got better at them.

i use to do 5 to 7 sheet cakes a week and i planned out how i wanted them to look on paper, then i just did them. you can also order cake dummies to practice on. they come in sheet cakes. maybe that will help you get some practice!