i just did a wedding cake and groom's cake for $375. the wedding cake was really super simple and after it was all done, i was not at all impressed with it it is exactly what she asked for but it looks really plain and ugly to me. she didn't complain about it, but i think she was a little disapointed. of course, that could just be my over critical insecure side talking. i know she thought the price was high in the beginning, but i think maybe she was expecting something a little classier and i honestly had planned on it turning out a little better.

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she also told me 75 servings. i made a 12" and a 9" not including the top tier which should be a little over 75 servings i think and very little of it got cut. she was kind of upset the the grooms cake didn't get cut at all. of course that had nothing to do with me, but i feel bad that there was sooooo much leftover cake. is the groom's cake generally includied when calculating servings for a wedding?

and lastly, i am not 100% sure i want to post the wedding cake on my site since i think it is so unatractive. i don't want people to think i make ugly cakes. can you guys give me some honest opinions on it?

i want to let you know that i think the groom's cake looks great...it probably didn't get cut b/c people weren't sure if they could cut it! that happens a lot on those kinds of cakes. someone has to make the first cut or no one will

as far as the wedding cake goes...if it's what the bride asked for, then you did your job. there are times that i don't love what a customer wants (i try to talk them into something else but that doesn't always work). i don't think the price was too high either.

I like the white cakes, they're simple but at the same time showcase very pretty flowers and sometimes it's harder to hold yourself back and not go 'over the top'. I know there are cakes I've done where I should have put the bag down but didn't...:/.

Everyone has different likes/dislikes and I don't think you shouldn't include the cake in your portfolio, who knows you might get a bride who is intimidated by all the flashy other cakes you can do but once they see the simplistic (and beautiful) 4th of July cake they'll be sold !

So in short, include the cake .

i think you did a great job on both cakes. i really liked them. if this is what the bride ordered, then she should be pleased to have what she asked for. as for the decorations, i think it is a little simpler than i would have wanted myself, but this is what she wanted and the main thing is to please the customer. but your work is great and you can't put yourself down for only doing what the customer asked you to do. sometimes, simpler is better. i like the colors and you did a great job on both cakes. you should be proud of your work.

I love the wedding cake. I like both busy cakes and simple cakes. Yours is very simple but, in my opinion, beautiful. The grooms cake is great. As a NASCAR fan, I can say that JR. would be very proud of you. I agree with both UpAt2am and Lil_Belle.

don,t know why you are dissappointed or they should be. you did a great job on both cakes. the cakes are neatly done and deocorated nicel.. if this is what she asked for.. then she should be fine.. and the grooms cake is great also.. be proud.theres nothing simple about drapes and roses.. again, great job..

I love the wedding cake. I like both busy cakes and simple cakes. Yours is very simple but, in my opinion, beautiful. The grooms cake is great. As a NASCAR fan, I can say that JR. would be very proud of you. I agree with both UpAt2am and Lil_Belle.

thanks for yall's honesty i guess one of the reasons i feel like i fell short on it so to speak is because i personally think there should have been more flowers on top. it took so long to make those and i have a 10 month old so it's hard to get a lot done. after i made most of them, i started wondering if i should have done real flowers and made them cover the whole top. the only prob with that was that she specifically requested red and blue roses and of course there are no real blue roses. i definately was not going to put fake flowers. thsi was also my first wedding cake, not including my own. i started looking at pics a little closer and noticed that the majority of wedding cakes use real flowers as opposed to icing flowers. i wish i would have noticed that before. for some reason it was jsut a no brainer i would make them.

The wedding cake is beautiful. Simple and elegant is hard to do. If there were any mistakes, you would see them right away.

Just a thought - do people sometimes seem disappointed because all wedding cakes are not monstrous? A cake for 75 just isn't that big. In pictures, a cake fills the whole frame. But in reality, there's this cake in this large reception hall. Just thinkin'

good point. i have heard of the 80-% rule? something like that on how many servings. she said 75 and i almost used smaller cakes but was so afraid to run out. when we got there, i think she ended up having about 30 people tops show. i felt really bad, but like you guys said i did exaclt what she asked.

my wedding was fairly small too but i didn't care how much leftover cake there was i just wanted it to look like the pic, lol. and yes, my cake was monstrous, haha. this is kinda funny, i remmeber making it the night before at my grandma's house and after all the carving we ended up with a humongo garbage bag full of scraps and i was about to toss it all and she literally freaked that i was going to throw it all away, but i was like, seriously!!!! do you want to eat it all, because i'm sure not, lol! funny stuff... but yea, for some reason it just seams like a given that wedding cakes are supsoed to be monstrous. i wonder why?

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yes, I agree. I had sort of the same thing this weekend. Most of the time, my groom cakes dont' get cut into either, simply because they are 3D and the grroom usually wants to try to keep it as long as he can. And I have such a fear of not having enough cake sometimes, I always make sure the bride is going to have enough. Sometimes, it's hard for them to guage how many servings at the time they are planning their cake, because they have no idea how many people are actually going to rsvp. I actually had to add a 100 serving sheet cake to this last wedding I did because the bride said they were getting more rsvp's than they thought they would get back. She needed cake to fee around 300. And no serving the groom's cake either. I wanted to die! sheetcake to the rescue! lol

Your work speaks for itself--excellent--and you fulfilled her request--no one is responsible for the unreal expectations of thier customers.

But I do have one samll critique for next time--the bottom boards of each tier should be more same/same. Like each cake should go on a plate that's two inches bigger than itself--or whatever dimension that is uniform between all the tiers--the smallest tier is dwarfed by it's moma bear plate.

Sure I realize that mighta been all you could get but that's my observation for you for next time. It's a beautiful beautiful cake and I'm not taking anything away from you--just a very subtle point for future.

Well done.

Personally the cake it not my taste. It is perfectly executed, looks clean and lovely. I don't think the issue has anything to do with you. I think this is what this bride chose, and even though it may not be pretty to you, it is because it just isn't your style, not because you didn't do a good job. You are being to hard on yourself. I guarantee you, there will be another bride who may see this pic, and love it. Everyone has different tastes.

about the fake flowers, of course the icing ones arn't real, but i think everyone knew what i was refering to, lol. i was actually wondering whether that would have been acceptable or not. i was just thinking that wasn't apporpriate for a wedding cake, but i am not experienced in that area.

and about the cake plate sizes. i totally agree. i thought it looked a little odd to, but they were the plates for the stand. she wanted that type of stand and i had to order one off the net. that was a wilton one. i think i paid like 35-40 for it, don't really remember but it was advertised as durable and when i got it out of the box it was made out of styrophome!!!! i was so disapointed. it was also suposed to hold up to a 12" which is exactly what i put on it and the whole thing swayed and wobbled and i was terrified somebody was gonna touch it and it would fall over. they did the cutting part with the cakes on the stand and she had to hold the bottom steady cuz it was swaying. i didn't have time to send it back and get something else, but i am still peeved about that.

thanks everyone for your encouragement i actually feel a lot better about it. i still feel bad that not too many people showed up but of course that was not my fault. she came by yesterday to give me the plates back and i asked her if she still had left over cake and she said everybody took home most of the wedding cake but they still hvae the grooms cake sitting in their kitchen, haha. i just hope it doesn't start growing mild, lol and that was the best tasting one too!

about the fake flowers, of course the icing ones arn't real, but i think everyone knew what i was refering to, lol. i was actually wondering whether that would have been acceptable or not. i was just thinking that wasn't apporpriate for a wedding cake, but i am not experienced in that area.

and about the cake plate sizes. i totally agree. i thought it looked a little odd to, but they were the plates for the stand. she wanted that type of stand and i had to order one off the net. that was a wilton one. i think i paid like 35-40 for it, don't really remember but it was advertised as durable and when i got it out of the box it was made out of styrophome!!!! i was so disapointed. it was also suposed to hold up to a 12" which is exactly what i put on it and the whole thing swayed and wobbled and i was terrified somebody was gonna touch it and it would fall over. they did the cutting part with the cakes on the stand and she had to hold the bottom steady cuz it was swaying. i didn't have time to send it back and get something else, but i am still peeved about that.

thanks everyone for your encouragement i actually feel a lot better about it. i still feel bad that not too many people showed up but of course that was not my fault. she came by yesterday to give me the plates back and i asked her if she still had left over cake and she said everybody took home most of the wedding cake but they still hvae the grooms cake sitting in their kitchen, haha. i just hope it doesn't start growing mild, lol and that was the best tasting one too!

Both cakes were great! You should definitely put them on your website and be proud of them. Simple cakes are the hardest to make. You did a great job!

so there ARE people who use silk flowers on cakes! eureka! lol. while browsing wedding cakes i sometimes had a really hard time decifering exactly what kind of flowers i was looking at on the cakes. i don't know where i got that notion from that nobody uses fake non-edible flowers on wedding cakes, but for some reason that is what i have always thought. i just thought that was kinda cheap i guess like putting a nice wedding cake cake on foil covered boards. no offense to those of you who do that but to be completely blunt, i think it looks tacky. maybe that's the scrapbooking side of me but i like to decorate the board as well, i think it is just as much a part of the presentation and the decorations on the cake.

anyway, got off subject there a bit. back to the fake flowers, i actually know nothing about fake flowers, obviously, lol. i just picture dollar store bouquets, but of course there must be different grades of flowers. that is another thing i need to start learning about i guess. are there different brands or something? some more realistic than others?

I think your cakes look fine too. I don't think they needed more flowers either... anymore would have been too many and detracted from the simple elegance of it all. Yes, the color of the flowers is a bit striking... maybe if they tones had been more subtle it might have been a bit better, but over all, the flowers are beautifully made and they look great on the cake. If she ordered cake for 130 people and only had 30 show up, that's not your problem. You did your job, and you did it well.

I like to use gumpaste flowers on cakes... this way they flowers are always proportional, always match in color, and there are no issues with toxicity. I don't like using silks unless I have to because even with them, you have issues with food saftey since they are not made of food grade plastics and who knows where they have been or what has touched them. With gumpaste flowers I know exactly where they have been... the stems are wrapped and placed in food grade plastic (either picks or bubble tea straws) and there are no issues with pesticides or plain toxic flowers. I have used real flowers if I have to, but I wrap the stems and place them in straws too and if I can I put acetate under them so they don't touch the cake. I also tell the client to order organic blooms for the cake if they can get them. Most of the time they just let me make the flowers.