I obsess about every cake I do and can't enjoy the good because I only see the mistakes. How do I know when a cake is finished if I always think it looks terrible?!?!? Will this change as I improve and get more experienced?

Stacy

We had this conversation a LOT when I was in interior design school.

The consensus was, you just get to a point where you stop designing, otherwise you will drive yourself (and everybody else) nuts. Where exactly that "point" is, only you can say, but it will change as you gain experience. I usually got to that "point" when I was either too tired to see straight or when it was time to roll up the drawing and head to class.

HTH

It won't change with experience...it will only change when you stop obsessing and being so hard on yourself. When someone compliments your cake, just smile and accept it graciously. Choose to focus on what you do right rather than what you do wrong. Most importantly, give up trying to be a perfectionist. Even the decorators on TV have bad days and don't do things perfectly all the time.

If you can, have someone else look at your cake when you are done, but before you try to 'fix' it. It's good to have someone around to give a second opinion and offer honest constructive criticism than try to hold yourself to unrealistic standards.

I looked at your photos and your cakes are wonderful! And believe me, I'm one of those people who can spot flaws in cakes, so I wouldn't say that if it weren't true

Anyhow, you will get to a point where you know when the cake is done. I never used to know when I was done with something, but now that I can make it look just like the picture in my mind, I can stop when it matches the picture...unless I have a flaw that I have to cover up.

It happens to me all the time. I keep decorating until I feel that it is "okay". Most of the time I am not happy but oh well.

You might just be one of those people who is never satisfied - maybe your expectations are set really high and you can't quite meet them. (your cakes are great, BTW - you have nothing to worry about!)

The key thing is not to point out the 'errors' to other people, because you can be sure they're not seeing them! I have force myself to keep quiet when someone's ooh-ing and ahh-ing over a cake, and all I want to do is show them every little glaring mistake! Don't do it, smile and say "I'm glad you like it" (practice saying it before you go! Seriously).

Short answer: no.

I seldom feel satisfied with my cakes while I'm working on them, either. I HAVE at least reached the point where I can say, "I like it a lot better now that I've had ten hours away from it."

Another trick: keep a private portfolio of EVERY CAKE you make. When you're feeling particularly down, go back and open the earliest photos. It's PHENOMENAL how much better your cakes nwo are compared to when you started; I can guarantee it without even seeing photos!

Also learn to settle for "good enough" in your own mind. It'll probably never match the picture you have in your head, but there is always always ALWAYS a point where you can go, "...it looks okay here, and if I do more it might not look okay after that." That's usually a good place to stop. Assuming you reach it before you reach the "if I have to pipe ONE MORE STUPID LEAF OR PETAL, I'm going to throw this cake at the WALL!" stage, of course!

I still never feel quite satisfied with my cakes. I am really good at telling myself not to point out the flaws that I see or imagine any more though....that takes some serious self-talk! I keep thinking that, at some point, I'll have so many cakes to do in a week that I won't have the time to obsess over each one so much!!!