I'm going to start with saying I am happy I purchased the SugarShack DVD, after this latest cake!

Buttercream is not my strong point right now. Anyway, I love most of the cake I just did, but after I'm looking at the pictures it just MULTIPLIES the imperfections in the buttercream...ugh!

But It got me thinking, will I ever think one of my cakes is perfect? Do any of you ever do a cake and become 100% satisfied? Or Will I always have the nagging, I could of done that better?

I'm obviously new to decorating cakes for people other than family, and I just want to think that perhaps one day I will see what others see. Right now, I feel like they say Bravo, as not to hurt my feelings. I don't know, I'm not usually one to be so pesimistic.

Here are the things I am happy with my cake about:

Finally Figured out how to make some awesome MMF!
Happy With the design (which was inspired by a fellow CC'r but I elaborated)
Very Happy with the taste of the cake and buttercream!
Happy with most of my Fondant details

Unhappy About

Buttercream!!!
It appears a little sloppy to me
Disappointed in some of my figures (This was the first time though)
My Piping needs work

I think the cake is adorable. I would be very happy if you showed up at my house with it. It is too cute to cut though.

I have never been completely satisfied with any of my cakes. I always find something that I could have done differently. But that is just me.

We are always our own worst critics and will always find something we are not happy with. What you have to remember is what you can achieve, others would not know where to begin and could never produce anything anywhere near as comparable as what you can.

If you keep that at the back of your mind and take a step back and look at your creation rather than inspect it with a fine tooth comb, you will start to appreciate what you can achieve, and remember you are only going to get better as time goes on.

We all have days when we are not happy with things, but in actual fact the creation is no better or worse than usual, it is just the way we are feeling, i.e., tired, hormonal, unhappy with other things, bit depressed. But then on the days we are feeling good with life we love what we have achieved.

Great cake by the way.

I'm usually totally satisfied with my cakes...not that they're totally perfect, but most of the time they come out how I was planning for them to.

Sometimes digital pictures will make it look like a cake has more flaws than it really does, because digital cameras add a little graininess to food pictures. You can use a photo editing program to get rid of the graininess...here's how your cake photo looks with that done:

First let me say you did a great job on your fondant figures. They are very well done. You should be happy and proud!

I do know what you mean though, I have never been 100% satisfied with any of my cakes. I always see something I could have done differently or better. I see every little imperfection and it drives me crazy. I've been doing this for about 4-5 years now as a hobby and I have maybe gotten a little less critical of my work, but not much!

You're doing great. Keep up the good work.

You both are so sweet, I AM having a rough cake day I think I need a nap...haha!! Thanks for your kind words, I needed them today

I know exactly what you mean. I was just thinking this same thing this morning. I do not sell my cakes, just do them for friends and family, but i never feel satisfied with the end result. It never looks as good as the picture I have in my head.

Your cake looks awesome BTW.

I think your figures look nice. Your buttercream skills will get better, so don't worry about that. I hear the Sugarshack DVD for buttercream is the BEST! People who start using her method start having the smoothest cakes. And we are our own worst crtics. And yeah, you will have some cakes you like more then others. I liked how my monsters came out for my "Where the Wild Things Are" cake, but HATE the way my dots looked on the cake I did yesterday. Go figure!

Of course we are going to be the most critical of our own cakes. When you work hard on something, putting in so much time, sweat, love and tears you want it to be perfect. I haven't been making and decorating cakes for long but I know that it's a learning process and with each cake I do I will only get better.

And your cake is adorable!!

Smooth buttercream is as much of an art as smooth fondant. I always admire that skill set. Some people make it look so easy, but I'm willing to bet they find flaws and imperfections in their own cakes. I am never 100% satisfied with any cake. I always find reasons to pick it apart. I think you will hear that over and over in cakers. It is very common.

Your cake makes me smile. Keep up the good work!

I think it's the nature of an artist to never be totally happy with our work...but that's what makes us strive to be better the next time, to push ourselves to learn more skills and get better at the ones we know.

The cake I'm delivering today had fondant issues (it was hot in the kitchen and the fondant slipped a bit) but I know the client is going to be overwhelmed by the sugar roses so much she won't notice the little crease in the "pot"...but I do. I've been trying VERY hard to realize that it is CAKE and unlike clay or any other more controllable art medium, there are limitations to it and to my talent WITH it.

What I really hate is when I do something and I'm not the least bit proud of it and then I have to deliver it and everyone gushes how wonderful it is when what I'm thinking is "it's a big ol pile of poo!" LOL!

So we have to start letting ourselves off the hook with a "well, that didn't turn out as great as I would've liked but I'll keep working on my buttercream (or piping or figures or whatever) and I'll keep getting better!" And then allow ourselves to move on.

Easier said than done, I know! LOL!

Cat

The design on your cake is really adorable. The figures are gorgeous!

I agree with everyone, we are our worst critics. I'm usually never satisfied with my cakes. A seam, a small flaw or a small dent at the back will get me frustrated.

Lately, I've been happy but not completely satisfied. I think the key is to learn from mistakes and move on.

We are our very own worst critics....while I am still in the very early learning stages of this adventure and can see many and major flaws in my work....my friends, family and coworkers think the work is great because they don't know how do the things I can. We get better with each new project and those that don't go as well as we would have liked can serve as inspiration for the learning even more skills for the next.

cute cake! you should be proud!

You guys are all so sweet! Thanks for letting me have a little pity party I'm going to move on now. The mom picked it up and LOVED it and then messaged me on Facebook for the whole world to see that she LOVES it and then she told me she was going to have her sister call me to do her niece's cake!! So, that's good news! I knew I could vent and be understood here

Cake decorating has spoiled me for looking at ALL cakes, not just mine. I don't know why, but I see the inperfections all the time just kind of naturally. Did you see the movie The Hangover? They had a beautiful cake at the opening credits and all I saw was the little wrinkle in the upper left corner of the top tier in the fondant. Right away. Isnt that awful? So I look at my OWN stuff and I don't even want to take photos anymore. Photos just ruin every cake.

Oh the plus side, the inperfections makes you strive to be a better decorator!! Beleive me, the customers don't notice anywhere near the amount of stuff we do!

So keep on trucking..your cake is wonderful!

I think we just see those perfect cakes on here. But if you look at some of the cakes on t.v. they all have some flaws, the fondant isn't perfect. I just did a super bowl cake, I copied it from cc member, her's was perfect, mine not so much. I did mine in buttercream, so its not as clean looking, football sucked, I was just too lazy to start all over. I know I could have done better, got paid 30 dollars for the cake to feed 50 people, so it just paid for ingredients. It was for my a friend of my sisters party, so I gave them a good deal. So my heart wasn't in it. With all that said, I loved your cake, you have nothing to worry about.

I think your cake is adorable... if you are like me you are your own worst critic. I still walk in my livingroom and see a tiny spot where I messed up painting lol. I'm always satisfied with my cakes, but there is always something I think I could tweek a little if I had time... I will however start over if something just bugs me too bad.

Being a critic of your own work is what separates the decorators from the artist! If I had one cake a week, it would take me 10 hrs by the time I picked it apart lol.

Your cake is too cute! The rest will get better with practice

I love your cake ..I'm not brave enough to do figures .... I agree with everyone that we pick our cakes apart. I haven't been decorating very long and I look bake at my first cake and think OMG that is SOOOOO ugly... But then I look at my last couple of cakes and think I have came along way and proud of what I have done but still find flaws and that makes me want to learn everything I can .

You're cake is soo cute. I am never happy with what I do and feel that when people say they love what I have done I feel that they are only saying it to spare my feelings.

Yes, Like I said in the OP, I'm so excited I bought SugarShacks DVD. It came in the mail today (go figure, if it had only come yesterday )! I'm hoping to perfect it. When TexasRose changed the picture, it put it in a whole new light for me! It made me feel better!!

good !