I had to day off from work today so I decided to play around with my cake dummies!

After making icing and figuring out what I wanted to do I went to work! I got my base icing all done (butter cream) and started working on my simple dots on the sides (of set from each other) and I got one tier done and hated it!!

But I figured I made the icing I might as well use it! So I figured since I didn't like the dots I would do some scroll work, and I hated that too!!!

I am just getting a little frustrated because I see all these great and awesome cakes on here and I can't even do a simple dot pattern or scroll work!

So after I hated the two tiers I put them in the sink and ran them under hot water and.............


......TAAA-DAAAA no one will ever know that I sucked at decorating today!!

oh im so sorry youre frustrated... at least you have taken the step to start practising, i havent worked up that courage yet. ive been busy doing alot of baking from scratch but havent got the get up and go to start decorating yet but i start my wilton #1 course next month so i expect i will be going thru what you are soon so dont feel too disheartened

It takes lots and lots and lots of practice, don't give up after one bad day. And try your pattern on paper before you move to the cake.

If it's any consolation, every cake designer out there struggles with certain techniques. Sometimes, I've created a cakelet design that even my 10 year old son couldn't figure out what it was supposed to be (no joke) That's when I take an egg and hurl it at a tree in my backyard and start over.

Scrolls are difficult, I agree with the gal above me to practice on paper.

Dots- You'll be surprised how easy they are once you figure out the plan of action. To keep them even and consistent, you'll want to add your vertical row of dots first. Then, on each side of that vertical row of dots, pipe dots in between each of the the dots in the original row. Eye it so rows are equally spaced from eachother. Dots are never random. There is always a pattern when you look closely. If I explained this poorly, I apologize.

Attached is a pic of polka dots I did on a cakelet design. Focus on one of the vertical rows and then see how the rest of the dots fit in their place.
Hope this helps.......

It helps me sometimes if I look at a photo of a pretty cake with dots and see how they are arranged then kind of go by that to put them on my cake. I've been trying to decorate a cake for two days and I'm still at a stand still. It's just a practice cake but I am just not getting anywhere with it...

I'm just a hobby decorater, and pretty much think I stink at piping, but...

I just had to do a really small "traditional looking all white" wedding cake with no flowers or fondant, and I thought I'd never pull it off! I was totally stressed out. But - I just spent a ton of time dividing and marking the cake ahead of time - I used some of the Wilton scroll presses (not sure what they're called) to mark where everything was to go - took me WAY longer to do that than to actually pipe everything. But once it's all marked and whatnot - it was actually really easy to pipe and I thought came out really nice. I haven't had to do any swiss dots yet - but that should be easy too I would think if you could get the cake marked before you start. The trick seems to be in the prep for me, not necessarily in the piping.

Here's mine: http://cakecentral.com/modules.php?name=gallery&file=displayimage&pid=1612048

Keep in mind too...that EVERY cake seems to have an "ugly stage". The finishing touches help a million.