Hello Everyone,

I have joined Cake Central tonight as I want to start decorating cakes. A family member has her own business in making and decorating cakes and they are beautiful and I would love to learn how to do it. (to make personal cakes for family members etc)

I would really appreciate it if everyone would mind helping me with ideas,tips.

Many thanks

Kirsty2010

take some time to look at some of the tutorials on cake central:

http://cakecentral.com/tutorial

lots of great tips and photos for techniques ranging from beginner to expert!

I don't know where you live, but a good idea would be to take a class (classes), such as the Wilton classes given at Michael's. That will give you a good start.

Why not use your family member as a resource? Perhaps offer to help them, or just ask to observe. I'm sure she'd love someone to do busy work like coloring fondant, or filling pastry bags or covering boards.

I worked for a very short time at a bakery but my duties were not baking or decorating. I set appointments, cleaned and did bridal consultations. During that time I observed and asked questions and when I started doing my own cakes, I had a good working knowledge of how and where to start. Then I picked a design I wanted to do and figured out how to do it based on what I'd learned there and by watching tutorials on YouTube.

Once you get started, you'll be hooked!

youtube is also a great resource. Just search "cake decorating" and there are tons of video tutorials on there. Also, you can join an online class called MyCakeSchool.com and it's $30 for a year. Well worth it for all the stuff you can learn on there. Good luck and enjoy! Oh, also take advantage of the forums on this site. These women (and men!) are so gracious and willing to answer your questions or give advice.

I agree take some wilton classes and also check out tutorials here on cc and you tube. There are some great links in in forum threads here on cc
try Hundreds of tutorials here is the link
http://cakecentral.com/cake-decorating-ftopict-654103.html

Free Figure Making Tutorials (HUNDREDS)!
http://cakecentral.com/cake-decorating-ftopict-672099.html

Tutorials to build wacky cake stand?
http://cakecentral.com/cake-decorating-ftopict-628805.html

The Recipe Links Are Here!!!
http://cakecentral.com/cake-decorating-ftopict-625803.html

Aine2 has some really good tutorials very inexpensive and some on youtube her site is extra icing on the cake here is her link
http://extra-icing.blogspot.com/

check out some of her work here on cc you will be amazed

for flowers Edna De La Cruz she is on youtube as tonedna1

That should keep you going for a while, hope it helps and have fun

Thank you everyone for your advice, I will definately have a look on youtube. I have also been looking at taking a few classes,it will be nice to make and decorate cakes for my families birthdays etc.

How long have you all been making cakes for??

Many thanks
Kirsty 2010