Hi! My name is Heather and I have been making cakes, mostly fondant, for family & friends and after posting all the pictures on Facebook, I've started having people contact me with orders! I know my cakes could be a lot better with practice and the proper tools but I just want an honest opinion about the ones I've made so far. People seem to like my cakes more than I do. I critique every detail! Do you think I'm ready to start taking orders from people or I should practice more on my own first? I appreciate all feedback!! Check my cakes out under my profile. Thanks!!

AI can't find any links to see your page...

I looked at all of them.   The baby shower cake is good...but the rest are not as good.   The round one with Trinity's name on it is not very bumpy.   The icing on the panda looks like it's melting or something...or maybe looks like the canned icing?    I would keep practicing with your family and friends and check back with us.  

I'm not going to get into the legal part about selling cakes in Virginia because I know someone else will.

Good luck and keep on caking!

Thanks for your feedback! The "Trinity" cake looks awful to me. It was a spur of the moment thing for a child in the family & I had to rush. For the panda, I used homemade butter cream with a grass tip to try and make it look furry. I'm buying some "dummy" foam cakes to practice on. Thanks again!

Sorry about that! I thought you would just be able to see them under my profile on here. I'm new to this site :)

Here they are on Flickr: www.flickr.com/photos/cubascakes

It looks like you just need to keep practicing. I agree that the baby shower cake looked good. SpongeBob was good too for your first attempt with fondant. It looks like your consistency was too loose on the buttercream for the Panda. So much of this is trial and error. I find that I learn so much with every new cake I do. Practicing on dummies is a great idea. It looks like your fondant sags sometimes which could be a problem with the consistency of your buttercream as well. This site and the internet are great resources for learning. I recommend picking one new type of cake or new technique per week to work on and perfect. Good luck :)

I'd say that you need more practice sut becasue of the inconsistency. Some of them are better than others, but if you're selling to people they all expect to get the better ones, know what I mean?

Virignia has a cottage food law so there are certain types of cakes that you can make without a state inspection, but you'll still need to collect sales tax and send that to the state. You should check with your local county government to see what's required license-wise, since different cities have different rules about zoning and that kind of thing. I'm in Henrico so if you have questions send me a messge.

You should also read everything you can about pricing, since people who are selling to their friends and family tend to way undervalue their time and expenses. I guarantee you that as soon as you tell a friend or family member how much a custom cake really costs they'll tell you that's too expensive. They'll all want the "special discount" but don't do it. If you train them to expect low prices they'll never pay what you need to recoup your costs.

AYou should also look into the laws about copyright/trademarks, if people see that you are doing character cakes they'll want to buy them and you should know that you're breaking a law by selling them.

AThanks for letting me know. I definitely didn't know that!!

In this case, however, there appears to be a good reason for it.