When did I *know*? My daughter gave us 3 weeks to the day to plan her wedding. I had never made a cake to speak of but was taked into making a 'homemade cake with cream cheese icing' by her then-future MIL. She had taken Wilton classes some 10 yrs before but never did anything w/it. However she had 'all the equipment' stored in the barn:) She gave us an old Wilton yrbk and we picked out what looked easy. I ended up making a 3 tier cake w/bridges to satilight cakes and used real violets for most of the decorations. 3 days later I was asked to help make a small wedding cake for a gal who's baker backed out on her just days before the wedding (never met her til yrs later); then 3 weeks after that daughter's MIL asked me to make another 3 tier wedding cake. I was just suppose to bake & ice it & she would do the decorating but a BIG problem w/the bride came up so as MIL talked w/the bride I had to decorate the cake. That's when I decided I needed to learn what I was doing:)
I always wanted to be able to decorate cakes. I baked very well, but falsely believed I was limited to slimy canned frosting. That, and store bought cakes, even ordered from display books, never were exactly what I wanted and were so limiting. It was not until I moved to Florida and found out one of my neighbors decorated character cakes that I found out it was possible to take classes. As it turned out, she never progressed beyond decorating character cakes with the star tips, while I LOVED (and still love) learning new techniques, making flowers and cakes for all ages and occasions. She resented me a little for a while. I've never regretted it for a moment.
I took a Wilton course just for fun, and got hooked. I was making cakes a lot there for awhile. I didn't want to go into a business, just wanted to do it for friends and family. Now a lot of them are dieting, have been diagnosed as diabetic (my hubby included), or for one reason or another don't want cakes any more. I always got rave reviews about my cakes and the way they were decorated, but I just don't get the opportunity to do it any more. I even made the wedding cake for my youngest son's wedding almost 2 years ago and I was really proud of how it turned out. So needless to say I don't make many any more, but I still come here to look at what everyone else does and how pretty they are. I do make the cakes for my son's birthdays and their wives, my husband, but that's about it. I miss making them, but I don't want to get into a business with it because I'm 65 and just don't want to be tied down to a business at that age. Every once in a while once of my nieces will request a cake for one of their children, but that's about it. I do miss it, though.
I'm still figuring things out but I thought I would just share my journey so far :)
I am the middle child of 10 children and we have only have two months in the year when we DONT have a birthday to celebrate. Growing up, I just loved being in the kitchen. I loved cooking, baking, cleaning, you name it! As long as I was in the kitchen. When I was 10 I started to make the birthday cakes for my siblings. I used the boxed mix and the canned frosting, loads of candy and oreos - all around they tasted great, were super sugary and well . . . looked like a 10 year old had made them ;P ;) Flash forward a couple of years I started getting more and more interested in the science of baking and started making my cakes and frosting from scratch - and they were delicious! Its kind of funny, I remember the very first cake that I made that actually looked professional and tasted good, too (I was 13 at the time). Flash forward another year and a half and a couple of fancy cakes, my brother was getting married, a small wedding, and wanted me to make the cake. And that's kind of where everything exploded. A little more than a year later I am making my second wedding cake for a wedding 4x the size of my brother's and I am only 16!! I am kind of overwhelmed by how quickly things escalated but overall, I am very excited to be baking and part of the couple's special day.
I will be going to college in a couple of years and everyone says I should pursue culinary school and run a business but that is just so much money and the possibility of my business actually succeeding is a small percentage - so we will see where God takes me :)
@doctorwhobaker What a cool story! I love hearing about other people who decorate cakes who are around my age (I'm 19). I looked at your gallery and the wedding cake you made for your brother was lovely! I'm sure your next wedding cake will be gorgeous!
@cakingandbaking More on here around my age than I thought.
Thank you @cakingandbaking ! You know what, y'all have gotten me curious about how many people on this website are around our age . . . I think we should make a forum post about it in the lounge and see how many responses we get!
@doctorwhobaker Yes, you should make a post! @Dee0024 Isn't it cool? When I joined CakeCentral I thought for sure I would be the only one under 20! Haha!
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