This is my first time decorating a cake. This was a practice cake for one that I will be doing for a friend later this week. She wanted a rainbow theme and so I marbled the actual cake. The cake itself was a basic Vanilla cake, but I also added a bit of almond flavoring to attempt to bring out more of the vanilla, but I think I put in a bit too much. I froze the cakes overnight before frosting.

The frosting is a homemade buttercream frosting. Turned out pretty great in consistency and flavor. However the frosting of the cake did not go too easily. I am using a turntable and my straight spatula and while it wasn't perfectly smooth it was at least mostly working. Except in one spot. No matter what I did, putting more icing down, warming up the spatula, placing the cake in the fridge for a few minutes to help stiffen it up; no matter what I did, the icing from one particular spot would not stay on.

Next was the fondant. The person it is for didn't like the taste of fondant, but the cake design she specifically picked out had some (that and I wanted to try my hand at fondant as well), so as a compromise of sorts, I make rolled buttercream instead. I chose this because it was supposed to be used like fondant but taste like buttercream and that seemed the best of both worlds. I dont know if I really screwed something up or if it was always that difficult to make and handle rolled buttercream. I had a tough time getting it to the point of being dough like enough to be rolled out, and it ended up with me putting at least twice as much powdered sugar and alternating between throwing it all in the freezer for a couple minutes to harden it up a bit and taking it out to work on it before it warms up and stops holding its form as well.

The fondant was supposed to be in six colors for the bows and circles, but because of the extra work put into forming the rolled cream, I was unable to justify more than two colors.

Please tell me what you think. Anything I should change in my process so I can work on it next time?

Well done!! 

You are braver than me, I've not attempted working with rolled buttercream! I'll have to research that, I'm not familiar with it at all!

For a first attempt I think you've done a great job and the things that I'm seeing as needing a smidge more work are just things that will come to you naturally as you get more and more experience so absolutely nothing to worry about at all.

Just little things like rolling your fondant thinner so the circles and bows are a little more delicate looking. Looks like you've got two lovely layers of cake there (yum), but next time you might want to consider trimming them so they are level so you get nice straight lines when you see the cross-cut section of cake (although to be honest I get a little OCD about my levels!). Then just making a clear space for when you take photos of your work so the cake is the only thing in the picture (took me ages to get around to that one, I always ran out of time - now I factor in a little extra time for taking pics!)

Other than that you've got a delicious looking cake I'm sure anyone would be happy to tuck into   :)

There are people on here who will be able to help much more than I in terms of the rolled buttercream so I'll just be watching the responses to learn about that myself!

I like it! Your bows are done very well! I can't get my bows to look like that.  I like the use of red and black against the white.  Good job!

Not bad at all for a 1st attempt! :)    Not being harsh but do try to get the over-all icing smoother.  If you are using rolled b'cream there should not be any uneven places - it should be smooth just like fondant. The difference between them is taste as you mentioned and rolled b'cream should have a shiny finish (looks oily!).   As the others said, roll the colored decorations  thinner.  Something else - and it's just me......I would go lighter on the colors of cake batter.  To me they are too dark and that much color can cause the cake to have an off taste.   One more tip:  when taking pictures be very aware of the background.....remove &/or cover anything around/behind the cake.   You want a nice looking picture to be able to show future customers :)

Your cake looks great!  I've never used rolled buttercream, I really like using homemade Marshmallow fondant (MMF). Especially for my accent stuff, store bought fondant I've found is easier for me if covering the whole cake just because it stratches better. (Still need to to work out the kinks in my MMF.)  It's super simple to make, I add vanilla and almond flavoring while I'm making it, because in my opinion it makes the flavor nice. The recipe I use also makes a decent size batch too, which allows me to make multiple colors from one batch.  As others have said too, roll those accent pieces thinner to make them a little more delicate looking, but your bows turned ou fantastic!

As far as smoothing your cake and getting the BC to stay on, I had a friend give me a tip. She said always go the same direction when putting the BC on the sides of your cake, don't mave your spatula back and forth because that will move the BC around on the cake and pull it off the sides.  So if you're turning your turn table to the left and smoothing to the right, always keep your spatula moving to the right.

For smoothing, I use Viva paper towel for the tough ones.  Use a roll with no embossed design on it and a fondant smoother. Put your cake in the fridge first, but not for too long, you want it somewhat firm, but not extremely. Then place the piece of Viva over the cake and smooth with a fondant smoother. This helps me rub out any bumps or gaps, plus you can always add a bit more BC to fill in any gaps and then smooth again!

Hope that helps, but this is a great first attempt! Good luck with your next try!

Buddy Valastro of Cake Boss uses poster paper cut into little to medium size squares to smooth the sides of his cake and the top. It really works great. I always had trouble smoothing cakes until I saw him. I tried it and it is so flexible that it perfectly smooths out the buttercream on sides and top of cake. Try it because it will make it a whole lot easier for you!!!  

For your first practice cake you did good and the more you practice the easier it will become. Take pictures of every cake and you will notice eventually that your cakes look better and better. I don't like fondant.  With Buddy's method you can pretty much get the buttercream to look just like fondant because it will be very smooth!!! Good luck on your cake!!! Also, watch some of the you tube videos for decorating cakes, making buttercream flowers and ideas. You will see tons and tons of ideas. 

 Keep the faith and keep on caking and remember to have fun. Don't get stressed out when things don't go as you think they should. I think we have all been there and done that!!! LOL!!  Please take a picture of your next cake and let us know how it went!!