Self Taught Decorators Club

Comment by Helen Jo Shewmaker on June 22, 2010 at 10:07am

Hello, all. I played with decorating when my boys were small (30 years ago!), and I wanted to make their birthday cakes. I just used the instructions in the Wilton yearbooks to learn. When they started wanting pie instead of cake, my hobby fell by the wayside. When my first grandchild's first b-day was coming up, I wanted to do her cake. I actually had to "audition" for my daughter in law! That was 3 years ago, and I've been online searching and learning ever since. And, Serious Cakes, I've learned a lot from you! Nice to "meet" you online.

Comment by Kathy Kmonk on June 23, 2010 at 10:15am

I got started decorating when I applied for a job as a cookie decorator for a local cookie shop. I had never decorated a cookie beyond slapping on some icing and dipping it in sprinkles much less held a pastry bag. My job interview was to decorate two cookies using their simplest designs using a pastry bag. My hands were shaking so bad I was amazed I got icing on the cookies at all. Well, they hired me and off I went on this new adventure. Then one of the girls I work with wanted to learn to make roses so we looked it up on Youtube...that's when I found Serious Cakes. I've learned so much from her and others on Youtube. And this place has been so helpful, too! So many talented people all in one place!!! An obsession was born and now there is no looking back, only forward to the next cake....

Comment by lisa yanoschak on June 23, 2010 at 11:55am

i was interested in cake decorating back in 1982 when i hired a woman to do my wedding cake and her buttercream flowers were so realistic. 25 years later i decided it was time to try my hand! fondant and gumpaste were my main source of decor instead of buttercream. i opened a book, jumped in and started making flowers that looked horrible! eventually i got the hang of it and have flourished! people love my gumpaste flowers. i have also expanded to cupcakes and cookies too!

Comment by Pamela on June 25, 2010 at 9:11am

Hi, I've been interested in cake decorating since I was 13 and my mother learned from a new company in Illinois....Wilton. Long time ago... She stopped working with cakes, but my love affair continued. Now, many years later, I've started my own business. LOL all those years in art school has paid off! Although I love the look of fondant and gumpaste, I don't like the taste or smell, so I just work in buttercream. I live in Saudi and the ladies here are just now learning about well made icing! Everyone is shocked to learn cakes don't have to taste like cardboard and icing isn't an oily glob. The cakes here are beautiful...just don't eat them!

Comment by Pamela on June 25, 2010 at 9:42am

Need color flow icing, but can't get it? Try thin buttercream icing, add more than the normal amount of corn syrup you would add to strengthen the icing for strings...and there you have it, shinny color-flow icing that you can mark in (ie feather or leaf)

Comment by Daisy Brown on June 25, 2010 at 10:21am

Wow Pamela! What a wonderful story and thank you for that useful tip :). I may have to try that.

Comment by Pamela on June 25, 2010 at 4:17pm

Glad you like this idea and hope it helps. Sorry can't say how much of everything I used...just did it till it looked right. It was a lot of fun to work with. I edged the leaves of the palm tree and then filled it in with my colorflow...quickly smothed it with the tip and let it set. Don't let it set too long, if you do you can't draw lines in it.

Comment by Wes & Jaci on June 27, 2010 at 1:35am

Well in all reality i started to bake 2 fondant / gumpaste cakes early last year , i made 2 , but then had no choice but to stop, so i didnt allow my self to get as hooked as i am now, since we moved here southwest montana, by april this year i have i think between 6-8 more cakes maybe 7 cakes not fully sufre i am loosing count LOL , ha hahah yes i think i am funy Hehehe, but where we live its 1 1/2 hrs to missoula , kind to far of a drivet odo any wiltons classes, so i lern strickly from buying dvd's like darci decorates and watching CAke boss Buddy valastro My Favorite show and i watch videos on you tube or where ever i can find, i did have 1 lady show me how to make roses at her home for 2 hrs, but by the time i got home after that 2 hrs i still couldnt make roses , but i practised for 2 1/2 days straight now i can make i think really nice small roses, they are small LOL but i think there very cute ,but thats how i am learning with out classes,

Comment by Wes & Jaci on June 27, 2010 at 1:37am

Also , i do want to sell my cakes, but i know since i am a beginner i have a long way to go and make numerous cakes under my belt before i can even think of starting to sell cake,s but i think alot of you cake decorators should be selling your cakes , your cakes look very Very professiional

Comment by jennifer on June 27, 2010 at 2:29am

Hi everyone, three years ago I got hired to work as a baker for a company. I enjoyed it for awhile but I kept straying upfront to watch the decorators. The head cake decorator had been a decorator for 45 years. I fell in love just watching. Night that I would close I would play with the frosting teaching myself borders and then so on and so fourth. Eventually I got moved up as a cake decorator I was so excited, but the cakes we did were simple designs and I wanted to learn more, I began looking through the net and buying cake books. My favorite is butter cream and probably always will be, but I have been teaching myself how to use fondant. I don't like the taste but I have made a few recipes that taste like butter cream and are great for molding characters. But of course the learning still continues.

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