I'm a newbie and am considering doing this as a career. I've been told I am talented and pick it up quickly, even by my WMI. I took the 1 and 2 course and almost all the the third, but didn't finish. I have a friend that said she can get me a position in the VONS bakery, but don't know if I'm talented enough for that, yet. I definitely need more practice working with icing. Eventually, I would like to work in a real, private bakery.

So, how did you start in the cake world? How did you learn to decorate and how did you advance?

I personally discovered it last year. My son had a blue and gold thing with the cub scouts and part of it is a Dad and Lad cake bake off. My husband had to work so it was left up to me to be the dad. I had NO idea of how to decorate a cake so I started to search online for advice and help and ideas. I discovered this site and some verrrry inspirational artists and realized I had found my calling. I LOVE decorating cakes more than anything (other than my family...they are AMAZING) I am so lucky that my son was in Cub Scouts and that Dan had to work. Cake decorating definately makes my life amazing. So that is my story. What is yours???

I had a vague interest as a teen and went to a lady's house and learned a few basics like royal icing roses and lilies and some baking tips, but that's about it. Attempted a cake for a competition but waited till the last minute and the cake was awful.

Fast forward about 8 years and I can't even remember why, but I decided it would be fun to get back into decorating so my husband bought me the Wilton caddy/beginner kit and I did a cake for a housewarming party for a friend. From there friends at church always asked me to make their kids' birthday cakes and such, and I did it for relatively cheap (lived in rural South Carolina as well) and then word got out and I got a few other orders from friends of friends, etc.

Then about 5 years ago we moved to the Philly suburbs and by then I had decided I wanted to get my name out and continue the cake baking...for the first year I didn't have many orders but slowly its grown, and I've been able to raise my prices and increase my orders...this year I've gotten more orders than ever.

I also was able to get a part time job (two days/week) last year at an upscale catering place and I mostly do the wedding/party cakes but also help with other things if there's time. I was excited to get a good flexible part time job just by bringing in my cake photo album so that was neat that the years of taking photos had paid off in other ways as well.

Anyway its just been really fun and I love learning new things and striving to improve...and I love all the ideas and advice this site has! I would have loved to have had a site like this when I first started out!

In Dec '05, my Daddy was diagnosed with cancer. The doctors sent him home and told my Mom and I that he could eat what ever he wanted, do what ever he wanted, etc. I began baking again for him - I enjoyed watching him eat anything and everything I made. Red Velvet and cornbread were his favorites....
In May '06, he passed away. I continued making stuff for work, my husband's family, etc. Last April I found out about the Wilton classes and took them all. Now it's a passion that I not only enjoy but I strive to be good at it for my Dad. A year later now and I'm still learning, enjoying it and enjoying helping others when I can with this "addiction".

I started by taking the Wilton cake class 29 years ago. I wanted to make my daughter's first birthday cake. After making it...family and friends started asking me to make cakes for them....and my business grew. I was able to be a stay at home mom and yet help with some added income. I was contacted by the Wilton company to teach cake classes, which I did for about 5 years. The rules started changing in the state and my business had gown so much that I finally bit the bullet and took out a small loan and converted a one car garage into a full blown kitchen/bakery that is up to the health codes here. What started out 29 years for me has been a very profitable business and I am getting ready to make my daughter's wedding cake on May 26th of this year. It's been a wonderful ride and I have met so many neat people and made some really fun cakes...but I still don't like to clean up the mess....that hasn't changed in 29 years!

My Granny decorated cakes, and my happiest memories are of "helping" her decorate, and looking through her old Wilton catalogs for hours at a time.

I made a few cakes in my early 20's, and four years ago, while on maternity leave from teaching, I thought I'd kill some time and get out of the house by taking a Wilton course.

Four years and four Wilton courses later, most of my friends get their cakes from me, and I am beginning to get orders from "friends of friends". I also love making cakes for the teachers at my old school and for my own children and family.

I am addicted to this site, and am constantly looking for a reason to bake a cake! I have learned so much here (and have a lot still to learn!), and hope that opening my own shop will happen sometime in the next ten years.

I was self taught back in the 70's. Never really did anything but my kids birthday cakes. Then 6 1/2 ears ago my grandaughter had her first birthday and we had a $45 grocery store cake. I told my hubby If i took the Wilton courses at Michael's I could do better than that store cake. I mentioned it to my daughter and she decided she would like to take the courses too. We did all three courses. I took my class cakes to work and everyone loved them. So to keep in practice I started doing a cake for every employee's birthday. We are small only 14 of us. Everything has blossomed from there I now do all the cakes for the boss's family and friends. I am now getting friends of friends and the irony of my last call blew my mind. The young woman call and said Hi i'm Jenna H and are you Sara's Mom. I said I sure am and she said I am Jenna H now H. Sara and Jenna swam together for ten years. I love the creativity involved and trying new tecniques. Can you tell I love my hobby and if it ever becomes work I will quit.

When I was a little girl I would spend summers with my wonderful Aunt. Cake decorating was her way of making extra spending money. I would sit at the end of her counter licking my lips till the last of the frosting was put on the cake, eagerly awaiting the left over spoonful that I knew was soon to come. What wonderful memories!! When I was around 20, I decided to do a baby shower cake for a friend and I have been pittleing with it ever since. Luckily when my Aunt decided to give it up she gave me all of her supplies. She is an amazing woman and a wonderful mentor. She is the person I call when I have trouble and she always has me send her pictures of new accomplishments. Unfortunately she has cancer and may not live through the year. It has been a very hard time since we found out. She is my Aunt, my friend and my mentor. She has given me a wonderful gift and I can never thank her enough for it!

I guess my love of cooking and baking goes back to childhood watching my aunt who did cakes and catering. I have always loved to cook and about 11 years ago, I left my job as an xray tech and opened a small restaurant. I did catering and some cakes, not wedding cakes at that time. After 6 years in the business, which was surprising successful for someone with no business or restaurant experience, we decided to close for several reasons.

I took the first two Wilton courses many years ago and the rest is self-taught, mostly learned here. LOL. I've always made family cakes, mostly just plain sheet cakes. Didn't know there was anything else til I discovered this site. YOOHOO!

Then last fall someone asked me to make their wedding cake. The groom wanted a laptop. I told him NO WAY! Then I discovered CC and started looking around and asking questions and asked him if he would trust me to try. He did and once again I have fallen in love. So much so that my DH and I are planning to build a second kitchen so I can (legally) get back into catering and do cakes too. BTW, I am back at my xray tech job full time also.

and that's my story

Wow, everyone! That's so great, thanks for sharing your stories. I took the Wilton classes because I rarely got out of the house besides work and had always been interested in them. I finally took them and have now made several for neighbors and friends. I just quit my waitressing job (denny's) cause I hated it, and am now looking for something new.

Over 25 years ago, I went with my sister-in-law when she ordered her wedding cake from an at-home baker. I looked around andthought "this doesn't look hard!" Went and bought some basicd stuff and taught myself.

The rest is history!

Last Dec my GD asked for a character pan cake and we could not find a baker here that knew who Dora the Explorer was, or what a character shape pan was either. I went to our one and only cake supply store (3 pans) and realised that there was a bit of a hole here to fill. So that's what I did, 45 character cake pans later I am churning out character cakes all the time and slowly branching out to fondant - which I love. So I started out just trying for a b/day cake for my GD and am now enjoying a nice little earner doing something I really like. And with sites like CC behind us we greenies have heaps of support and help.

i got started decorating when I decided I wanted to make my grandmother a stacked 80the birthday cake last year.. she taught me how to bake about 15-16 years ago (i say that often) and I thought it would be a good tribute to bake her cake.. while I was taking wilton classes at michaels I found cc.. told my teacher and my classmates about it and now I need to be in CC anonymous!

I started over 30 years ago, when my sister-in-law took a class. I figured that if she could do it, so could I! I took a beginner's class at the local high school and started doing cakes for my family (4 kids, a dog, and a husband ). Yes, I even made a cake for the dog's birthday.

When we moved to Texas 27 years ago, I'd volunteer cakes for school activities, and someone said to me that I should do this as a business. So I printed up business cards and went on from there. I'm mostly self-taught, although I've taken flower making and fondant classes at the local cake supply store. With the introduction of the Internet, my client base has greatly expanded due to my website.

Nowadays, my sister-in-law no longer makes cakes, but I still do!

I just got started with decorating. I am currently taking the Wilton 1 course. I have been wanting to do this for quite sometime, but it just never worked out. So I'm excited to be learning about different techniques.

I was applying for a cashier's position at Walmart and when they saw that I was an art major on my application, they asked me if I wanted to decorate cakes. I said sure and spent 10 months in that job. I laugh when I hear all the flack that Walmart cakes recieve because two of the ladies who taught me to decorate there were professionals working there for the insurance. I had about a five year dry spell after that and just picked it back up last year. I KNOW I wouldn't be making more than sheet cakes with roses (just like Walmart, lol) if it hadn't been for CC. The ideas and advice I've received here have been invaluable in helping me grow and learn in decorating.

cakesbydana said:

That's so funny, I started decorating unprofessionally when i was in the eighth grade and then i decorated cookies for a while, now i'm fifteen and have just started decorating again, did my first paid cake for a graduation/birthday yesterday. See what ya think! I also have a wedding cake, birthday cake, and bat mitzfa at the end of may!! Bakersfield loves cake! Also i have to give credit to my mom, she did wedding cakes for 4 years, and to CC!!!! Thanks everyone for the inspiration.

I was just trying to be nice to my co-workers. I brought a couple of poundcakes to work, and it all started from there. I started getting orders for those 2 cakes. That was in Feb of 05. Then co-workers started asking if I could make birthday cakes (I also started getting orders from my DH co-workers). I took the Wilton courses I II and III from Aug to Nov of 05. I just completed Fowers and gumpaste in Feb of this year.

I made my first Wilton cake (teddy bear) 17 years ago, for my daughter's first birthday and continued to make them for her every year! Back in 1999-2000 I started a cookie business, but after a year or so a new niece came along (and two others quickly after), and I started to make their birthday cakes....and began getting calls for more party cakes! I began to like cake decorating a little more than cookies as they didn't take me as much time to decorate (not true for every cake), but I thoroughly enjoyed cake decorating and it made me happy! The last two years I've been decorating seriously and promoting my business and was able to go part-time last January at my job....and ended up quitting in August of '06 to focus on my cakes! I love it and wouldn't change anything for the world! It also helps to find forums like CC to share ideas and make new friends with like interests!

My boyfriends got me the classes this January since I was unemployed and doing nothing but cooking all day out of boredom. He knew I has a background in pottery and painting that I had not focused on since college.

What a monster he has created!!

I took the Wilton courses for the "cool mom" factor. I'm not very creative (so I love the ideas here on CC) but I'm good at figuring out how to recreate things. My daughter (who at 6 is very creative) and son who is 4.5 love my cakes and looking at CC with me.

Debbie

I got started last year I got a horribly made Bday cake for my son. I just decided to try it and I loved it!!!

I love baking and have always, and decorating cakes has always facinated me. Last year, I decided to make my son's birthday cake(s) to save money and had so much fun. I now am going to start making all the cakes for my kids. I just wish I had a kitchen to work with, mine you can even barely call it a kitchen. I've been thinking about taking a Wilton course or 2 to get better.

I have been baking since I was about 14, but never thought I could decorate. It seemed so hard when I thought about it. I found CC when google-ing ideas for my sister's birthday cake last year and have been addicted ever since. I have learned so much through the talented people on this site.
My sister is 8 and she loves looking at the cakes on CC. I bought her a Betty Crocker kids decorating set on ebay a few months ago and now she always wants to decorate cakes at home.

Well, I have always been involved in food and knew I waned to be a chef from the time I was 12. All through high school I participated in a vocational culinary arts program (bussed to a different location for half a day every day in lieu of all your electives) which was great. One day I had an experience that put me on a pastry track forever... we were cutting up whole chickens in to fryer parts. If you have ever done that, you know that you have to pop the hip joints out of their sockets. It was just too gross and I decided right then and there that I would rather be covered in chocolate then blood of the end of the day.

I received a scholarship to Johnson and Wales in RI at a pageant when I was 16 and had plans to go there... that is until I became pregnant with my DS at 18 during my "break year" between HS and college. At the time I was working the graveyard shift at a bakery and I got quite burned out. I was really bummed about it because all of my life had been directed towards a goal that I now no longer wanted. So I just went to work for the state to make some decent money and have insurance. There was a short period after the birth of my son where the state was having a hiring freeze and I went to work at a local grocery instead AWAY from the bakery counter. Well, one day they needed someone to write on a cake after bakery hours and I let my secret slip and after that they had me working there about half of my shifts... and wouldn't you know it, I fell in love all over again!

Fast forward 3 years and I decide it is time to go to school. I get enrolled at California Culinary Academy in San Francisco and drive my happy single mom butt (along with my almost 3yo DS) down an spend a wonderful (and intense) 8 mos learning SOOO much and getting my Baking and Pastry Arts certificate. By the time school was over I was OUT of money so I headed home ASAP where I got a job as a pastry chef at a local upscale restaurant (name on the menu and all). It was SOOO intimidating to me since I had never worked a job like that before - but I faked it well and soon was comfortable. When it was time for my DS to start school, I needed a daytime job. I knew I wanted to get more into cakes at this time and I knew I needed a job where I could learn to crank them out instead of having them take all day just to get iced. I went to work at a local bakery running their cake and pastry line. From cakes to wedding cakes was a natural progression - thats where the money is! In June of 05 I went down to part time as my own business was starting to grow and by November of 05 I quit altogether and I have been going strong ever since!

My husband was deployed to Iraq and so my good friend asked me to take the first Wilton class with her and I really did not want to but I did just to get me out of the house some with out children. Believe it or not I kept taking all the classes they had to offer and I just loved doing it ever since. It is kind of like an escape to some where else when I decorate cakes. I guess what I am trying to say is that it gives me an outlet to something else that I enjoy than being with the kids 24/7. Not that I don't love my family but it just gives me a chance to have adult time. I am a licensed hygienist but I have not been back in the dental field since my boys were born so with a lot of practice hopefully this may become my new found profession.

I've always loved to bake and cook but I never thought it would turn into something. When my grandma passed away a little over a year ago people asked me if I was going to take over her cake business. I just laughed because I had never decorated a cake before. I guess I was wrong!! There are many times now that I wish I would have been helping my grandma rather than eating the cake scraps!

I've never taken any classes and I told my husband that I was pretty sure that my grandma is with me everytime I decorate a cake and she's the one doing it!!

On a side note, when my grandma passed away one of the flower arrangements had a box of Duncan Hines incorporated into it along with wooden spoons. It was really cute and very thoughtful!!