I so wanted to make a cake in the shape of a fire truck for my son's birthday today. I started planning a couple weeks ago - shalderman gave me some excellent directions. I figured even I, the complete novice could do it with proper planning. I made decorations out of RI, Colorflow, and fondant.

The RI pieces kept breaking so I made a few out of melted chocolate - those too broke! I figured if worse came to worse I would use BC. Fast forward to Tuesday - I made three 9x13 cakes and had them all in the freezer. Wednesday I didn't get to start working on them until 10 PM. While I was working on it, I was also working on a two tier (8 & 6 rounds) in the Pixar Cars theme. I made a last minute design change to make the fire truck look like "RED" from Pixar Cars. The problem is I forgot to carve those changes before I filled, crumb coated and crusted. I realized this as I was icing the front of the truck. Then I realized I was doing all this on the temporary board, not the awesome stand I made for it. Transfering was a challenge.

The overall size just seemed so off. Too big in the front. Plus, my oldest son stuck a carton of icecream ontop of a layer in the freezer so it was lopsided. The icing seemed too soft and I could not smooth to save my soul. When I went to add decorations the sizes were too small and I had to start to remake them all. I went to do tires and I realized when I made the design changes it didn't account for the board I made - the tires now would not rest up against the cake

Yes, that is when I conceded! I am a realist - I am not affraid to try new things (RI, Colorflow, Melvira, carving... all on this cake) but I am a perfectionist. Even my greatest critic would have told me to throw in the towel. It looked like my kids decorated it, for the most part. My youngest son did recognize it this morning and stuck his hand in the side of it while daddy watched

I bit off more than I could chew - I need to take some classes to learn these techniques. It was an experience and now we will be eating cake for the next week. Hopefully it will not deter me from doing it again!

Glad I have the back up cake - it turned out pretty good, but it also had its moments and problems. Last night just was not my night!

Thanks for listening.

Don't let it get you down.............do you have pics! your cakes are great, and I am sure it looked adorable!

NO picture! I couldn't even get myself to do it. I didn't finish it since I needed to redo most of the decorations and it had a huge finger drags down the side

Thanks for the compliment - I know I expect way too much of myself. I have only done a handful of cakes. I had high hopes and I let myself down.

Just keep practicing and eat the evidence. : )

Oh I'm sorry it didn't turn out like you planned! But you certainly gave it great effort. You don't know how many times I've done those same things (get things done and realize I didn't do it in the right spot or in teh wrong color or ____ fill in the blank LOL)

I do highly recommend you playing with the Melvira method as its awesome and if you haven't taken the Wilton classes, class 2 works with royal icing and the colorflow. Nice to see it done in person. I highly recommend that too!

As okieinalaska said - eat the evidence That's one of my favorite parts of this cake stuff

Dont let it get to you! Im sure you son will love anythng you make!

Golly, those happen to all of us at one time or another! Can't tell you how many of mine have ended up in the trash because it just wasn't right and I didn't want to have it sitting around where I would eat it. Hang in there, keep a sense of humor and keep practicing!

That's why we make them for our family first! Besides, the better you get, the more you make cakes for other people and your family just gets scraps. Fortunately for me, my boys and husband get pretty excited about cake scraps!

We all have those cakes I promise it gets better with practise!

Thank you all!!! I do realize I am not a professional - amature at best. I will keep baking!!! I will post a pic of my "back-up" cake I took to the party. The ladies at the facility were very impressed and told me I should go into business. Which I thought was very nice. It is those types of compliments that mean the most - they have no vested interest in me, kwim?

I joked around with one of the owners that I had a thought of making their logo in the shape of a cake or on a cake. I could even do transfers on cupcakes. She jumped at it as an added service to her customers that hold parties there. I told her unfortunately at this time I am not "legal" to provide her that service. Now her wheels are turning ....

::deep breath::
"I love cake and cake loves me"
repeat frequently and sincerely until you believe it again
now go have a drink!

I agree with novacaine24