i kinda like the cookie topped cake over bc roses its cute and creative!

I can't make a rose either. I usually buy white ones and spray paint them. Oh yeah, my friend told me it was gross when she saw me using a spackeling (the one they use to do dry wall) knife to smooth a cake. What? We didn't use it to do the dry wall in our kitchen!

I am soo glad I am not the only one!!! I cannot do a shell border to save my life either...it just doesn't work!! I dont even offer them to my customers...Now if they requested it I would...But I dont bring it up!!! I cant stand the way my roses look either...I practiced once trying to make roses with my little boys play dough...they were soo cute. I tried once with fondant and they looked AWFUL!!!! Hmmm I think I could go on Forever!! But I feel much better now!! Thanks Ladies!!! I love this thread too!!!

Yum that does look so cute. Sugar cookies and icing yum yum!

My little secret is I cant make BC flowers, drop flowers etc. I really have to work at making anything look like a flower. Fondant does work better for me and I have not attempted modeling clay as yet.

I also cant smoothly ice a cake with BC to save my soul. I need to buy sugarshacks videos 4 sure

I absolutely cannot get buttercream smooth on any cake!

I cannot and will not do stringwork!

I always bake from a mix and everyone thinks its scratch too!!

shhhhhh - these are my little secrets - don't tell! haha

I drop icing into my kids mouth from 6 inches above them.... there is never any contact with the bag and their mouth.... but still it is icing... My son loves it, he calls it shishee... he is not quite 18 months.

I cant cover a cake board nice enough!!

And I'm with everyone on the buttercream flowers...those are so stressful!

this is an interesting thread
After 25+ yrs of decorating I find most b'cream techniques & flowers easy
I dislike stringwork......I can do it in small loops (looks like a fish net) but not when you have to span 3"
It's easy to make a wild rose right on your c ake - keep the cake on a turntable; use tip 104 and pipe out a rounded petal; tuck tip under that one, turn turntable a couple of inches and continue piping like that for a total of 5 petals.
Someone mentioned a shop making 'blobs' of icing that look somewhat like a flower....this is probably what they are doing. Once you add a center & leaves it will look really coool Adding another layer or two on top of the 1st 5 petals really makes them look good.

I'm terrified of fondant. I take classes from a local shop (not Wilton) and advanced classes start in a couple of weeks...that means it's time for fondant!!! On the plus side I nailed my buttercream roses on the first try and have been doing them ever since!!! This is a great topic!!!

I hate to write on a cake. My handwriting is not the best on paper, but on a cake. I've practiced and used all kinds of tricks but I still hate it. Stress level is goes up the more words I have to include on a cake.

I can't do buttercream flowers worth a darn. And I can't get buttercream smooth to save my life. Oh well....just keep practicing, I guess.

Sugarbakerz - I do that with my kids, too! lol

I can't do the shell border either. I sort of do a figure 8 that kind of looks like some sort of reverse shell border around the top edge of cakes and on the bottoms of cakes I do a sort of continuous circle thing that mildly resembles shells. And my other dirty little secret is that when I'm not sure a cake is quite good enough or it may need something more, I add sparkles And finally, while I know how to make gumpaste roses, I usually just purchase them! This cake exemplifies all 3 of my dirty little secrets in one!

http://www.cakecentral.com/cake-photo_1196987.html

oh my after reading this i am thanking my lucky stars buttercream is not as popular here in australia!! I basically only use it to top come of my cupcakes! as for my dirty little secrets well i am really good at 'faking it' i agree to do a cakes that i am not sure i can actually do! (bad I know!) but i work really well under pressure and always figure it out in the end -thats how i have learnt basically as i have never had any training whatsoever.

I have one too! back when I was starting to gather my tools as a decortaor i realsied i could purchase very similar items much much cheaper from the hardware store! -brand new and cleaned thoroughly and never used for anything but food though of course!!!

Wow! I'm so glad to know I'm not the only one! I really suck at rolling out fondant. It's so hard for me. But i've only used wilton. So, I want to try others.


I use box mixes too.

Im a newbie and I have bought tons of book on cakes , so i can be an awsome from scratch baker (lol). I have to say im learning some dirty tricks from you guys. Im gonna be a box girl from here on out.

I'll teach you guys..bet You can learn too!...

OK. this has been fun to read... I'm going to jump on in...

1) I (even though I write it out before writing on the cake) Will inevitably MISPELL SOMETHING ! I think I hate writing on a cake so much I freak myself out!

2) Bake from a box also and people think I bake from scratch.

3)Have to have my daughter help me with color combo's I JUST CANT GRAB THAT COLOR WHEEL CONCEPT!

BUT I CAN PIPE A KILLER ROSE!

Thanks Texas rose... your sweet!

1-every cake I bake, I mess something up and have to redo it. Baking, fondant, icing, whatever it is I know I will get something wrong and be up till 3am
2-I am so completely hopeless with an icing bag, I can't even pipe a buttercream dam. My favorite thing is when I overfill the bag and it squishes out the top. Wheeee!
3-No matter what I do I can't seem to put enough filling in my cakes. Even when I think I've stuffed them to the gills, you cut into them and it's like two layers of cake with a vanilla-flavored sliver in between. Then I cut into one of those danged Costco cakes with a 1/2" of filling and I feel so stingy. The filling doesn't bulge or squish out or absorb into the cake; I think it just hates me and performs some sort of hoodoo magic. I am thinking of serving filling on the side. Anybody with me?

I'll only make roses out of royal icing. I'd rather gouge my eye out with a blunt spoon than do them in bc.

I'll make a thousand 5-petal apple blossoms in RI before I do a single drop flower.

I've never gotten the concept of a crumb coat. I do one coat of bc with no problems.

I give my kids the leveled-off cake pieces for breakfast frequently .

Here are a few of my secrets:
1. I can't make a bc rose to save my life either. However, I can make a pretty good victorian rose with RI.
2. I've never been able to get my reverse shell border right.
3. I have to use a letter press or print off a font of lettering & pin prick it to do descent writing on a cake.
4. Most of my recipes are doctored mixes, & I allow people think that they're from scratch.
5. I freeze all my cakes up to a week in advance, and no one knows the difference.

I can do great roses and buttercream flowers, but after doing cakes for almost 30 year, I too can not do stringwork, and if someone brings me a picture with stringwork I start figuring out ways to convince them of other designs, like pearls or dots, corneli lace, etc. for the stringwork. argh!