Tiddly - I'm sorry if my experience has left you disheartened! I wish you every success in your venture, having closed a business before you will have a realistic view of when enough is enough, or if things are going well. My biggest fear is turning into my alcoholic cousin who runs a cake business but hasn't seen that it isn't working well enough to realise she needs to give it up or change how she is attacking it, her family is completely screwed up, she's bitter and a pathological liar and alot of it is down to the business!

I can't remember where you said you are from, but every area is slightly different and if you don't give it a good go then you will never know! I hope everything goes well for you!

ATiddy I'm with Kathy giving you that friendly "shove". You've been diligent with your research and prep so I'm sure it will all be ok. Nerves are natural starting something new. I remember when I started my business I was so petrified and under confident. I think my background was screaming at me "people like us are workers not business owners". 10 years later........

Things have gone a bit quiet for the first time and has unnerved me a bit. Maybe it will pick up or if not I get to ditch the crazy working hours and spend some longed for time with my DH......and maybe dig deep find the confidence that has seen me through the last 10 years and try to make more of my baking prowess. All I know is I couldn't work for anyone again!

Go for it girl - you can do it.......can't let the cake room and table go to waste, especially after all the blisters.

ASorry for this quick me post but my top tier choc 6" should I put on 6" cake card then put my fondant on or should I transfer to same size card after I've iced it??

Put it on the card then crumb coat and ice it.

ATiddy you have to at least give it a go. It's better to have tried and given up than to regret not trying at all. Working for yourself is the best thing!

Jo your cake looks better this morning I think. I would put the top tier on the same size board and cover it on there. That way you can hide the board as much as possible.

Oh and whoever wanted the ganache recipe I just use 2 parts dark/milk chocolate to 1 part cream (so 200ml cream means 400g chocolate) or 3 parts white chocolate to 1 part cream (200ml cream = 600g chocolate).

AGood morning all!!!:)

Jo, here is what I do. This may help you next time. :-)

To make dark choc ganache, you need one part cream to two part dark chocolate. So if you are using 100ml cream then you have to use 200g chocolate. There are so many ways to do it. Either you can do it in microwave, heat the milk and pour over the chocolate or over a simmering water. And for the white chocolate, it's one part cream to three parts of white chocolate. Never tried milk chocolate so can't help with that one.

Once the cake is baked and cooled, I level it, whether there's a dome or not. Then I turn it upside down and stick it on to a same size cake board using a bit of ganache. ( Even though you are using a same size board, there will be a gap between the cake and the board which is great when you are ganaching. Because the ganache will be filled into that gap and cover any unevenness you have around the cake). Then I Torte it twice, brush the layers with sugar syrup and again using ganache, I pipe a dam around each tier and put the filling. Once everything is done, I leave it to settle overnight. Then the next day I ganache it. Then let it dry and using warm water, sugar syrup or vodka, brush the whole cake and then cover it with sugar paste.

If you are stacking the cake, then make sure you dowel it staring after you cover it with saga paste.

Hope this helps . :smile:

A

Um so you cut into each layer and filled once you cut them you mean? My plan was to just use the two layers not cut them and fill just the two togther. Sponge seems so soft I'm scared it would fall apart or do you find my it OK ?

AIn terms of layers Jo it's up to you. I don't like each layer to be too thick because I prefer more filling but cutting them too thin I find makes it hard to cover without them all wiggling around. If you have two separate cakes based I would just sandwich them together with filling in between unless they're very thick cakes. My cakes usually come out around 2inches high and I use 2 cakes per tier with just filling in the middle unless I know it's for someone who really likes a lot of filling in which case I cut each layer in half (giving me 4 layers) and filling each one.

AOh Kathy.. Thanks for that. It should be " straight after ":-D

AJo, like Sugarluva mentioned, it's up to you to decide how many layers you want. I bake my cakes in one go. That is up to 10". Then I bake in two halves one at a time. What I said before, works for me. So you need to try and find what works best for you. :grin:

Tiddy - they are great!  I LOVE the camper van!   You are very talented - this is not a shove but a blinkin' great kick now!!

ATiddy those are great. How long have you been making them? They're such a good idea and go so well with a cake business. Do they keep you busy or is it just an occasional order kind of thing? Sorry my turn to be nosey now.

They do keep me from twiddling my thumbs but not mega busy, it was more of a fun hobby really as I need to be creative to stop me being bored! lol. Its always something with me.

 

For a while i took up crochet then decided it wasnt creative enough so tried miniature crochet instead! My kids just laugh at me when I start something new...like whats next mum!

 

Heres a few little fellows I made at the time:

 

 

Hello everyone!

 

There's rather a lot to catch up on but I'll try to read the other pages later so I'm up to date!

 

It's good to hear from Maisie, though sad about the circumstances, but we are all here for her whenever she needs us.

 

Tiddy, I'm thinking of branching out into clay as well when I've got the chance to practice on clay (which I haven't even bought yet!!). I need to think about money making things that I can/could be good at.

 

Natt, sorry to hear about your business problems. You are not alone. I haven't had a single order for a long while. I get a few calls that never turn into actual orders. Although I don't get 'Gosh that's expensive' reaction, I know from body language that's what some people are thinking. The fact of the matter is, people don't have an idea how long it takes to make cakes and the decorations. I am trying to find a way to promote myself to my target market, and I'm hoping the business adviser I'm meeting today will have an idea how (and hopefully it doesn't involve lots of £££). I think although the market is getting you noticed, you are not being noticed by the right people. Would you try the wedding fair route? That's what I'd like to do but I'm still making initial inquiries! 

 

All the best x

Tiddy, those are sooooo cute!!! gosh that pig is adorable :)

and Tiddy your cake toppers are fab too! 

Tiddy - can you give tips on making models - I have started making a couple and did a teddy however there was evidence of cracking and how to you get bit to stick and stay stuck!!!  Mine was ok but nothing as refined as yours - whats your ingredients and best tips you could spare us? Ta

AJo for me it depends how big my layers are, like the hen party cake last week I went the next size mix up and had deeper layers so I could cut each layer.

Tiddy your toppers and mini crochet animals are adorable.

AKathy - if it helps I thought it was very funny! But maybe my humour is off too!

Jeanie - I have done a couple of wedding fayres with no joy, great reaction on the day, people not shocked by prices, a few enquiries then no orders. I'm sorry to hear you are having similar problems!

Tiddy - your pig is rediculously cute! My mum is the same as you, can't be bored and so tries every craft going!

AOK thanks everyone for advice and ganache info. Top cake is on not sure if it will stay there but we shall see, I wont go on anymore about layers and all the other problems I'm having as must be quite annoying for you all experienced ones.

All I will say is I have learned a lot from today and yesterday so good job I did a trial, got to leave caking for a week or so as I doing my head in as don't like getting things wrong. Also feel bad as have not spent enough time with my girls whilst faffing!

Hopefully the actual christening cake will be a success. I will let you know x

Ladies wondering if anyone can help me.I am wanting to try doing a square cake with the diamond quilted design on it this coming week. The cake will be covered in fondant.this is the impression mat I will be using to do it

http://www.craftcompany.co.uk/impression-mat-small-diamond-design-150mm-x-305mm.html

 

Has anyone ever used one of these? Is the pattern suppose to be matched up all the way round if so what is the best way to make it match? 

I'm far from experienced Jo and it is not annoying you asking about the layers and other problems your having,its the best way learn by asking people that have had the same problems when they were learning which I still am. I wish I had known about this site when I first started decorating cakes would have saved a lot of ingredients going in the bin  

 

Are you gonna post a pic of your finished cake would love to see it and the nice thing about doing a practice is you and you family get to eat all that cake 

AAh thanks Roxylee, I'm afraid to say I couldn't show you this one as think you would all gasp in horror! Top tier was harder than bottom for me if possible as choc buttercream go ruddy everywhere ! Then this is a problem whilst rushing to get covered having my daughter under my feet, so didn't help myself really !

I know now to ensure both tiers are level before trying stack, had trouble with dowels as cake uneven. This one is going on the boot to work with me tomorrow to test it's strength. I found it hard to ice small board underneath too so guess it's all practice. I will say though the 9" one was the biggest I have ever covered!

Will definitely send pic of christening cake once I have finished debating how many layers to do - arghh !!

Jo don't be daft off course we wouldn't we've all been there you should have seen some of the dissasters I've had and thats not just when I first started sometimes you just get a cake that is just all problems and you want to throw it at the wall. You should try the upside down method I found it really easy so maybe it would work better for you.