What frustrates you MOST about cake decorating?!?

Delivery.

Yesterday was the very first time a cake left my house and it was a tiered cake also. I gasped at every little bump along the way.

Icing. Trying to get that perfectly smooth flawless cover of icing. It stresses me out so much, that I'm hating the cake until it's finished. Then I step back and look and think, Hmmm..not so bad after all.

cleaning!!!!

actual baking of the cakes..making icing and definetly clean up!

^ Ditto.

What "FRUSTRATES" me the most is when I can't remember where I stored a tool or mold or whatever - of if I even OWN the thing I'm looking for! Class case of CRAFT memory.

What I "HATE" most is delivery. I've never had a disaster, but I still sweat bullets every time - even with single layer cakes.

I hate getting the icing smooth and the clean up.

Icing 6" cakes. dread those because it's either a victory from the start or a disaster. No in between. It seems that I can ice four 14" rounds in less time than it would take me to get one 6" one right.

cheap people!! people want all these extravagant cakes, but how dare i want to get paid for them.

Sh@t cakes! Ooops meant SHEET CAKES!

That is 90% of what I do at my job. No airbrush, edible images or dec-ons. All done in BC or Better Cream. UGH!

Have to agree with the Cheap People too!

Having a really great idea for decorating a cake and planning it out in my head................then nothing workds out and everything changes. I hate that! But at the same time it makes me think on my feet fast!

Oh-- I agree with the clean up too!

Melissa)))

I get real frustrated when I can't get a color to tint correctly (especially when I have to use a combination of colors because the particular color I need is not a 'standard' color).

Then, to add to the frustration, when I put together the wrong combination - or too much of one color, & I end up too dark - & it can't be undone. Grrrrrrrrrrr

My lack of skill. And the lack of time to improve those skills.

I agree with HoobyBaker. Sheet cakes are the worst. I have to take that one step further....when I have customers that want it completely covered in fondant and are shocked at the final price.

Clean up too.

I'm teaching myself how to make gumpaste flowers. And loving it. I look for every opportunity to be able to make a cake and decorate it with gumpaste flowers.

So what do family and friends request for their cake designs? "Could you make it like a burger? How about a book with a frog? Can you make it into a train?"

*sigh* That is what frustrates me the most. To have all these beautiful designs in my head that I KNOW I can do, but no one to do it for.

People. cheap people, rude people, people who want the world for nothing, people who have no concept of time, people who can't follow directions and get lost.

My favorite: "hello, do you still have time to do a cake for Friday?? (Its Tuesday)" me:"well, if its simple maybe, what would you like?" "Oh, a cake for 50 in the shape on a RV, your 3D cakes are $65, right?"

Its a VERY good thing I work by myself in a basement.

Most frustrating for me is the "prep"...the baking, making icing, etc....getting everything all ready to do the actual decorating which I love.

That caking is a very expensive hobby that I have to limit right now. I would love to bake & cake everyday but just can't afford too. Sigh...

Oh, I HATE the "Billy loved your Yoda cake, can he have one JUST LIKE THAT?"s. I hate doing the same cake more than once, particularly if they're expecting it to look just like the first. I can pretty much play with any theme, but people want the same thing over and over .

my teeny tiny kitchen making it difficult to get things done! clean up, making fondant and also my lack of skill...

the money thing is also frustrating!!

It used to be delivery before I got my CakeSafe so now it is clean up followed closely by smoothing the icing, both BC and fondant!

Writing on a cake! I feel my cakes looks pretty decent up to that point, and then I totally blow it. LOL

I enjoy all the process of shopping, preparing the batter, baking the cake, making the icing, and the best part, putting everything together. Then it comes the C-L-E-A-N-I-N-G ........ cleaning is the first most frustrating part for me. The second most frustrating is that no one in the household (I am a hobby baker) notices my baked and decorated goods. (I will still do it because I enjoy it a lot, the noticing is just a nice compliment.)

Not having the time except in the middle of the night when I'm too tired to get my buttercream smooth enough or to even pull out stuff and practice.

Great post! I have to say the fondant and buttercream smoothing - although I got my SugarShack DVD's, so hopefully that starts getting better....I always have this..what I will call "pleats" when covering with fondant, I have no idea how to get rid of...another thing that completely frustrates me is finding the right size cutter to cut something out - and either not having it or having to dump out a huge container to find it.

Clean up and people with champagne taste and a beer budget and people who want me to price them like 20 different cakes and then don't order because they are all over their budget.

Ditto what itsmylife said - TINTING ICING! Also, smoothing buttercream, and not having enough room to work or store my supplies in my home kitchen.