This week, at work, one of the other teachers brought in left over wedding cake from her daughter's wedding. I took one bite and nearly spit it out. It was so dull and bland!! The cake was not so moist, and the icing was all crisco....with imitation vanilla flavoring!! I tasted no real butter and no real flavor!! I was horrified to find out that she got her cake from one of the more popular cake places in town. I keep thinking that if this shop gets such business selling yucky cake, I should do ok because I am ultra picky when it comes to taste and would never let a cake that bad leave the kitchen . Has anyone else experienced similar situations?

im semi like that.. i wont really eat another persons cake or even a store. id rather make it. but then my reasons is bc some ppl dont wash there hands i see this all the time and its pretty gross. at least this way i know my hands are clean and i know whats going into my cakes and what not..

littlebubbieschocolates

What icing recipe do you use?
I have only been using the Wilton buttercream recipe that is all crisco and butter flavoring. I use this because 1. I'm new to cake decorating and know no different and 2. because it is a "white" icing so my colors stay true. I would really hate for somebody to taste my cake and want to spit it out!! I believe a cake should taste as good as it looks! Please share your tips with a newbie!

Sorry I meant to address that to ellepal not to littlebubbieschocolates

I understand what you mean, when I attend parties and have a look at some of the way cakes are decorated and taste it astounds me. I can't believe how much money some people will pay for cakes that are not up to standard. Maybe I am a snob

I'm a snob and proud of it. BUT that being said, there are all different tastes out there. What is good to one is garbage to another.

gibson, think of Wilton as a springboard to bigger and better things. They've taught you the basics and now you can go forth and learn/buy/try new and better products/recipes. I always tease my friend that it's time to leave the nest, she only buys Wilton products. Nothing wrong with that but she's missing out on so much fun stuff.

That's too funny because that's how I feel! Wilton being the BEST. I am now seeing that there are other things out there but am a little scared to try them......what icing would you recommend? Using butter, doesn't that change the color of your icing to an off white? and if it is off white how do you get a "true" color?

I know what you mean! We were at Sam's recently and I saw people buying their decorated cakes. I had already checked them out and the cakes were bumped against the plastic boxes, big air holes in the frosting and just messy. I couldn't believe people were actually buying them!

ellepal ~ I see that you're from Youngstown.....I'm originally from New Castle, PA...not too far from you!

Hey ellepal and Bunco... I'm in Western PA... about 50 min from Youngstown and 30 min from New Castle!! Nice to see areas near me mentioned on the board!!

Can't say I'm a snob yet since I am just starting out... but I cam already tell I am heading in that direction.

I will eat just about anything sweet, but I do scrape off the thick layer of icky frosting. Our Sam's Club has good cake-moist and not overly sweet frosting. Our Krogers on the other hand...you'd have to be a little kid or very hungry to like their cake. A twinkie would be better.

I vowed yesterday never to make another batch of crisco frosting. I lied. Crisco makes great practice frosting. I just hate the cleanup. The crisco floating in my dish water is gross.

Gibson : adding a little heavy cream is the only way I've found to give the crisco based frosting a decent texture. A little lime juice cuts the sicky-sweet taste.

Littlebubbles: If it's any consolation, baked goods are not good transmitters of cooties. The baking process kills off the bad guys. That's why you never hear of anyone getting sick from the thousands of bakesales that people have.

I too am a cake snob! I happen to live in a large community of which many are my customers. Many times at an event, the question arises, is this a Helen Cake? Then I will not eat it!!! LOL

I am guity...I am a HUGE cake snob. To myself, or to my DH....I always comment about a cake...."I could do better" is usually my thought. As far as decorated cakes from the "Superstores"....give me a break!!
Cosco cakes are so tacky it's unbelievable....they are yummy however.

I guess I'm a very visual person. Who was it that said something like...it tastes better when it's decorated. Was it Martha? We know she's a snob! he he

Hi Gibson-
You were asking for a new icing recipe. Take your normal Wilton class recipe and divide the crisco. Use half crisco and half butter. Then you can continue with the rest of the recipe. It will make your icing a bit off white, but you won't have any problems getting any "true" color. If you need bright white, you will need to do the all Crisco recipe, but usually people can never tell that it is off white especially when it is used in combination with other colors.

This recipe will make your consistency a bit softer so go slow when adding your liquid (I use water) until you get the desired consistency. The taste is so much better than the class recipe. Once you try this, you can venture into all kinds of other icings - just take baby steps!

Brandi

I've started making specialty frostings to ice the cake with and using the crisco recipe with butter flavoring (and maybe almond instead of vanilla) to decorate with. That way, they see the pretty decorations, but the taste is a whole lot better. Also, I've heard you can add a drop or two of blue food coloring to give it a whiter appearance, however, I haven't tried it myself yet.

ok I am also a cake snob. I have found myself looking at the cakes in the stores and saying I can't believe we used to buy this stuff and eat it, never again. The only thing is my DH always liked Icecream cake from DQ for his birthday. but he likes my icing so I told him on his next birthday I will get a cake plain and I will add the decoration to it.

Cake snob? LOL

Ive done different icings till they come out of my rear end! ( sorry for the graphic analogy!!!)

While I was younger, LOVED that American Buttercream with sprinkes, especially when it got a chance to crust over the next day out at room temperature.

My son decided at age 8 that he liked whipped ganache with a poured on glaze on chocolate cakes!

My hubby at the time liked the icing I made with brandy and whipping cream.

My customers have always gotten swiss meringue butter cream with american buttercream icing.

Me? Give me a naked warm cake with a little sugar syrup and a hot cup o' joe and I'm happy!

We all have our own individual prefrences!!

rotfl!

my four year old dd is the biggest snob at the birthday parties. When cake time comes around she usually just sits there with her arms crossed and a wrinkled up nose. She MIGHT poke her piece a few times, she always says "I just don't like that cake because its not like yours mommy"
What have I done to my kids I've ruined birthday party cake for them!!!!

Hi Tammy-
As far as crusting goes, it crusts just like the class recipe, so there is no problem there. And yes, to have a stiffer consistency, you just add less water. These aren't stupid questions at all. That's why we are all here....to learn. Even those who have been at this for years still have stuff to learn from others.


Just another tip: When using butter, you will want to make sure it is at room temp. before mixing it. If it is still cold, your mixer won't be able to get a smooth, creamy mixture and you could have little chunks of butter in your icing, and that isn't very pretty and I imagine not too tasty either. I have also used margarine sticks if I didn't have any butter on hand. It also works fine.

Its my opinion that you should be a cake snob...your cakes are great....I wish I had more confidence in my cakes to feel the same way.....

I don't want to be a snob...honest!! I just happen to be a diet-challenged scale-buster who likes a decent tasting cake!

The people who made the yucky cake did the whole cake in the crisco icing......inside and out. If I may quote a few of my high school students: "It was GROSS!!"

I think the all crisco frosting is ok for making the roses and the borders, but it just has no flavor for the rest of the cake. To me, it just tastes like powdered sugar mixed with solid vegetable fat. I would never frost an entire wedding cake in it. And the white imitation vanilla is not the same as a great Mexican vanilla. If I iced the outside with the crisco, I'd at least do a torte on the inside using ganache, fruit, whipping cream, or REAL french buttercream so that the cake gets natural flavor and doesn't taste artificial or sickeningly sweet.

I'd rather sacrifice a subtle shade of white than an outstanding, memorable flavor the person will get nowhere else in town. Flavor comes first to me, and if I can make it look as good as it tastes, then I feel successful.

I feel the same way about fondant......the homemade variety is ok, but not delish. (I absolutely PROTEST the Wilton brand fondant.....I'd rather eat Playdough). If I do a fondant cake with the homemade, I try to do something extra special on the inside so that it's the best looking AND best tasting cake they've ever had. The fondant usually gets peeled off anyway, so why not make that wonderful 3 layer torte bursting with great flavor!!

Anyway, I can ramble on forever!! I can't help it: I just love to eat!!!

Yeah that sounds right. I think you may need to play around with the consistency whenever you need to. It is softer than the class recipe, so if you need to make roses you might want to use the all crisco buttercream.

Another yummy to make chocolate BC is to melt some chocolate chips and add to the recipe. Once I added too much cocoa powder and it tasted bitter, so now I like to add the melted chocolate chips.

I am so happy that you liked the recipe. Once I tasted it, I too will never go back unless I need pure white stiff icing.

Glad I could help!!

Great topic! I don't think I am a cake snob . . .yet. I like tasting other cakes so I can learn from them. But the people who ususally eat my cake have become cake snobs. I am a teacher and when I wanted to pracitice somthing or felt a cake itch I would make a small cake and take it in and share it with the teachers I eat lunch with. I also made a large majority of the cakes for the teacher functions. One of the teachers I worked with had cake that I didn't make. Thankfully it was in the safety of my classroom. She took a big bite and said "Ugh this isn't JenniCakes!" So the name stuck and if and when I ever open a buisness I will call it JenniCakes.

My oldest daughter is a cake snob. She won't eat anyone's cake but mine. My friend is the same way. We went to a wedding this past weekend and my DD ask me to bring a piece of cake home. When we got to the reception I checked out the cake. (I'm always doing that now. always checking out the competition). First off it was tilted, badly and they used real roses and had them stuck in the cake to make a rose cascade. I had a piece because I wanted to taste it and I know the bakery she used has good cakes. The icing wasn't bad and it had this great flavor, but the cake was dry. I took a piece to my DD and she promply spits it out saying this isn't your cake, mom. This is nasty. I had to laugh.

Life's too short to eat bad cake. I'm a cake snob and proud!

Just an update: I spoke with the other teacher who provided the yucky cake from her daughters wedding. She said that her daughter was pretty unhappy with the cake too....maybe I am not a snob and it was really just very bad!!

Jenni....I always find obliging teachers willing to eat my practice cakes. What a great way to get your name out there! They really chat and get the word circulated!! I have a wedding cake booked from the school because one of the staff members liked it.

I had to respond to this because MY wedding cake was HORRIBLE! My husband and I had our reception at a very nice resort and the cake was made by the pastry chef there and it was really awful. It looked really nice but it tasted just bad! In fact, that's one of the things I keep thinking about is, if that person can get a job as a pastry chef in a nice resort making cakes that taste that bad, then I can make mine 100 times better. I am about as newbie as a newbie can be when it comes to cake decorating, but my whole thought and motivation is that I want my cakes to taste every bit as good as they look!

Katie

I went to a wedding last week and was not impressed with the cake. I thought even I could do better than that! I felt bad just thinking like that. I a new at cake decorating and never thought I would be thinking like that.
Judy