I'm new to the world of cake decorating. I'm taking the Wilton series of classes and I just finised the first one. I start flower and cake design on Thursday. I have a few questions, I'm wondering if you can steer me in the right direction.

1. Where do you get the ideas for your cakes? I have so many new techniques flying around in my head that when I have to think about decorating an actual cake my head kind of spins!

2. How do you practice the techniques? Do you practice? LOL! I have the Wilton practice board... so I guess I could just practice on there, but don't really feel that give me a whole lot of practice, since I only go 6" then scrape and start over.

Hello and welcome to Cake Central, When I look at some of the cakes here on Cake Central , I still feel new too. There is so much talent here, and you can learn so much. When I want to practice, If I were feeling lazy I would buy Wilton's premade frosting . And I would practice on an empty cake pan, just scrape it off and start over. Good Luck and I hope this helps.

I, too took the Wilton courses. As far as cake designs go...I just start with color and theme...If someones favorite color is purple and they love violets...that's the starting piont. I also have a huge sketchbook full of ideas that come to my mind that I would love to try in the future. Every time I get an idea and don't have anyone to use it for at the time or even if I do, I draw and write about it in my sketch book. I practiced in between classes with leftover frosting, especially when we started making flowers. Royal icing, fondant & gumpaste flowers last forever!! So you can practice and stock up for future cakes.( Don't through out unused frosting. Freeze it! Royal, buttercream, it doesn't matter...Re-whip before using again). Mostly I practiced by just making cakes..for anyone and any occasion!! I still do whenever I want to try a new technique, I make a cake for someone!!!

Thanks so much!! Cake pans are a great idea! I do some much better with 3-Dimensional viewing... at least then I can see it. I do sketch ideas, but don't have a really great grasp on what I can actually FIT on a cake. I had no idead I could actually freeze icing! That's GREAT! It won't bug me nearly as much when I have to make icing for class now!

I actually trace around the bottom of the cake pan in my sketchbook so I know the exact size I'm working with when it comes to designing the top of the cake. When I'm working on trying to design the side of the cake I make sure to work with approx. 4" high sketch because that is usually the height of my cakes. I've found no matter how well you think out or draw out your design prior to actually making the cake...I almost always need to make last minute changes to make the design work on the cake properly.