How To Know If I Am Good Enough

Do you have any pics. I just kept practicing and practicing, etc. until i felt confident, Made for family and friends, etc. You just know . I took extra classes in buttercream, fondant , gumpaste. chocolate. etc. Good Luck Have confidence in what you do.

I'd also say take a look at cakes posted on this site and compare yours to the ones you see. You'll see all kinds of different ability level cakes on here. People would say how good my cakes were until I showed them some on here! Granted, I'm not a pro. And one more thing, not only do you have to consider decorating, but what about taste?? Try out different recipes until you find ones that work for you. I made different recipes and give samples to my neighbors asking them for their input.

You seem plenty talented to me. I love your rose cake. But I do agree the taste is very important too. I have been trying new fillings also. That where I struggle because no body I know likes butter cream.

I'd say keep practicing and post some of the pictures on here. And this site is perfect to learn new techniques and get honest advice about your cakes!

An oldie but a goodie. Still invaluable advice:

http://cakecentral.com/cake-decorating-ftopict-50352.html

Took a look at your cakes - - - your decorating is good enough. Only you can decide if the taste is on the same level. And if you're doing cakes for family and friends regularly, you're only going to get better.

The best thing you can do if you decide to go for it is a business plan. Yes, it takes a while and some of it is a pain, but it will help you more than you know. Also, if you don't have any knowledge or experience in bookkeeping or running the business side of a business, get some. Too many bakers think that baking and decorating are the only things involved in starting a business, and because of that a lot of very talented ones fail miserably.

Good luck with whatever you decide.

Bobeba, i just looked at your cakes. When i replied before , they were not posted. You do beautiful cakes. You are there girl!!!

Bobeba~~Your cakes certainly LOOK professional. I assume they taste as good as they look.

I just read the thread provided by Kelley, "Some thoughts on starting your own business". A lot of great information in that thread. (Keep in mind that thread was from 2006, when the economy was in a Boom Cycle. It is now in a Bust Cycle and cake is a luxury item, not a necessity item.)

Disclaimer--I am a hobby baker. I am retired from 30+ years in medical equipment sales with a very strong and successful background in all the business aspects. The "cake decorating/baking" thing is the new thing for me. I was a workaholic and never had a hobby before this one. (I LOVE my cake decorating hobby!!!)

The single biggest thing I see in the forums about "starting a business", is that people have not done the needed research required to prepare a realistic, detailed business plan. The second thing I see is that many cake artists are the opposite of me. They are VERY artistic, but have very few business skills. And, the third thing.....most of the plaintive cries from cake artists are because they get involved emotionally with the client and/or the "desire" to create the cake and end up charging FAR too little.

The first step is to discover the legal limitation in your State/County for operating a small cake decorating business. The second step would be to purchase the CakeBoss software and read this article:
http://www.cakeboss.com/PricingGuideline.aspx

SCORE, and the SBA (Small Business Administration) can provide some excellent ideas. See if your geographic area has the customer base that will support the prices you will need to charge.

Good luck on your endeavor! Your cakes are beautiful and are definitely "custom" quality. If you can create those beauties in a fairly quick time-frame, then you are on your way.

I'm not good enough, but I sell my cakes anyways.