I'm a beginner and this is the first 'theme' cake i've ever made. It was for my son's 1st birthday. I tried to match the 'freehand' look of his party theme -- The Big One. I was running out of time and had to go to a new school orientation the morning of the party so my mom did the polka dots for me. They were supposed to be bigger & spaced out more but since she was trying to help, I couldn't complain (too much). :-) Oh well, it still came out cute and all of our guests raved over it!