I’ve been baking for years and I have my own business and everything. I know we’re all hard on ourselves sometimes but it seems like everytime I hate my cakes and get upset about it, but then the next day I end up liking it. But today I just make a cake and (I promise I’m not here for compliments) but it’s for one of my bigger orders/more serious ones and I hate it 😭 it’s supposed to be a strawberry shortcake theme cake. All I can think about when I look at it is that I thought I had more skill than that, its making me feel like I’m not very good anymore and I’m disappointed in myself. It wasn’t what I was going for at all I don’t know what to do
by Born_Coffee7332
22 Comments
First, it’s a cute cake.
Second, I used to be the same. What helped me is sketching out the cake so I could put that vision down on paper (super rough drawing, I suck at it). I’d label all the decorations with colour, what tip to use etc.
Smaller cakes require a smaller piping tip. Give yourself grace. Learn, practice, and take a few decorating classes if you like.
All the best 💝
Why do you hate it? Looks so good? Maybe it just needs some more strawberry shapes distributed throughout?
You have to be proud of this!! Wow!! It’s amazing👍👍
I think it looks beautiful. That piping is amazing!
Depending on the seriousness of the event it’s for, I’d pipe little strawberries in the white parts. I think it would look whimsical. But I’d be super happy with it either way!
She desperately needs strawberries in the same red tone as the ones on the sign with green stems too. I totally empathise with the creative block you seem to be experiencing. However I’m here to say, snap out of it! The main problem is you’re presenting a strawberry themed cake with no strawberries. Everything else looks fine, but it’s like you’ve given up the ghost before doing the most obvious & probably easy thing- not to mention kinda missing the most important part of the brief, so put some cute strawbs on there & move on… If I was yr customer I’d be so confused why no strawbs?
Are you wanting any opinions or feedback, or more so just venting?
I empathize with what you’re feeling as I’m often not happy with things I make either. Usually it’s specific components that I’m unhappy with rather than the thing as a whole, but it’s disheartening regardless. I’m sorry you’re feeling so down about it.
Really nice cake and I like the colors. 😍
It could be just an artist thing. I think we look at our own creations more critically. When I’m drawing some fanart or something, sometimes I’ll have to take a break of a few hours or overnight because my drawing looks funny or bad. But when I open it the next day, it doesn’t look as bad as I thought previously. I’ll fix a few things and continue.
I would be delighted with this cake. And now I also want a Strawberry Shortcake birthday party. 🍓
For a home baker the cake is great but for a professional product I don’t think it’s good enough. The skill level isn’t there to be selling professionally, even the base buttercream layer isn’t smooth enough… Sorry if that’s harsh. If I ordered a cake from a so called professional and got that I would be very upset.
Don’t give up though! Practice and you will get there! It could just be this style of cake. So when designing cakes for clients it’s ok to design to your skill level and say no to things that are too challenging to you.
I can dm you my address if you don’t want that cake around anymore. Seriously though, it’s really pretty and I would love to taste it.
I think part of the problem is the lighting. Is this where you usually work?
Overhead yellow light is unflattering to everything, it’s going to make your colors all look off because of the tone shift and it’s going to highlight every single flaw with weird shadows.
Put it next to a window or diffuse white light at an angle, I bet you will like the results much more.
Load that baby up with some fresh strawberries and it’ll look great!
Get a smaller piping tip and add a different shade of pink to the piping that’s on there now.
I do a lot of catering, thought I’d fucked a huge client order the other day. Nope. Client was over-the-moon. They loved it and booked another huge catering order.
We can be our own worst critic. Clients pay us as they can’t do it themselves. I think you’re like me and strive for perfection when many customers wouldn’t even notice. It’s a birthday cake that is going to be eaten and then turned into literal shit.
Get at it! Don’t let one bake ruin your energy. X
Can you put strawberries on it?
I think it’s just bland, it needs more oomph to it. fresh strawberries will look good, edible flowers too? maybe some fondant strawberries? I think if you had piped the icing smaller it would’ve looked better and you could’ve added more detail by making it smaller.
Don’t send something out that you hate, either scrap it and re-do or do what you can to make you love this cake.
OTHERWISE
I think it’s a great cake, looks nice, looks like it would be very tasty.
Get some pearls too! It will take center focus against the piping. I think its cute. How old are you because if youre young, as a customer I would be ok with this!
Everytime you bake you are practicing to get where you want. I think this is a very pretty cake! And I can tell you are not only skilled but also passionate :))
I guess you are going for the vintage/marie antoinette type of cake that right now is very popular and I would suggest a few things that will make a big change in the final result:
– use colors that are very similar to each other, meaning that are in the same color range but maybe some darker and some lighter, you could try using the lightest pink and as you go darker use a tiny little drop of red or magenta, even lilac for example!
– I would also use a smaller tip to do the details so you can have more decorations around the cake.
I usually work with whipped cream, I don’t love buttercream cause of consistency (and too sweet for me) but maybe try swiss buttercream next time so your frosting looks shiny if that’s what you are going for.
and hey!!!! don’t get disappointed, every cake is a new chance to learn and get better!!
The base masking could use some work and the piping tips used are a bit too big imo. Also the cake just doesn’t scream strawberry to me. Did the client ask for the overpiping vintage style? Perhaps it needs to be more strawberry shades (red and green) rather than pastel pink and coral red. Otherwise it could be the lighting making the whole cake look yellowish.
For a home baker I’d say this is an impressive cake, however if I ordered a strawberry shortcake themed cake from a professional cake decorator I would be disappointed with this product. Don’t give up, and try to do better next time. Good luck
I just want to put it out there – the only reason I clicked on this is because I read the title, looked at the picture and couldn’t figure out what the problem was so I came to the comments for an explanation.
Some other comments have good suggestions so I’m sure you’ll be able to tweak this into something you’re much happier with, but it does also sound like you’re being way too harsh on yourself.
The visual of the cake is so grocery store level you can present it with more creativity and art which I’m sure you have and you just need to find that inspiration back
That is one beatiful cake
It seems like you might be out over your ski’s with this one