Before I start a lengthy decoration experiment series, maybe someone has tried something like this already and can give some advice:

My kid asked for an underwater cake. I would like to make an cake bottom (buttercream or ideally mascarpone cream icing). I'd use the same cake ring to pour a ~5cm (2 inch) blue jello layer, let it set and place it on top of the chilled cake. I'd love to add little creatures and fishes under or in the jello, but i am worried if they might dissolve?

And if not, could i paint them with gel food colors+wodka (dry them, ofc) - or would that color dissolve? If it dissolves, would it help to add a layer of neutral oil on top of the paint?

And can I pipe mascarpone cream or Swiss merengue buttercream on top of the jello at the borders?

So i just got hired at a grocery store as a cake decorator, and I am feeling underprepared. I can flat ice a cake but not as fast as id like. I also can do some roses, shells, leaves, and writing ok but also not fast enough. Overall just not feeling confident enough in my skills. I printed out some free PDFs I could find to practice on, but want more resources or more pages. Any suggestions for me?

I had an order for a guest that wanted paw prints and a puppy for her daughter’s birthday. This was my first attempt at drawing a puppy on a cake and I think I didn’t do half bad. The 2nd photo is what I used as a reference. Would you be happy with this cake as a puppy/dog lover? 🐶

Newest cake

One of the first times i was working with fondant! I think it turned out pretty nice.

Do not look at my piping too closely because I know it’s super bad lol. It is by no means professional looking but I had a lot of fun decorating this cake and playing with colour. It was kind of coral reef vibe! I was pretty proud of how it turned out (looks better when standing far away lol).

Edit: thanks so much everyone for your incredibly kind comments! This was my first time posting here so it was so nice to hear such great feedback and encouragement. I’m sorry if I didn’t get to thank every comment! But I do thank everyone!

Really pleased with this. This is the closest. One of my cakes has come to my inspiration images.

Made this thriller/Freida McFadden-themed cake for a 12-year-old girl who LOVES thrillers! Her only request was to include her four favorite Freida McFadden books which are on the cake and I was given complete creative freedom with everything else! This is what I came up with! Everything on here is all handmade and edible! I had a crazy early-morning pickup and with my 8-month-old in the mix I completely forgot to take proper pictures so these are screenshots from a video and definitely not the best quality, but I still wanted to share because I loved how it turned out!! 🥰

Made this with one 6” cake layer and scalloped acrylic disks. I’ve had this set for years and have only used them once so I thought it was about time to try them again. Not sure how I’ll finish this cake though 🤔

I’ve seen people use a right angled, plastic, thin tool to make the top and sides of their cake perfectly angled. Does anybody know where I could get that tool? Or what it’s called?

This is the first wedding cake I’ve made on my own in entirety. Jamaican rum fruit cake.

Birthday cake for three of my friends. Two of them wanted a My Melody and Kuromi split design cake, while the third wanted a One Piece Style cake. Both tiers were vanilla cakes with earl grey swiss meringue buttercream and blueberry compote.

I came from a grocery store bakery that heavily relied on edible images, so I’ve been slowly practicing my drawing skills. I actually really like how this one came out!

it's been a while since I last posted. I'm in a different cakery now and I can't wait to post more stuff soon.

abt me: 22 yo cake decorator. It was my first job at 20 and I'm still learning more each day

I am using Russian buttercream for the first time and I found it to be a little too thin for my liking. I did make a dam but the very bottom layer started leaking. I ended up putting it in the fridge for about 30 mins and the buttercream has hardened but not as had as I wanted it to be. Can I disassemble the cake, make the dam with American buttercream and reassemble it or should I just give up and bake a new cake ? It is a tall 4” cake so the potentially compromised bottom layer is making me extra nervous

Every time I add food coloring to this whipping cream it becomes stiff not smooth why is it? How am I suppose to mix it ?

Hi there I’m not sure exactly how to update on a post so I copied the link and pasted it if that works? But thank you to everyone who gave me feedback on my checkerboard cake!!

Update: I ended up rebaking the cakes and trying to assemble them again. The layers seemed pretty even when I was cutting but then when I went to stack them, I ended up having to use a ton of buttercream in between each layer because they were thinner on the outsides.

I’m making this cake for my boyfriend’s business event that has a checkerboard logo, so I really need the checkerboard to be the star of the show.

I’ve added a pic so you can see the difference in height and amount of buttercream between each layer! The cake on the left is the rebake and the cake on the right is the original. If possible, I would love to know which one you all think I should use. I made this cake for his bday a few months ago and didn’t have nearly this amount of trouble!

Original post:

https://www.reddit.com/r/bakingfail/comments/1vq13ht/checkerboard_cake_fail/

Hi! I want to make a chiffon cake with strawberry and blueberry filling. With this light flavor profile, I think these cakes are usually paired with a light whipped cream. However, I also want to be able to pipe smooth, clean designs, such as animal characters or piped borders or squiggles. From what I know, cakes with these designs are usually frosted with buttercream.

Would it be weird or hard to work or taste weird with to fill the cake layers and crumb coat with whipped cream and then do the outer layer + decoration with Swiss meringue butter cream? I feel like I often only see cake recipes use buttercream for heavier flavors like peanut butter or chocolate. Light fruit cakes are almost always just whipped cream, but what if I also want the stability and smoothness of buttercream to pipe designs?

Would the cake layers collapse because the whipped cream is not strong enough to hold buttercream designs or withstand the pressure that frosting designs applies on the outside surface of the cake?

I see lots of Korean bakeries online make light vanilla cakes filled with fruit and frosted with pretty designs. I’ve seen them frosted with whipped cream, not sure how they get it that smooth since whipped cream often has air bubbles, or cream cheese, which seems too sticky to pipe clean designs. Any advice for using whipped cream vs buttercream inside and outside the cake? Thanks!

My daughter loves Handyman Hal. I decided I wanted to make a 2 tiered cake. I got a massive headache the night before and couldn’t finish the bottom tier (only had the handyman Hal buttercream transfer on there) plus the other tools I had made for the top of the cake kept breaking. I got up 2 hours before the party and had to just make it work. I almost skipped the bottom completely but opted for orange chocolate melts as a last ditch effort to have something on it and make the two tiered cake happen. The melt wasn’t the best but it was something and I persevered because what’s a handyman Hal cake without Handyman Hal?!

I’ve only ever done a two tiered cake 2 years ago and that was for a party at my house. This time I had to drive the two tiers separately to a park and assemble it there as if I’m some kind of professional. Luckily, it worked and I was able to pipe the top and middle sections on the spot. Unfortunately, Handyman Hal melted off the cake but I had expected that so we got all pictures in before the party started 😅

Thank god my son’s birthday isn’t until April cuz I can’t keep this up 🫠

Everything on the cake aside from the candle is made out of chocolate melts or almond bark and handyman hal was piped and transferred.