Simple Cake, Beautiful Pictures

As I said on the last blog, I'm scraping for un-blogged about cakes at the moment.  Instead of making more cake dummies, I've been working out in the yard.  Spring is just too tempting!  So here is an old cake with great pictures.  My friends and long time clients, Mike and Tammy Houston (Houston Studios Photography) took these great shots of a simple little cake that I made a while back.

It's cute when a client calls you and says, "You have to make a cake, it's all she wants for her birthday.  I'll be in the dog house!"  Mike is much more proactive these days.  Now it's a cake that stays on my calendar from year to year.  This is such a simple cake with a #3 tip for grass, some plunger flowers, and a few gumpaste yellow flowers (plus a pretty purple ribbon!)  I didn't love this cake until they sent me these pictures!

It's just amazing what a good photographer can do!   I think it's the same with us cake decorators.  We do things effortlessly, and make them look so easy.  When I was teaching a cake class, I told the students that the hardest thing about decorating cakes was the most basic.  Icing a cake smooth.  If your cake is bumpy or humped on top no amount of great decorations will make a perfect project.  There have been over 18,000 hits on my silly one-take YouTube video on icing cakes smooth.  There are a lot of people that have a hard time.  All I can say is that it takes a lot of practice and then you will also pick up some speed.  I'm planning to make a video on how to ice a square cake perfectly.  If you have any hints that help you do this well, PLEASE leave a comment or email me your suggestions.

Photos taken by and appear courtesy of Houston Studios Photography.