A cake wreck, I am not.

One of my favorite blogs is Cakewrecks. I love it. My favorite cake wrecks are the "this is what they ordered, and this is what they got" kind of posts. For examples, click here and here.

Now when I decorate a cake, I prefer to have a picture to look off of. I'm not a creative person, but I can copy a mean cake. If I don't have a picture, it takes me way too long to think up what I should do. So why re-invent the wheel? You send me a picture of the cake, I'll do the cake. I haven't had any formal training, and I just look and copy.I think I do a pretty good job, if I do say so myself. So this post is going to reveal a few of the "behind the cake" photos.

Sometimes, people give me a general idea of what they want, and I find a picture. For example, a lady told me to do a Star Wars or Lego themed cake. I found this one...

and copied it.

I like when I have a photo to look off of but the client has no idea what I'm going for. That way, although I'm copying a picture, if I change something or it looks a little different, they don't know! This cake, I was told to do a two tiered, crazy Hannah Montana cake. I saw this cake...

and turned the crazy up a notch to get this cake.

Sometimes people send me a picture of a cake that they like...

and I copy it. This is where I get nervous because although my cake is super cute, it doesn't look exactly like the picture. I'm always afraid the client might be disappointed. When someone sends me a picture of a cake from a professional bake shop, I get a little nervous. C'mon! These are professionals...

and then I amaze myself with how close of a replica I can make! Sweet!

This is another example of a photo someone sent me. They said they really liked this cake, but wanted paw prints instead of circles.

Here's my version. The name I made was too big, and had to go in front of the bottom tier. At the time of making the cake, things like this stress me out because "then it won't look the same as the photo", but then I realize that no one studies those photos like I do (I hope!) and probably would never notice. (They were going to put the Littlest Pet Shop figurines on at home, so my cake is missing those.) Some cakes, I manage to copy pretty much exactly.

While with other cakes, I see the picture more as inspiration, if you will. I take a cake like this, (with a paper logo stuck on the side of the cake)...

and I make this! Please note - my logo is made of icing! (Still one of my favourite cakes, ever.)

Sometimes, I take a picture and think "I can do WAY better"...

so I do!

This is the photo of the wedding cake a bride wanted. She was pretty flexible. I was a little nervous because my flowers and leaves turned out much larger than the photo she had sent.

You guys all reassured me that the cake was beautiful, so I really hoped the bride liked it. I haven't heard back from her. I know my cake was stunning, but it did turn out a little different.

(Wow, now that I'm looking at it again, it is very different from the photo. I really hope the bride was pleased!)

Then, there was this cake for today. I think my ladybug's face is WAY cuter, but their leaves are amazing. I didn't have enough room on my board. (and I chose to leave off the beads of dew - at least that's what I think the white balls are.)

There you have it. This post is a pretty vulnerable one for me. haha. I'm a pretty harsh critic of myself. I know my cakes are pretty dang great, but sometimes, when you compare them to what was requested, they do look a little different. But still I know that I'm no CakeWreck!