Does Anyone Do Cake Decorating? (updated with pics at post 19)

We were looking at wedding cakes and, apart from the fact that most people want 6 months notice , there is the price...around £250 for starters. We really want to stick to a budget if possible and spend our money on the house.

I have bought one birthday cake from Morrisons as a tester, if it works out ok then I'll buy 3 of them, a tiered cake stand and, "Bob's your uncle" for a fraction of the price.

I'll take some photos as I go along, the cake I have bought is a round sponge with jam and cream, iced in white with a pinky red rose and the words happy birthday written on it. I have bought some folding butterflies, some roll up icing and food colouring, (so I can make more roses and leaves), some icing pens so I can write my own thing, some shiny pink flakes and some white icing stars.

It probably sounds horrible to those that do know what they are doing, I'm a complete novice but am quite artistic. The plan is to have a white background with roses and leaves entwined over the cake, and the folding butterflies perched on the roses, then have the stars around the base I'm not sure what writing to put on though, the writing that is on the cake already I can blob over and stick the roses or leaves on so that isn't a problem.

If nothing else it will give you all a laugh

I'm planning on starting the tester later today, but if anyone has some good tips or ideas I'm open to suggestions

I do, but only as a hobby and for friends birthdays LOL!

Well spill the beans ..what do you think of my idea? does it sound crass for a wedding cake?

Here's the cake I've bought:



Here are the butterflies:


Here's a sample of how it should look:


Obviously I have to cover up the birthday message but I'm quite looking forward to getting started

Practise with the icing pens, they are hard to use, and don't half give you cramp! I usually do a word, leave it a bit them do a bit more etc.

It sounds like a good idea, but cakes are really not that hard to make from scratch if you have a good recipe, the icing on the other hand is a little harder, but you can get ready to roll icing now.

A lot of people are starting to try and do these sort of things themselves, and its really not that hard. My nan and her friend used to do it between them many many years ago, they passed on their tips to me.

Give it a trial run, see how you get on, if it doesn't work then you can always look at other options

Sounds good to me scorpio.... I dont decorate cakes, but I watch a programme on one of the sky channels called Cake boss.. his cakes are amazing!
One of his cakes he did looked quite simple to do, but was stunning to look at.
It was a 3 teired cake and he started off doing just little brown branches ( made out of that ready rolled icing stuff) winding round and up the cake, and then he added the flowers to the branches..when it was done it really did look amazing.

Ooooh that sounds similar to what I want, some branches, leaves and the butterflies...I have the rolling icing too...I'm itching to get started but a bit scared too

I'm not sure whether to stick with the roses theme or remove the one from the cake and do something else like sunflowers (my favourites )

I just got ready to start and realised I needed icing sugar to roll the icing onto so had to walk a mile and a half to the shop and back again..not too fast with my dodgy knee

I'm going to have a breather and then get started

Icing sugar won't stop it sticking to the sides, you need caster sugar...

Oh gawd....I read the packet and it said to roll it out onto icing sugar...I'll have to leave it for today then as I can't manage another walk to the shops...this is when I start losing faith if I can't get on with it

If you use icfing sugar it still sticks to the sides, I tried all sorts, even grease proof paper stuck to it! I have used normal sugar a few times, just make sure you brush it all of before you put it on the cake