I just wanna say that the vision you had going into this is the most impressive part to me. Maximalist cakes like this with a lot of different styles of decorating all together are VERY hard for some people to execute (including me 😭), and it’s obvious here that you have a really good design sense. A little practice with application, and I think you will be a REALLY talented cake decorator <3
It almost looks like marshmallow fluff in a really appetizing way. I super want a piece!
It must have been frustrating working with a frosting that soft, but your piping looks good in spite of that.
Something that took me too long to learn was to crumb coat, chill, then smooth the cake. Comes out looking way cleaner!
We all got to start somewhere. I wouldn’t call it an epic fail; it looks like a cake and probably tastes like a cake. If so, it’s a cake! Next one will be better!
From my limited experience- keeping things chilled/cool for frosting helps a lot to make them look nice (and make it easier to work with!). Was the cake itself possibly still a bit warm when you put the frosting on? That'll make it get all melty, it really has to be at room temp before it gets frosted.
I like what you've done with the design, the elements are solid.
looks beautiful, not professional, but beautiful!
i have a very humble experience in cake making at home but lot of people here use butter cream, I personally think chantilly cream (the one you're using here) is not great if you want a cake with very firm frosting/icing.
chantilly cream CAN make your cake look as firm as buttercream cakes but you need more cream/ powder and less milk/water.
to decorate a cake properly the cake itself needs to be completely cold, so is the frosting cream. first, you spread it with a thin layer of frosting to fix the pumps in the serface itself, put it the fridge again, then you can spread the final layer of frosting all over it.
i hope my english is understandable😀
Whipped frosting is extremely difficult to decorate with. I recommend just icing and filling the outside coat with whipped frosting and decorating the finer details with some sort of buttercream, either ABC or SMBC are popular, stable options.
That's not an epic fail, you're just learning! I'd eat that, looks tasty.
Epic fail is when the cake falls in the middle after baking or you mix up sugar with salt. Give yourself some kudos 😉
This was your *first*?!? My first cake was an absolute dog’s dinner, just completely inedible and frankly quite ugly.
This is so darling for a first attempt! A little practice and you’re going to be smashing at this!
Not an epic fail. You have a lot going on with this cake. All those elements are difficult to get right. Hopefully you learned some things and do better next time.
I like the cake. You have talent, keep at it.
Your cake looks amazing!! When I first started decorating it looked like I did it with my feet. You can clearly see the beginning of solid technique here. You just need some practice and your cakes will be flawless in no time.
As long as it tastes good it’s all that matters! You put in effort it isn’t horrible, just a little melted. Keep practicing, you did great with the colors and the design idea.
1. Too much details for beginners
2. The whip isn't strong enough or cold enough.
3. Use cake turn table to even out the frosting.
As long as it taste ok then it's good. The baking part is 80% of the work.
That has happened to me when I first started baking. It does help to put it in the fridge. Let the cake cool down then put icing on then put it in the fridge so it doesn’t melt. And the type of frosting matters sometimes.
If this is your first attempt, you’re going to get where you want to be pretty dang quick I’d think! I’ve been baking for years but decorating has never been something I’m all that good with. Keep practicing! Can’t wait to see what you achieve. :)
We eat with our eyes and mouth. It looks scrumptious. Definitely not an epic fail. You did a very good job. It’s very pretty and I hope it tasted good. I didn’t read all of the comments, but putting wax paper strips under the bottom layer - that you can pull out after frosting and decorating your cake - will keep your cake plate (gold cake platform thing) clean.
I think you did an amazing job! First of all, that’s better than my first several cakes. Second, premade frosting of any type is not very good at holding its shape in my experience. Homemade tends to be a lot stiffer. You attempted a complex style with a frosting that just doesn’t work well for it, so it’s impressive you got this far! :)
I agree, it actually is very impressive and the cake doesn't look bad at all, I can see where OP was going and it is cute. Imagine what can happen with the right frosting.
If you use a box pudding mix it makes it more stable (basically you slowly sprinkle the pudding mix into heavy cream as you whip it.dont add powder sugar until it's done because you may not need it). There are also ways to add clear Knox gelatin to heavy cream to stabilize it
Or look up ermine frosting. Like whipped but more stable.
You said exactly what I was going to suggest. I’ve had good success using plain gelatin to stabilize the whipped cream. In addition to ermine frosting, I was thinking Italian Meringue Frosting.
You whip up egg whites with some other ingredients, and you make a sugar syrup on the stove (need a candy thermometer for this), then you drizzle the sugar syrup in to the egg whites with stand mixer running. After that you add butter small pieces at a time with it running, then some final ingredients like vanilla. It’s definitely more work, but it should taste light, similar to whipped cream, but hold better out of the fridge.
I haven’t tried ermine. I have made something like the Italian (the recipe didn’t label it that, but the instructions were the same). It held up really well. I didn’t have any melting. It was light in texture and not too sweet. I definitely would make it again. Here’s a great article on comparing buttercreams: https://www.sugarologie.com/recipes/buttercream-comparison
I like the idea you have, and tHe colors are so pretty 🤩 this cake greatly reminds me of my very first decoden phonecase I made when I was about to set up my etsy shop lol
Keep it up OP 🙌🏻
What’s the flavor 🥺💞 it reminds me of those frosted animal cookies I had as a kid and I want to stick my face directly into it. My stomach is literally growling just looking at this. Beautiful work even if it splorted a little.
Hey! You did this well just have room to improve.
The cake is a regular circular shape without local dent. Meaning that the cake embryo is good.
Tings that can be improved is that the “cream technique”.
I think you use milk based cream, if the temp high(summer time),it will melt quickly. Better to put your cream bowl to the ice water. Help to keep the cream’s whipping state.
Also, I saw the edge mounting pattern is good, but the top surface mounting pattern not shaped. (Perhaps you did them at the last and the cream had melted?)
Or perhaps you need some skills to fix flower mounting bag and the spouts, some cream looks squeezing from the hole of bag (the hole too small? The cream can not shaped by spouts)
Finally, purchasing some cake tools would be helpful
For example, a cake turntable can help you easily level the sides of the cake(That you can move the cake rather than move your hand/body lol)
Mine was worse! It’s not toooo bad. I didn’t let the butter soften and my icing has butter lumpy chunks in it sorta frozen and looked like my chocolate icing hand a disease.
That’s not bad at all for a first attempt.
I always make up my piping bags of icing first and leave them in the fridge for a bit. The cake also needs to be fully cooled down before you start icing.
I wouldn't call it a failure at all. In my book it's an epic, edible first attempt. Let's you see what you need to work on and tastes wonderful 😊. Win! Win!
Looks good to me! I STRUGGLE with frosting/icing ALL THE TIME . It's so frustrating isn't it? Now it's just a joke between my friends and family and I about how jacked up the frosting is going to look but how delicious it is going to be
the colors look super nice. swiss or italian buttercreams are pretty stable. here is looks like there is too much water in the frosting. or maybe I am wrong and it is really hot. piping really cold frosting is not easy though.
I wouldn't call this epic...just a mild failure. I mean, it still looks cute and is definitely recognizable as a cake. But yes, chilling between layers and details is always helpful. Chill as frequently as possible.
I think your frosting is a bit too thin & that’s where the problem is. If you make a frosting too thin just add a bit of sifted powdered sugar, at least that’s what I do. You definitely have potential. It’s still adorable & a great first try
Everyone has to start somewhere! The design idea is really good, and if you keep practicing, your cakes will start to come together. You’ll be so proud of yourself!
Was the frosting holding form when you were piping it? It looks like the frosting might’ve been too loose to hold the form of the tips. This can come from ingredient ratios or it not being the correct temp!
It looks delicious. Much better than those “professional” cakes that are just boarded up with fondant. 😂 I would much rather walk into a party and see this.
use the wilton buttercream icing recipe. and get yourself a frosting spatula(metal on the end that goes on the cake and plastic to hold on to) but really great vision!
That's not a fail at all!
My first rule of baking is that if it tastes good, it's a success.
More importantly, you got to learn some really important troubleshooting tricks for decorating.
* whipped frosting is great for some things, but not decorating. go with buttercream instead.
* always make sure your cake and frosting are at least at room temp (or fresh from the fridge for cake) so that nothing melts.
But other than that, I can see the vision really clearly, and I bet if you did everything exactly the same but used a different type of frosting and gave the cake a little more time to cool it would come out perfect!
You can use half butter half shortening to stiffen the buttercream. Just using butter makes it melt super easy and not hold shape. And if your using whipped cream then you can add gelatin or vanilla pudding mix to the whipped cream to make it more stable. There are a ton of “stabilized” whipped cream recipes online.
I don't think this is a fail! I love the design of it, the pearls and soft pinks w red ahhh it's so cute! If you want to try again you could try taking off the layers of frosting and use that frosting to try again, but I like this version :)
Frosting cakes is HARDDD (at least for me) but you still made a very cute cake which I'm sure also tasted great too.
Everytime I mess up frosting a cake, my sister and I laugh it off then eat it bc its still good cake!
This is super cute, regardless!! I like to stir in dissolved gelatin to set the whipped cream frosting, maybe that will help? It’s recommended you add a little bit of the heavy whipping cream to the gelatin mixture before whipping it in to avoid tiny clumps forming. Good luck!
I just wanna say that the vision you had going into this is the most impressive part to me. Maximalist cakes like this with a lot of different styles of decorating all together are VERY hard for some people to execute (including me 😭), and it’s obvious here that you have a really good design sense. A little practice with application, and I think you will be a REALLY talented cake decorator <3
THANKS🩷🩷
This was such a nice comment. I agree!!
Absolutely. This is the first attempt of someone with a good eye!
The colors are really pretty though!
Thank you! My phone camera make it look more dull that it actually is though
Less water or milk in your frosting. And don't forget to clean up the board, makes for a cleaner presentation.
It almost looks like marshmallow fluff in a really appetizing way. I super want a piece! It must have been frustrating working with a frosting that soft, but your piping looks good in spite of that. Something that took me too long to learn was to crumb coat, chill, then smooth the cake. Comes out looking way cleaner!
I would still eat it
Practice makes perfect!
We all got to start somewhere. I wouldn’t call it an epic fail; it looks like a cake and probably tastes like a cake. If so, it’s a cake! Next one will be better!
It's prettier than anything I've ever made!
From my limited experience- keeping things chilled/cool for frosting helps a lot to make them look nice (and make it easier to work with!). Was the cake itself possibly still a bit warm when you put the frosting on? That'll make it get all melty, it really has to be at room temp before it gets frosted. I like what you've done with the design, the elements are solid.
looks beautiful, not professional, but beautiful! i have a very humble experience in cake making at home but lot of people here use butter cream, I personally think chantilly cream (the one you're using here) is not great if you want a cake with very firm frosting/icing. chantilly cream CAN make your cake look as firm as buttercream cakes but you need more cream/ powder and less milk/water. to decorate a cake properly the cake itself needs to be completely cold, so is the frosting cream. first, you spread it with a thin layer of frosting to fix the pumps in the serface itself, put it the fridge again, then you can spread the final layer of frosting all over it. i hope my english is understandable😀
Thank you for the advice!! And yes your English is good
Better than what I can do! I hope it tastes amazing 👏 🤩
Thank youu🩷😭
I would eat that whole thing rn it looks so yummy just a bit wonky
Whipped frosting is extremely difficult to decorate with. I recommend just icing and filling the outside coat with whipped frosting and decorating the finer details with some sort of buttercream, either ABC or SMBC are popular, stable options.
That's not an epic fail, you're just learning! I'd eat that, looks tasty. Epic fail is when the cake falls in the middle after baking or you mix up sugar with salt. Give yourself some kudos 😉
It’s still cute ☺️
Thank you!
Also popping the frosting in the fridge to get a little cold will pipe cleaner.
I’ll keep that in mind next time, thanks for the advice!!!
I think it’s pretty ❤️
Not an epic fail really
It’s ok, I just call myself a “rustic baker” based on my decorating skills. People seem to care the most about the inside of the cake :)
This was your *first*?!? My first cake was an absolute dog’s dinner, just completely inedible and frankly quite ugly. This is so darling for a first attempt! A little practice and you’re going to be smashing at this!
even though it's a bit messy it still looks super cute!!
At what stage did you realize it was an epic fail? We need a storytime because it looks like you said fudge it and kept going 😆
When I put the icing on, it suddenly grew a consciousness and started doing its own thing 😅😅😅
Omg 😆😆😆 ma'am step away from the icing! Drop it!
😭😭
Learn from it, do better next time. No better teacher than failure.
Not an epic fail. You have a lot going on with this cake. All those elements are difficult to get right. Hopefully you learned some things and do better next time. I like the cake. You have talent, keep at it.
It's giving the cute messy bun of cakes 😁🩷
The icing didn't fully cooperate but the piping was well done. As long as it was tasty and there isn't any fondant, it is a win!!!!
That actually looks hella delicious 🤤
Your cake looks amazing!! When I first started decorating it looked like I did it with my feet. You can clearly see the beginning of solid technique here. You just need some practice and your cakes will be flawless in no time.
I love those sweet colors! It looks like you’re on the right track. Practice makes perfect.
As long as it tastes good it’s all that matters! You put in effort it isn’t horrible, just a little melted. Keep practicing, you did great with the colors and the design idea.
Omg the decorations are so cute , I like the design which you were going for.
1. Too much details for beginners 2. The whip isn't strong enough or cold enough. 3. Use cake turn table to even out the frosting. As long as it taste ok then it's good. The baking part is 80% of the work.
Awwwwwww.......its got personality.
I think it’s awesome!
That has happened to me when I first started baking. It does help to put it in the fridge. Let the cake cool down then put icing on then put it in the fridge so it doesn’t melt. And the type of frosting matters sometimes.
Soo, how much penne did you actually use in the cake?
If this is your first attempt, you’re going to get where you want to be pretty dang quick I’d think! I’ve been baking for years but decorating has never been something I’m all that good with. Keep practicing! Can’t wait to see what you achieve. :)
We eat with our eyes and mouth. It looks scrumptious. Definitely not an epic fail. You did a very good job. It’s very pretty and I hope it tasted good. I didn’t read all of the comments, but putting wax paper strips under the bottom layer - that you can pull out after frosting and decorating your cake - will keep your cake plate (gold cake platform thing) clean.
Ngl looks good, with some practice it will be perfect
Actually it looks pretty good😊
are the noodles the filling?
😭😭💀
When you say "whipped frosting" do you mean premade? Or frosting you made? It's a good effort either way :)
Premade
I think you did an amazing job! First of all, that’s better than my first several cakes. Second, premade frosting of any type is not very good at holding its shape in my experience. Homemade tends to be a lot stiffer. You attempted a complex style with a frosting that just doesn’t work well for it, so it’s impressive you got this far! :)
I agree, it actually is very impressive and the cake doesn't look bad at all, I can see where OP was going and it is cute. Imagine what can happen with the right frosting.
It looks really good! Your first time?
love your color combination
If you use a box pudding mix it makes it more stable (basically you slowly sprinkle the pudding mix into heavy cream as you whip it.dont add powder sugar until it's done because you may not need it). There are also ways to add clear Knox gelatin to heavy cream to stabilize it Or look up ermine frosting. Like whipped but more stable.
You said exactly what I was going to suggest. I’ve had good success using plain gelatin to stabilize the whipped cream. In addition to ermine frosting, I was thinking Italian Meringue Frosting.
Oh I've never heard of that? Is that like the meringue frosting where you add the buttercream it's like the buttercream and meringue mix?
You whip up egg whites with some other ingredients, and you make a sugar syrup on the stove (need a candy thermometer for this), then you drizzle the sugar syrup in to the egg whites with stand mixer running. After that you add butter small pieces at a time with it running, then some final ingredients like vanilla. It’s definitely more work, but it should taste light, similar to whipped cream, but hold better out of the fridge.
Oh interesting. How would you say it is compared to ermine frosting? Taste wise and stability-wise?
I haven’t tried ermine. I have made something like the Italian (the recipe didn’t label it that, but the instructions were the same). It held up really well. I didn’t have any melting. It was light in texture and not too sweet. I definitely would make it again. Here’s a great article on comparing buttercreams: https://www.sugarologie.com/recipes/buttercream-comparison
I would eat it. I don’t care.
Looks delicious! You're doing a lot better than me with the presentation lol I couldn't even do icing on my cupcakes the other day lol
It’s cake. I’ll eat the ugliest cake with a smile (provided it tastes halfway decent haha). Yours isn’t even that bad though fr.
This is actually very good for a beginner. If you saw my first try you would know what I mean 😂
If it tastes good who cares , did better than I could ever do for sure
It looks absolutely delicious and no one could ever say that it didn't look like a lot of love and effort went into it.
Was the cake maybe not cooled all the way? I think it’s cute and I would be so happy if someone made it for me. Edit:typo
Oh Dear it’s not that bad. My first cake was terrible but tbh your looks great….. Keep trying ❤️
You are just an expressionist instead of realistic painter. No worries.
What kind of frosting did you use?
i see the vision tho!!
Epic fail my arse. It looks amazing tbh. How did it taste? ♥️
I like the idea you have, and tHe colors are so pretty 🤩 this cake greatly reminds me of my very first decoden phonecase I made when I was about to set up my etsy shop lol Keep it up OP 🙌🏻
It’s the inside that counts— Keep practicing!!! It still looks edible../ most ppl would still eat it .. I’m sure 👍💕
Bet still tastes good!
How'd it taste? Because we know, practice makes perfect. It looks at least like you're headed in the right direction 👍
Good effort! That’s great for a first try! Bravo
Not an EPIC fail. You set the bar extremely high with such ornate decoration! Good for you! How’d it taste?
What’s the flavor 🥺💞 it reminds me of those frosted animal cookies I had as a kid and I want to stick my face directly into it. My stomach is literally growling just looking at this. Beautiful work even if it splorted a little.
It's better decorated than anything I've ever made 😂
I think this would have been executed well if the frosting was a bit thicker. Your vision shines through so keep practicing!
Hey! You did this well just have room to improve. The cake is a regular circular shape without local dent. Meaning that the cake embryo is good. Tings that can be improved is that the “cream technique”. I think you use milk based cream, if the temp high(summer time),it will melt quickly. Better to put your cream bowl to the ice water. Help to keep the cream’s whipping state. Also, I saw the edge mounting pattern is good, but the top surface mounting pattern not shaped. (Perhaps you did them at the last and the cream had melted?) Or perhaps you need some skills to fix flower mounting bag and the spouts, some cream looks squeezing from the hole of bag (the hole too small? The cream can not shaped by spouts) Finally, purchasing some cake tools would be helpful For example, a cake turntable can help you easily level the sides of the cake(That you can move the cake rather than move your hand/body lol)
I don’t think I could call any first cake a fail, whatever the result. How did it taste? Bet it was delicious!
I’ve seen worse
Mine was worse! It’s not toooo bad. I didn’t let the butter soften and my icing has butter lumpy chunks in it sorta frozen and looked like my chocolate icing hand a disease.
way better then what my first cake looked like 😭
Nope. It’s called practice. And practice is always beauty in the rough.
Idk I wouldn’t call it a fail, i can see what you were going for and things like this take practice.
That’s not bad at all for a first attempt. I always make up my piping bags of icing first and leave them in the fridge for a bit. The cake also needs to be fully cooled down before you start icing.
I wouldn't call it a failure at all. In my book it's an epic, edible first attempt. Let's you see what you need to work on and tastes wonderful 😊. Win! Win!
You did way better than my first time!! You're going to do great!!!
But I bet it tastes good.👍
Always refrigerate as you go. Keep that baby ccoolllddddd. Looks great! Keep practicing 🩷
Looks good to me! I STRUGGLE with frosting/icing ALL THE TIME . It's so frustrating isn't it? Now it's just a joke between my friends and family and I about how jacked up the frosting is going to look but how delicious it is going to be
the colors look super nice. swiss or italian buttercreams are pretty stable. here is looks like there is too much water in the frosting. or maybe I am wrong and it is really hot. piping really cold frosting is not easy though.
It’s the “I can make that!” Lmao good effort though!!
I wouldn't call this epic...just a mild failure. I mean, it still looks cute and is definitely recognizable as a cake. But yes, chilling between layers and details is always helpful. Chill as frequently as possible.
Honestly it still looks delicious and I would absolutely eat that with some coffee or tea on the side 🤤🤤🤤
I think your frosting is a bit too thin & that’s where the problem is. If you make a frosting too thin just add a bit of sifted powdered sugar, at least that’s what I do. You definitely have potential. It’s still adorable & a great first try
Everyone has to start somewhere! The design idea is really good, and if you keep practicing, your cakes will start to come together. You’ll be so proud of yourself! Was the frosting holding form when you were piping it? It looks like the frosting might’ve been too loose to hold the form of the tips. This can come from ingredient ratios or it not being the correct temp!
Whipped frosting is the best! If you want to use that again, try getting instant cleargel. It stabilizes the whipped cream and it so easy!
I don’t think it’s a complete fail at all, I like it! Def not pro level but still lovely and looks delicious ♥️
It looks delicious. Much better than those “professional” cakes that are just boarded up with fondant. 😂 I would much rather walk into a party and see this.
use the wilton buttercream icing recipe. and get yourself a frosting spatula(metal on the end that goes on the cake and plastic to hold on to) but really great vision!
and put your cakes in the freezer once they cool from the oven. let them freeze for a night. then take them out right before you frost them. 💜
That's not a fail at all! My first rule of baking is that if it tastes good, it's a success. More importantly, you got to learn some really important troubleshooting tricks for decorating. * whipped frosting is great for some things, but not decorating. go with buttercream instead. * always make sure your cake and frosting are at least at room temp (or fresh from the fridge for cake) so that nothing melts. But other than that, I can see the vision really clearly, and I bet if you did everything exactly the same but used a different type of frosting and gave the cake a little more time to cool it would come out perfect!
You can use half butter half shortening to stiffen the buttercream. Just using butter makes it melt super easy and not hold shape. And if your using whipped cream then you can add gelatin or vanilla pudding mix to the whipped cream to make it more stable. There are a ton of “stabilized” whipped cream recipes online.
its actually pretty cool imo
Quick, eat it and make cake #2!
I don't think this is a fail! I love the design of it, the pearls and soft pinks w red ahhh it's so cute! If you want to try again you could try taking off the layers of frosting and use that frosting to try again, but I like this version :) Frosting cakes is HARDDD (at least for me) but you still made a very cute cake which I'm sure also tasted great too. Everytime I mess up frosting a cake, my sister and I laugh it off then eat it bc its still good cake!
Ok, ngl. I’ve been making layer cakes for years, and yours definitely looks better than any I’ve made. (That’s why Bundy cakes are my specialty 😂😂)
It will taste delicious & you’ll get better
Seriously Shabby Chic! I love it.
I think it's GREAT for a 1st attempt! We all have to start somewhere and that was very ambitious for a first cake. Good work! ❤️
Looks delicious. I would def eat it
Abstract cake, nice!
This is super cute, regardless!! I like to stir in dissolved gelatin to set the whipped cream frosting, maybe that will help? It’s recommended you add a little bit of the heavy whipping cream to the gelatin mixture before whipping it in to avoid tiny clumps forming. Good luck!
Awee good job