Wed, 10 Mar 2010 06:44:28 +0000

Pam @ Design Fanatic Born and raised in Southern California, I have always been interested in design. As a young girl I loved to make my own Barbie doll gowns out of scraps of fabric & was always rearranging my room. I have worked in the Fashion Industry in Los Angeles, as a Custom Closet Designer, and a Kitchen and Bath Designer in the Charlotte, NC area. I have designed many kitchens for upscale custom homes, but my favorite projects are remodels because I love seeing the transformation. At home it is not uncommon for me to have several projects in the works. Designing for me is like breathing ... it is a necessity. From gardening, redecorating a room, making homemade cards, sewing or painting, I must be engaged in the creation of something. Anything. For this reason I am truly a Design Fanatic. Thanks for listening. View my complete profile

Lots of people can ice a cake. And of course many cannot.

But just because you can put icing on a cake smoothly and quickly does not mean you should design cakes.

Need I only point to Cake Wrecks, to remind you of the many cakes that (while well executed) are inappropriate and unfortunate examples of poor taste or -- in some cases -- no taste at all.

So where do you start?

1. The first question I usually ask a customer is "how many people are you hoping to serve?" That's because there are things you can do with a big cake that don't translate to a smaller cake, so it helps to know what the boundaries are right from the beginning.


2. Second question: What is the occasion? This might sound rather obvious, but all birthdays are not created equal. It helps to know if this is a first birthday, sweet sixteen or Happy 85th. Or an anniversary (and which one). Or a baby shower. Or a graduation. Or whatever.


3. Next question: Is this for a boy or a girl? Argue with me or call it profiling, but you can often eliminate many colors and designs right off the bat when you know the gender of the honoree. The follow-up question is "what colors does he or she like?"


4. Do you have a theme?  A pretty pale blue cake with dots and bows would look out of place at a party with a pink and black disco theme.

Flavor of the cake and fillings aside (since these have little or nothing to do with cake design), there are still some very basic decisions to make.

1. Will the cake be round or square?
2. One layer or two layers and/or stacked?
3. Will there be any items placed on the cake such as ribbon or a bow, candles, chocolate or sugar pieces, fruit, or other edible or non-edible items? Such as (God forbid...) plastic.
4. Where will the message go (Happy Birthday or whatever)?

Then you can get down to the details of how the cake will be decorated.

First design decision? Choosing the shape and base color(s) of the cake. And that's the subject of Cake Design 201.