What's Isolder's Best Cake?

Isolder74 · Post by **Isolder74** » 2007-07-12 06:28pm

Interesting idea. you've almost talked me into it.

Aaron · Post by **Aaron** » 2007-07-12 06:35pm

I'd check into what a bakery would charge for an ISD or Bel-Air cake and then undercut them by an amount you feel comfortable with. Eight hours labour is definetly nothing to sneeze at and you want to be sure you are fairly compensated for it. I think you can get more than 50$ for an ISD cake, probably closer to 100$.

Isolder74 · Post by **Isolder74** » 2007-07-12 06:37pm

What bakeries make cakes like these?

Post by **Zaia** » 2007-07-12 07:50pm

Isolder74 wrote:What bakeries make cakes like these?

These guys?

Mr. T · Post by **Mr. T** » 2007-07-12 08:42pm

Isolder74 wrote:What bakeries make cakes like these?

Typically I see these sorts of "novelty" cakes being available at bakeries located inside grocery stores here. Also places like Baskin Robbins and Dairy Queen make specialty cakes like this. At Baskin Robbins I saw a really good cake resembling the main Car from the movie "Cars".

P.S. My vote goes to the ISD, although I like the laptop as well.

I've started wondering what grey frosting tastes like though...

Isolder74 · Post by **Isolder74** » 2007-07-12 09:19pm

its grey colored vanilla buttercream.

Post by **LadyTevar** » 2007-07-12 11:19pm

Like Mrs Kendall, I grew up watching my mother make cakes to suppliment her income. She baked the cakes from her own recipe, trimmed them as needed, made the icing herself, and hand-decorated every last one.

A cake like the Laptop would be $30, because it's still in the pan, and just frosted on top. The Art Museum, because of the slanting lines of the cake, $60-$75. The Falcon and ISDs, because of the complexity, $80-90.

One tip: To get perfectly smooth icing, get a long, flat metal spaluta, and a tall glass of hot tap water. Dip the spatula in the hot water, flick the water droplets off, then run it gently over the sides and top of the cake. The warmed spatula melts the icing just enough for you to erase the lumpiness. When the icing dries, it will have a firmer 'set' to the outside, and if done properly is as smooth as fondant.

Post by **LadyTevar** » 2007-07-12 11:24pm

Tip #2: For straight lines, get a straight-edge and gently score guidelines onto the icing (works best after icing is smoothed via Tip #1). Baking stores sell these kind of straight edges, as well as curves/arcs of all sizes. Once you have the guidelines in place, then you just have to have a steady hand to keep the icing within the lines.

Isolder74 · Post by **Isolder74** » 2007-07-13 12:38am

Mrs Kendall · Post by **Mrs Kendall** » 2007-07-13 10:30am

Zaia wrote:
Isolder74 wrote:What bakeries make cakes like these?
These guys?

See, those cakes start @ 500 bucks. I'm thinking that's because they use that special icing that is so smooth it hardly looks like a cake. That stuff is crazy and hard to work with as I recall someone telling me.
I got some good laughs at cakes number 88 and 112 in the fun stuff section though

. 112 would be awesome for Einy

.

The prices I was saying you could charge were just guesses as I said my mother never really sold any of her work cause she just enjoyed doing it and making friends and family happy. She made the best cake from scratch and everyone just loved it. I'm guessing that was good for her self esteem too.

Sounds like I was estimating too little.

So Isolder... what else do I have to say to convince you entirely?

.

Mrs Kendall · Post by **Mrs Kendall** » 2007-07-13 11:22am

Thought I would scan and upload some examples of my mom's cakes throughout my life...

2nd birthday

3rd birthday *you can kinda see the cake is in the shape of a 3 here*

4th birthday *a better example of the number cakes she used to do*

5th birthday *she makes the flowers herself, everything is edible*

6th birthday *my favourite cake she ever made for me, I was a big Garfield fan*

My first communion cake

My confirmation cake

Grade 6 grad cakes for the whole class.

Those are all the examples I have, but the Garfield one is the most difficult one she did for me.

Her work is more about the icing and how steady she has gotten at keeping her hands.

With practice and patience I know you can do better than these examples.
You have to remember, my mom had 5 kids running around on the weekends and she babysat like 10 on top of ourselves during the week so she couldn't get too ahead of herself, but they always looked and tasted yummy

.

Oh and we got to do a lot of this...

sittin' on mom's lap while licking the spatula. Fun times! Nice memories. Sorry, I just had to share that one

.

Isolder74 · Post by **Isolder74** » 2007-07-13 12:58pm

Wow, those look like my mom's cakes.

I admit it my mom taught me how to do it. I can do roses etc.

The problem I see is getting the word out that I'll sell my cakes and then talking myself into giving up my weekends to do it.

I don't know if any of my cakes would be worth more then $100.

Isolder74 · Post by **Isolder74** » 2007-07-13 01:00pm

BTW isn't licking the bowl half the fun?

Mrs Kendall · Post by **Mrs Kendall** » 2007-07-13 02:38pm

Isolder74 wrote:Wow, those look like my mom's cakes.

I admit it my mom taught me how to do it. I can do roses etc.

The problem I see is getting the word out that I'll sell my cakes and then talking myself into giving up my weekends to do it.

I don't know if any of my cakes would be worth more then $100.

I never had the patience to actually do it myself. Maybe one day I will ask her to show me how to make flowers and stuff.

I see what you mean, how do you advertise your cakes without having some kind of formal training.
I don't know how to answer that other than to just tell your friends and family that you'd be willing to do it if they were ever interested. Start off slow and you should be able to keep it to a minimal amount of people until you decide whether or not you want to get formal training or not.

Giving up your free time to do it is something only you can decide, of course, but if this is something you really enjoy doing, who knows you might enjoy doing this instead of sitting around the house doing nothing in particular. I don't know, just don't let it stress you out too much if you do decide to go ahead with it. Take on a couple cakes a month to start and see how that goes.

I don't know if your cakes would be worth more than 100 bucks either, it all depends on who wants it and what they are willing to pay, I think that would be a learning process as well.

In any case good luck and just enjoy making the cakes, try not to make it feel like it's your second job with added stress.

Edit: And yes, licking the bowl & spoon/spatula is the best part.

Aaron · Post by **Aaron** » 2007-07-13 02:55pm

Isolder74 wrote:Wow, those look like my mom's cakes.

I admit it my mom taught me how to do it. I can do roses etc.

The problem I see is getting the word out that I'll sell my cakes and then talking myself into giving up my weekends to do it.

I don't know if any of my cakes would be worth more then $100.

Perhaps you could find a local bakery that doesn't sell cakes (maybe they sell bread and buns etc) that would be willing to showcase some of your cakes. That's how a friend of mine got his chainsaw carvings out there. He found a log home builder that was willing to let him showcase his bears on his property and he left his number with him. Now he's backed up over a year with orders. Maybe an approach like this would work for you?

Isolder74 · Post by **Isolder74** » 2007-07-17 06:04pm

And the winner is!

IMP Star II!!!!

Post by **LadyTevar** » 2007-07-17 06:06pm

Isolder74 wrote: BTW isn't licking the bowl half the fun?

For me, licking the bowl, and then taking the scraps mom would cut from the cakes and drizzling pre-icing on them

Isolder74 · Post by **Isolder74** » 2007-07-18 01:58pm

too bad my roommates don't seem to think so. I leave frosted scraps out for them to eat and they won't touch them.

I say not to touch something and it vanishes.....the car cake I had to hide in order to get it to the party intact. My museum someone swiped some frosting off the side.....But I'm pretty sure who it was.

chitoryu12 · Post by **chitoryu12** » 2007-07-18 05:35pm

All for the Mark II. The detail is amazing, especially the swarming fighters.

Post by **haas mark** » 2007-07-18 06:00pm

Guggenheim, yo.