Not sure if this is the place to get any tips, but I thought I'd try. Anybody a current cake decorator or a former cake decorator and have any tips on increasing my speed while also making cakes that look good? I haven't been decorating long, but they're always on me about picking up the speed. I can pick up the speed, but then all the decorating is just kinda bland and blah. Management seems fine with blah, but I like actually having fun while decorating.
If they want speed, give them speed, but don't give them cakes that lool like crap either. Just stick to the basics: a top border, a bottom border, and roses. Layer cakes should get only two roses. The same is true for 1/8 sheet cakes. Quarter sheets get three or four roses. Half sheets get six to eight roses. Full sheets get 12 to 16 roses. Don't do multiple colors. Stick with just one color for your roses and either the same color for the borders or use a different color for contrast. Also, the more you try to make it look perfect, the more you're going to mess it up. If there's a flaw on the cake, just cover it up with a leaf or a rosebud.
Our cake decorator doesn't have time to make cakes other than those that are for orders. So we order in the pre-decorated ones fot the customers wh just want to come in and pick one our and have something written on it.
Use up old icing bags to make different borders, even a rose tip can be used to make a wavy line border. Throw some sprinkles around the edge, and if you feel like giving it something else- LAYONS. Have your dept head order tons of Birthday and every day kinds of plastic layons. I can get through 6 boxes of pre iced cakes that way in about 1.5 hours to fill my cake freezer for the weekend.
For the gourmet case- I use extra pre-made double layer cakes, the red velvet and cookie and cream sell best in there, I just pop em out (They're 12.99 normally...) put on a couple jumbo roses, or drip icing down the sides and cover the top in cookies/candies/unicorn crap. And wahbam, sell them at 19.99, $7 up charge for 2 minutes of work!
