Inspiration

I was recently a guest speaker at Career Day at my daughter's school. One of the kids asked where I get my ideas. Good question. I am almost always given some kind of direction by the client, who may or may not have a detailed idea of the cake they want. The rest is up to me. Sometimes I get inspiration from browsing cake idea books, such as the annual Wilton Yearbook. Or photos or drawings found online. Occasionally from magazine articles with step-by-step instructions, like this one:

Baby Shoe Cakes from Martha Stewart Living magazine

When I am doing a novelty or character cake for a kid's birthday, I am often given a toy or image to work with:

Dora the Explorer CD

Sometimes the cake is to match the party theme and its accessories, exactly:

High heel shoe party pinata

For me, doing research for a cake or theme is often as much fun as creating the cake itself! And it's an integral part of the whole cake design process. There is some back and forth with the client as well on which image or design to go with-- ie. "regular" Dora or "fairy tale" Dora?

I love all aspects of planning a cake. Tonight I am working on a wedding cake order that began with eight possible design ideas narrowed down to the final one. It's exciting to see it all come together after envisioning it in your head for several months and as rough sketches, as I do for wedding cakes. Can't wait to see the final product!

Dora the Explorer and pinata pics from Google Images