We all make mistakes :)... right?!

And trust me, as any kind of creative person will tell you, you are always your worst critic.  Ok maybe kids are a close second (man they are brutal sometimes- but honest!) I don't think I have ever made a cake that I was 100% happy with- I always see room for improvement, or a technique that I could perfect.  Maybe that is why I am so hard on myself... there's always room for learning more :). If you believe you can't mess up, you won't try to change anything and perfect your craft so to speak!

That said, I thought it would be interesting to put on here some of my most obvious boo boos and share some insight that has helped me become a smarter and better decorator over the years :)

Rule #1... DONT forget to look at a picture of what you are trying to carve - and have a plan before you begin (that and make sure you have all your supplies ready :))! Prime example of what NOT to do...

Now, this could have looked a lot different had I actually put dog ears on the dog.  I lovingly call this my "Bear-Dog" cake.  It was my first ever carved cake. It was supposed to be a dog... a stuffed dog that my neice was getting for her birthday. It was a very cute dog... well the stuffed animal was anyway ... the cake... ummm... not so much.  I did like the way the rest of the body and the bone came out though- even the curly little tail- even though it is hard to see.  I also learned a hard lesson that day for another reason... I couldn't find any of my cake decorating tips- except for the small star tip.  Now for those of you decorators out there, you might cringe with me- that's a lot of stars :). (that and I have mild osteo-arthritis in my left hand and right wrist, so let me say I was definitely icing my hands that night and begging for a cortisone shot :)) I would have liked to use a grass/fur tip... and if I had actually thought about it, even icing the cake and using a flat knife to "bounce" the fur would have been a much better idea ... but of course for some reason, I didn't.  Hindsight is 20/20 right? I can't say that has never happened to me since... because it has :) but I do at least have a lot more organization to my madness :)

Rule #2  When in doubt... consult a color wheel :)

I have to say that a lot of times, I can pretty much gauge whether colors look good together or not. However, especially before my discovery of gel food coloring (which I adore... especially neon colors... but that's another story :)) I guess my color mixing skills weren't quite as honed as they could be...

For example:

Now back then, about 5 years ago, my oldest daughter loved the colors pink and purple. Why I thought yellow would look even somewhat ok? And the green? Seriously? What was I thinking? I do have to say though... the yellow wasn't quite that bright.. and the pink was more pastelish than that... but still. :)

Rule #3 It's all about perspective :)

In more ways than one... :) Now, when I draw a cake (which I always do) I try to get all the details pretty well figured out before I begin. It just helps the whole process go much smoother.  That said... well I will just show you the offending cake...

See now this was a cake I was so excited to make.  I had it all drawn and knew what I wanted to do... I had a PLAN... so I followed my first rule :) When I went to carve the volcano though... it ended up looking more like a coconut on top of the cake than a volcano.  Why I didn't step back and look at it to see that it needed more carving? Don't know for sure ...  We did put a little yogurt cup with dry ice in it in the top so it would look like a smoking volcano :) which worked awesome but just didn't translate in pictures as well as it did in person. That's ok though. Oh- and another cardinal rule-don't water down buttercream icing. Which is what I tried to do with the "lava"... duh... water and oil don't mix. Lesson learned :)

Well I hope these made you smile :) because I know I look back and laugh, now anyway :) But I also hope you learned that everything is a learning experience and if you can't laugh at yourself once in a while... I forgot how the rest of that saying goes.  I will put it this way though... I do plenty of laughing at myself - It's better than beating yourself up :) So that's my advice for the day... laugh about it- and learn what you can do better next time :). You will feel better- I promise!

I hope you all have a most awesome Wednesday- it's the middle of the week!! Yay! 2 more days to go til the weekend!!!

And Sweet Dreamz!!

Renee :)