To all the great birthday cake bakers/decorators here

[HIU8]

I must pay homage to you. I don't know how you do it. DS's bday party is tomorrow. I'm making a SIMPLE lego cake. The cake turned out fine. The icing, however, was super thick and hard to deal with. It would not spread properly. So, 1 cake ruined (really it looked like my 4 yr old iced it). DH just went to Safeway to order a cake for tomorrow and we are putting lego duplos on top. It's a copout to me, but I really messed the cake up BAD. Sigh....I'm am not a baker.

[SnuggleBuggles]

Finding your tried and true recipes makes all the difference. I am churning cakes and cupcakes out now too. If all else fails, my motto is to cover it with M&Ms. Hides a multitude of sins and people think they look good.

The Lego cake I made for ds1 was one of my most frustrating ever. I didn't want to use fondant so I couldn't get a smooth, straight finish. I'd get one sid perfect then start on the top or adjoining area and it'd just mess things back up.

For future reference, if you screw up the frosting you could call that your crumb coat, Put it in the fridge for like 30 minutes they put more frosting on top. It really helps!!!

Beth

[Mommy_Again]

Guess what I just learned? My grocery (Publix) will sell plain, unfrosted sheet cakes of any size, plus tubs of icing in any color. So you can take it home, cut/assemble to whatever shape or design you want, and decorate your heart out. I love making fun cakes but haven't been doing it lately because it's just too overwhelming with 3 kids now. However...if I can buy all the "parts" and just skip to the fun part - oh yes! Our Publix bakery is so yummy, too.

[babybell]

OP, it sounds like your frosting was too stiff. I'm assuming it was buttercream. You probably could have scraped a lot of it off, considered it a "crumb coat"... then added water to your frosting to thin it out. You typically need thin, smooth frosting to frost a cake, and water (added a little at a time) will get you there. Stiffer icing is used for making decorations.

I've found that so much of cake decorating is trial and error. I had a lot of errors before I ironed out the basics! You can do it! Make some tiny 6" cakes or 8x8 pans to practice on. It really does help.