Why am I so shit at making cakes?

[LadyRachetine]

I am so frustrated!

It’s my mums 60th this weekend and I thought it would be nice to make her a rose flavoured cake, as she loves rose. I bake a bit, make good cookies, brownies etc, but somehow my cakes always look a bit... crap. Anyway. I decided to keep it simple, just plain buttercream with some Turkish delight on top.

It looks so shit! I’m gutted! It’s a very unattractive shade of pink and the Turkish delight looks like squares of jelly. I don’t feel like I can possibly give it to her! She would be so nice about it, and my husband said it looks fine, but it just looks awful.

Is there a secret to making good cakes? What am I doing wrong???

Do you have a picture of it? I'm sure it isn't as bad as you think

I’m sure she’ll just appreciate you doing it for her, baking is hard.

Is it the actual cake that's the issue or the decorating?

Can you post a pic?

It will be delicious, just put a lovely paper frill around it and shake some icing sugar on the top for disguising purposes effect. Your Mum will love it. made by a loved one is always so special.

Ohh I would love a rose cake with Turkish delight on top. I wouldn’t care what it looked like. Give it to your mum!

Actually no, give it to me. I’ll spare your embarrassment by disposing of the cake. Not a crumb will be left to haunt you.

I could post a pic but I’d be very ashamed it’s the most horrible colour, it literally looks like the fake food they throw at each other in the movie Hook

These are the tips I have learnt:

Cake batter it’s equal weights of each, 100g flour, 100g butter, 100g eggs, 100g caster sugar

Cream butter until it’s gone really pale then add the sugar. Add flour and eggs on low speed.

If you can get some cake strips for the outside of your tins they are amazing for getting them to bake more level and not crusty or with a big dome. Bake around 160c and not higher.

Buttercream again beat the butter until it’s really pale then add the icing sugar. Ideally you want to do a crumb coat to try and fill gaps etc and pop it in the fridge for an hour. After an hour do your final icing coating and with a cake smoother you can get a good finish.

I would post a picture, I bet it can be spruced up a bit and not nearly as bad you think 🥰

Squares of jelly is exactly what Turkish Delight IS, isn't it?
You can't be blamed for that!

@Sleepisoverrated150 thanks for those tips- sadly, I already followed a lot of them

I weighed the eggs, then matched the ingredients to that.

Creaming the butter and sugar was fine, but when I added the eggs it went a bit lumpy and wouldn’t blend. Went ok when I added the flour but who knows what damage I had already done.

I have the cake strips! (This is what I mean when I say I’m a semi decent baker! Or at least, I have the kit.) I used the strips and baked at 160, one cake domed, the other sank.

I think the decorating is where I’m going wrong. I didn’t crumb coat, didn’t fridge it. The icing went a bit fluffy due to the rose water and has the aforementioned awful colour. I can also never get it smooth. Maybe I need a cake decorating class??

I’ll post a picture, but it really is horrible.

Buy some dried rose petals and scatter them over, then top with three (real) roses in the middle.

If the buttercream is a really awful colour maybe scrape it off and try again?

It looks like play dough!

I make bloody fabulous cake but I cant decorate for love nor money 🤷‍♀️

Everyone loves my cake.

Food dye gel is much better for dyeing cakes and icing than the liquids.

Give over that looks great.

Also I think I’d maybe slice the Turkish Delight into three, so that they’re a bit more easy to decorate with and that way they wouldn’t just look like squares of jelly.

Or you could change tack slightly and do a rosewater chocolate ganache to go over the top instead? Then the Turkish Delight slices, then rose petals.

It looks fine to me!!! I wouldn’t worry I’m always hyper critical of my cakes too!

Oh op I’m sure it’ll be delicious, and it really is the thought that counts. I would be thrilled if someone made me a cake, no matter how bad the colour was. And I love Turkish delight so I wouldn’t be at all put off by cubes of it on top!

I do feel your pain though. I used to be so bad a making cakes that ds once cried at his birthday party when I revealed his disaster of a puffer fish cake (it was quite a big ask...).

@BikeRunSki

Food dye gel is much better for dyeing cakes and icing than the liquids.

I saw this before I saw the photo. The cake looks fine!

Me and piping bags are strangers to each other.

Because baking is tedious, all that measuring and weighing, so boring. Yours looks lovely, I would be happy to receive that!

On the decorating front, I went to an evening class at a local bakery and they did cake decorating classes. It was so much fun.

I would definitely recommend if you haven’t done anything similar 🥰

Ooh, it looks lovely. I like the idea of adding rose petals on top. Maybe a ribbon around it?

I think it looks great!

That cake looks good to me!

I thought it was going to be so much worse than that. It looks fine honestly OP.