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???

It looks better than expected, but it is very Fanny Craddock in style

Agreed. I liked it as it was before OP removed the piping. Reminded me of the lovely pictures in my 1970 dairy book of home management. Older than me, full of photos of Genoese fancies decorated with Angelica and similar delights.

It’s great, leave as it is (adding decorations if you fancy). Slightly 70s style swirls are making a comeback and imo are now more chic than a drip. Look at this London bakery for examples: lilyvanilli.com/orders/cakes/

The problem with lots of advice from lots of bakers on MN is that you might get tempted into unnecessarily meddling. You seem to be holding yourself to the standards of a semi-professional, whereas you’ve made a thoughtful, personal cake for your mum. Surely she’ll love it, which is the main thing (even if your ego demands perfection 😉).

Ah, I’m too late!

It really wasn’t that bad. I was expecting much worse from your description. Lots of fab ideas on here though!

I think you're being daft because A. The cake looks lovely. And B. She's your mum. You're the apple of her eye. I bet it tastes delicious (as well as looks it) but the best bit about it is that it came from you and that's better than anything else you could offer her for her 60th.

It looks absolutely fine for a cake for your Mum. She’ll love that you thought of her and that you knew she likes rose.

If you really want to improve the decorations look a bit fancier you need to think about the colours. Either go for a contrast (crushed pistachios around the rim is a great idea) or complementary e.g. white mini meringues. Or stick with different shades of pink - if you’d done the buttercream swirls in either a lighter or darker shade of pink it would give it more depth and interest. A contrasting ribbon around the base finishes a cake off nicely, green, white or dark pink would all look good.

@LadyRachetine did you find some extra bits today?

I'd very happily eat a slice and be chuffed if someone made that for me! Pink butter icing is hard because the yellow of the butter always makes the pink a little off.

@Ninkanink just this minute got back from Waitrose! They were out of Turkish delight, so I’m going to have to make the original work somehow, but I got white chocolate, rose petals and some sugar roses, so I’m gonna have a crack at it now.

Seems a bit pointless as a woman from her work today presented her with a professional level doctor who themed cake with her name on that frankly makes mine look even worse! I called my mum to inform her of this and she laughed her head off then told me she’d have to prefer mine regardless as I’m her daughter, so at least the pressure is off to deliver a bit! Haha.

Right, off I go- I’ll post the finished result!

Sounds great! I think the original will work just fine if you dust it with icing sugar - will tone down the colour a bit and make it more like real Turkish delight.

Good luck and I’m sure it’ll be brilliant - and at least you no longer have to feel under pressure.

For anyone who’s interested, here’s the finished article. Much better I think you’ll agree! My husband convinced me to leave the ‘jelly’ chunks of Turkish delight off entirely, and to underuse the white chocolate as my instinct was to cover the whole cake. The pink is still unfortunate but I think I’ve classed it up a bit.

Thanks so much to everyone who made suggestions! I may hang up my baking hat now

Thanks @Ninkanink- I definitely think having the pressure off helped! That and a far more creative husband hovering behind me with a critical eye and a few helpful suggestions. I really think ditching the Turkish delight made a big difference!

Yay. I like it

Looks lovely OP

Well done OP! Your cake looks lovely and its made with love which is the most important thing ❤

I think your cake is lovely and I would be so happy to get that from one of my children knowing that they had gone to the trouble of making it for me. I'm sure your mum will love it.

This is probably just a wierd coincidence but there is a Turkish run bakery near us which, in addition to bread, baklava etc, does fancy cakes for birthdays etc. The pink ones are always in that sort of shade of pink interestingly enough (and they look lovely, as just yours, Its a very nice fancy bakery). So, even though it is just that bakery rather than a Turkish thing generally, you could argue its authentic?

I wanted to add though that the cake looks lovely. I actually liked the slightly retro style of the first photo, but the redesigned version in the second photo looks really elegant and lovely.

That looks amazing I’m now more embarrassed for my own cake which look awful in comparison! Honestly it looks fine op really does I would be proud if I made that.

Oh it turned out beautifully!

I hope she loved it.

Ah, lovely! Well done OP. Thanks for posting the final result. Most importantly though, what did your mum think and did it taste good?!