Some of my favorite designs are playful and a little relaxed.

Depending on the occasion, it can be nice to take some of the “preciousness” out of traditional cake decorating, move beyond your comfort zone, and let your designs evolve into something more transformative. This is one of my favorite aspects of making cakes!

Without getting too sentimental, I have to say: Cakes have a short moment of existence and then they’re gone. Creatively, this allows you to move on, develop your ideas further, and create something new each time. I don’t precisely reproduce any of my designs, so no one cake is the same as another. But they do tend to influence one another. The following cakes represent a state of playful maturity, as they were inspired by the designs and skill sets demonstrated in the previous chapters, yet they have distinctive styles of their own.