There is no charge for awesomeness, or attractiveness. -Po
I will no longer be answering any questions posted on youtube, please send them to:
me@seriouscakes.com

I've been caking for about 2 years and can't seem to stop, it is addicting! I've never taken any classes, just learned everything through books, tv and cake forums. Through practice and prayer my skills are honed by God alone. All glory belongs to Him! :D Deut. 2:7

I wanted to start listing some frequently asked questions.....
Q. Does your buttercream need to be refrigerated?
A. No, the ratio of sugar to fat acts as a preservative, keeping bacteria from growing. Putting a frosted cake in the fridge is just asking for trouble, once you take the cake out condensation will form causing colors to run and in some cases may make the frosting melt.
Q. With that amount of butter is your frosting yellow?
A. No, my frosting is actually fairly white, I'd say closer to ivory than off-white. The camera is not a friend of my caking.
Q. Why is your kitchen so dark?
A. It's not, for some reason the videos always look darker than when I originally film. I try to go for the brightest angle but can never tell how bright it is until I start editing the video.
Q. What kind of colors do you use?
A. Wilton makes gel paste colors, these are concentrated food coloring that will not thin your frosting.
Q. How do your cakes hold up in heat and humidity?
A. Very well, although I haven't tested a cake in the sunshine yet. If it's humid or hot you should add less liquid at the end, you may not need the whole amount I have listed.
Q. Where do you get your ideas from?
A. From the world around me :) Anything and everything can inspire cakes, my garden, a cool design on a shirt or plate, a movie, anything!!
Q. Why don't you post more recipes?
A. I have 3 cake recipes that I use exclusively, chocolate, yellow, and pumpkin. Reasons are because they are reliable, easy and people love them. The chocolate cake is just the recipe on the back of the Hershey Cocoa box and my yellow cake is already posted on here. I'm the same way with frostings, I have vanilla buttercream and chocolate, those I use the most and because I know how they work and know they are delicious, I just don't want to try anymore recipes. In my 'Anniversary Cake' video I have recipes posted for pumpkin cake and cream cheese frosting, check 'more info'.
Q. Do you use fondant?
A. Never have, and at this point I can't see myself ever using it. I love buttercream, love working with it, if there happens to be something I can't make with it I'll resort to candy clay. I like the challenge of buttercream but I also like that people can and will eat the WHOLE cake. The only complaint I've ever had about my cakes is that they were TOO irresistable and had to be immediately devoured.
On the flip side, if I were to start using fondant I would want my cakes to look like Mayen's (09165067633).
Q. What consistency do you use?
A. I used to try and have separate consistencies but now I do everything with a medium to thin frosting. Yep, even for my roses :)
Q. What do you do with your leftovers?
A. Everything goes into the freezer in freezer ziplock bags. I keep buttercream for 2 months then I toss, not because it's bad but because I run out of room!
Q. How do you re-use your leftover frosting?
A. I let it come up to room temp on my counter-top, then stir it to make it smooth again. It's generally a little thinner coming out of the freezer or fridge so I use it mainly for decorations, not for frosting a whole cake.
Q. Where do you post your pictures?
A. I belong to both cakecentral.com and wilton.com but my pics usually just go on cakecentral; user name there is Serious_Cakes.
Q. How long does it normally take to do a cake?
A. To make the frosting and decorate an entire cake usually takes me 3-4 hours. Sounds like a lot but it goes quickly, and I usually have a movie playing in the background so I'm not focussing on how long I'm caking.
Q. Why do you use white for your sub-titles?
A. Believe me, I have tried all the colors and white truly shows up the best, the rest either disappear or make you feel like you're cross-eyed.