On the eve of my child’s first birthday, I decided that I wanted to make her a beautiful homemade cake. Unfortunately, while I had previously made simply frosted box cakes, I had no idea how to go about actually decorating a cake. Being undaunted by my lack of experience, I jumped right in–creating a teddy bear pool party cake using blue gel icing and Teddy Grams. Needless to say, it was not a thing of beauty. Fortunately, my one-year-old couldn’t care less.  It definitely got her seal of approval, which she demonstrated by gleefully smeared icing all over herself and anyone feckless enough to venture into her vicinity. I was thrilled that she reveled in her confectionary experience but I felt I could do much better. When her next birthday rolled around I bought myself a Wilton cake decorating book and set about teaching myself the fundamentals of cake decorating. The following is a photo gallery of some of the cakes I have made over the years.