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. This is not true everywhere in the world but it has happened to me enough times to make me stop.
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. What kind of colors do you use?
A. Wilton makes gel paste colors, these are concentrated food coloring that will not thin your frosting. There are other brands out there but these are the quickest and easiest for me to find.
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. All three recipes are 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.
The yellow cake is kind of like my base cake recipe, by swapping out the vanilla and adding other extracts you can get a wide variety of flavors. I also like to add lemon or orange zest, and sometimes swap out half of the milk for sour cream. (see ‘Recipes’ section)
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), Tonedna or Nivia’s.
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 (see my ‘Buttercream Roses, 3 Methods’ video)
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. 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 don’t you allow comments on some of your videos?
A. It’s mainly the recipes that I don’t allow comments because I get the same questions over and over. I have tried to answer all the questions in the videos and in the notes under the videos.
Q. What advice can you give to a beginner?
A. Practice, practice, and more practice. This is the same for anything in life right? Who becomes a great pianist by only playing once a month? Of course, decorating cakes is somewhat different than practicing piano because it’s highly fattening creating cakes on a regular basis. What I had to start doing is giving away my practice cakes. Hubby took them to work, I gave them to family members, even to a local used bookstore that we frequent.
There is an alternative to constantly making cakes for practice, you can use buttercream to practice on the backs of cake pans, cutting boards, I’ve been known to even use the bottom of a cup! Don’t color your frosting that way you can use it over and over again. I have a recipe posted for practice buttercream, keep it in a sealed container in a cool place (not the fridge) and it will keep indefinitely.
I also recommend reading as much as you can, cake forums, books, etc., that was how I got nearly all my information. Also watching videos on youtube was extremely helpful. Between those source I learned the Viva Method, how to pipe roses directly on my cake, and how to correctly frost a cake using a spatula.
Q. How much should I charge for my cakes?
A. I am a bad source for this, I tend to undercharge period because I’m not trying to make a business, this is a hobby for me and I’m glad people are willing to pay for my addiction 
However, I have a couple of suggestions, you can price out everything you use, right down the the electricity used from turning on the oven, and base your price on that, plus how much time you spent on the cake. Or you can check out what other places are charging locally and go from there.
Here’s a link my friend Kathy gave me and I think it’s definitely helpful:
http://www.earlenescakes.com/business09.htm
One more thing, I’ve noticed on the cakecentral.com forums people complain because they gave a discount to a ‘friend’ and that person took advantage of them. This is what I say, if you’re using quotations around the word friend, then they’re not really your friend and you are setting yourself up. If you really want to give a discount make sure you aren’t shortchanging yourself.
Hi serious cakes
I have a question about your tye dye cake. I’m taking inspiration from it and I wonder about the colors you used. In your video with the cupes I noticed the color order you used was – red, orange, green, blue, purple. Why is there no yellow? Does the order of the color wheel – Yellow Orange Red Purple Green not work as well?
Thanks for your help.
Angela
I was actually basing that off a t-shirt that I have, it was really yellow though, not orange (looks darker in the video). I didn’t think to try it starting with yellow first although that should definitely work
hi, I have been viewing your videos for some time now and just found your blog tonight! you are a great inspiration and very talented! can’t wait to get in the kitchen, recieved some decorating supplies for cmas! Plus I admire you for giving God the glory! keep up the good work and I will talk to ya later I am sure God bless *Blackeyesusy*
Thank you so much for your kind words! Very much appreciated
I know you are probably very busy with lots of questions to answer, but I do have one, how do you make your frosting to match, like say you have several different flowers some orange, some yellow, and some pink, how do you get the colors to go together. Or how do you simply get the color you were imagining. I saw how you make red am going to try that soon. also how do you make a nice black, I usually use the wiltons white buttercream recipe and add cocoa or melted chocolate then add coloring till I get close to what color I wanted, till I get to that color the frostinf is seperating maybe from to much stirring, or too much coloring, I use wiltons gel coloring. Am definitly switching to your buttercream frosting, looks so much easier to work with. Sorry so longwinded Bevscakes
lol, I’m not usually very good at making colors come together, I need to see them together to be sure they match properly. Once I know what I want I’ll try to figure out which colors will get me closest. If your frosting is separating try adding less liquid so it thicker to start
Thank you so much for such an awesome web-site and videos and thanks for sharing your God given talent with us. My question is, do you use 8 or 9 inch cake pans and are they 2 or three layers. if they are 9 inch, how much cake (or cake mixes) do you use.
Have a blessed and SONshiney day!
Hi from underworld – Australia. I love your recipe and love to try it. May I ask you a question? what is shortening? is it same as thickened cream? Thank you in advance. Rina
Hi!
I just started caking a few years ago, and only do it for pleasure. I just love decorating! I discovered your youtube videos immediately, and they are like my bible, as well as your recipes. Everyone loves them! I just wanted to say thank you for taking the effort to do all those things for those of us out there in cyberspace!
Thanks!
Thank you!
Hi there,
how much will your buttercream recipe frost? I am making a cake for my daughter’s 4th birthday party, and it has 3 layers (single layers). a 9×13, a 8×8, and half of an 8×8. I also need some frosting for decorations. Any suggestions? doublebatch? and will a double batch fit in a regular kitchenaid mixer bowl?
My frosting recipe will frost and decorate a 2 layer 9″ round cake. For a more complete list though of how much frosting each size cake needs check out my ‘Favorite Sites’ page, I believe the first link is a chart by Wilton.
Hi SeriousCakes!!! im only 10, but im a huge fan of yours… anyway, this christmas im asking for all cake (frosting) tips. how many are there and can you find all of them in 1 set?
thanks! -samaethao
There are a lot of tips out there, it’s possible to buy a set but it won’t have them all. When I got mine I’d buy them as I needed them.
tonight i tried to make buttercream roses for the first time. my mom said they looked good but ive watched your videos enough to know mine did not look right. it seemed like the consistency of my buttercream was too soft like the petals werent stiff enough and started to mush into each other. what should i do? cool it in the fridge for a while before i start? or should i do the ice pan thing you did in a video? im so frustrated i want to be good at this lol.
When you make the frosting again add less liquid, consistency is the key. And have a pan of ice ready
But here’s something to remember…in the grand scheme of things making roses is not important. I know people who make insanely awesome cakes but cannot pipe a rose! Don’t worry, have fun
Hello, Just wanted to thank you for all of your videos. I made some of the practice frosting and am practicing. You are really awesome and I absolutely love all of your cake designs. Even the ones you label as ugly are beautiful!!!! Hope I can be as good as you someday!!! May the Lord bless you always!!!!
Mary
Thank you so much
He definitely does!