Baking - Cake decoration

We have a birthday dinner for my father every year and this year my mother told my sister-in-law that she don't have to buy my father a birthday cake as I will be baking one. Gosh, where did she came up with that idea I wonder?

Well, I tried out several chiffon cake recipes I got from the web and also from cooking books. My failure rate seems higher than my successful rate. The cake seems to rise very well when it is still in the oven but then it will shrink during the cooling process. I just don't get it. Well, I have not given up yet.

And, I got really nervous as the day came closer and so got some fast thinking to do. Then, I came up with this really great plan. I will bake 2 cakes and if it did not turn up well I could still use half the cake and 2 half will make a complete cake right? Well, as long as I can get the height of the cake right, that will be okay to me.

And, I was glad I baked 2 cakes and well I guess the end result wasn't too bad, see the pictures:

That's my very first cake decorations. I will be trying out more next month as I have 2 birthday cakes on order. One's for my SIL and the other is for my future SIL. Wish me luck!