Epic ''Cake''

[WaterWorm]

Hello!

Here is my another ‘‘food scene’’.
The lighting was horrible, so i edited with GIMP. Then i smoothed the edges in GIMP too, because i personally dont like smooth shading in Cycles on spiky/sharp objects.
Please truly tell me what is your opinion, what should i improve, what i am doing wrong.
Thank you, and sorry for my bad english.

Here is a high-contrast, ‘‘night’’ picture:

And another with only Ambient Occlusion

[Rich33584]

Render looks ok, but Im just having a hard time figuring out what the image is supposed to be about. Where’s the cake? Whats the story?

[WaterWorm]

This one doesn’t has story, i wanted to exercise different stages ( SSS, cloth, bump mapping, modeling, HDRI etc. )
The ‘‘cake’’ is the butter with the birthday candles