The Cake

Fred, my thoughts, for what they're worth: I like the circles produced by the light hitting glasses and I like the hard edged shadows which go very well with the "geometric" nature of the cake. Also the light emphasis at the top of the cake, I think, works well.

I suggest you PS out the background completely. Just use the dark part of the background to clone out the column and lighter parts of the background. Also, a little carefully placed fill flash would have given more "punch" to the front sides of the cake facing you.

Nice shot.

I think Jamie's comments are good ones. I agree the pole being close to the same color as the cake should be removed and the dull front of the cake caught my eye as a flaw in the image. I think lightening the shadows in the front would brighten it nicely; I'd still try to keep some of the dark around the trimming between the layers so you don't lose any detail there.

Kirk