Ok so my DD 5th bday party is this weekend at the zoo and I found an awesome cake i wanted to do a 3d cheeta! So I've got everything baked and ready to start working on for tomorrow and she found a picture of a cake she wants instead . So like a good momma I'm scratching the 3d cake for a plain cake and I don't even have time to make all the animals for it so I'm off to the store to buy little people toys! Has this ever happened to you? ( she never saw the picture of what I was going to do till today and she started crying)

Crying because she wanted the cheetah cake or the other?!!! Tough one! Although i made a three tier cake for my little boy's three-way joint birthday party, with coloured fondant and ribbons, then added in the night garden character toys. Still looked nice,probably better actually as im pretty sure my making models of them would not have quite come up to scratch.

Not sure if I understand everything you said but you should call your customer as soon as and let her know that you will be using toys. I have used many small toys as toppers for cakes as I'm not skilled at modelling anything human or that breathes. It should look good either way in the end but you need to communicate this now so there are no differences in e-x-p-e-c-t-a-t-i-o-n-s when she gets the cake.

@pearl: the customer is her own 5 year old daughter. (DD is message board lingo for Dear Daughter...or sometimes Detestable Daughter if they are being especially trying)

the cheetah cake sound really cool. But a soon to be 5 year old is more about cutsie than cool. there will be plenty of years for a cheetah cake, i'm sure!

OH! ha ok got ya on the DD.

Yeah, I had this grand design in my head for a gravity defying flamingo cake (cake body perched on one "leg" support several inches above the cake board), since my 5 year old LOVES flamingos and pink. When I floated the idea to her, she insisted she wanted a unicorn! Great, ANOTHER horse cake -- that's all my other kids ask for too.

So I guess the lesson is always ask and preferably show them the sketch/inspiration first to get them on board. Now they surf the CC gallery with me and are sure to pick something fantastic (probably too fantastic for my skills, but that's another story!).

Your DD just broke your heart ???

Sorry ....but isn't it your DD's birthday?

I would think that every little child is allowed to have a say in what *type* of cake they would love for their birthday.

Don't make it a case of .....this is my DD's birthday cake that I WANTED.
Have the cake you want when its your birthday.

I have to say - when i read the title of this thread i thought something horrendous had happened...........

Bluehue

I've been looking forward to my DD's 5th birthday as well, coming up in September. I was hoping she would pick a theme and I could make something awesome for her, but she saw a picture of the cake she wants and I'm pretty bummed. The cake is a treasure chest that's slapped together, with canned frosting smeared on and candy fodder posing as "treasure". I'm pretty disappointed.... But like BlueHue said, it's her birthday! She gets to pick! I may upgrade the chest though...

My youngest granddaughter will be turning 6 on her next birthday and I have made every birthday cake for her since her birth. But this lovely little darling of mine broke my heart this week when she said she wants an ice cream cake from Baskin Robbins for her 6th birthday! Now, that's heartbreaking!

Bluehue--like I said, I may upgrade. In fact, I'm sure I will. I can't stand to put my name on something like that! Especially since I just moved here and I don't want people to think that's all I'm capable of.

My DD who was turning 21, planned a outing and to take the cake to the 1st bar they were going to . I searched for days for samples to show her, found several really cool drink cakes, and pretty ones. what does she choose.... a Minion from Dispicable me. . man I hated making that cake, turned out ok, but I was almost in tears doing it.
DD are always unpredictable

I thought your DD might have been an adult and she didn't want you to make her wedding cake.

Now THAT would be a disappointment! LOL!

First of all I don't think she NEEDS a 3d cake for her 5th birthday I wanted to make it for her to be honest this is the first time we've ever done a party outside of our home for any of my children! And you have no idea what kind of hard life she has had. And who cares that a 3 year old has a huge cake. if her parents can give that to her then who are we to juge that it's too much. Where would a lot of bakers be if not for those crazy parents that want to do that for their kids? I might make a lot of people mad by posting this but my op was soposed to be a "funny" sad story. If she wanted a walmart cake with nothing on it that's what she would have gotten. I set limits for my children just as I'm sure you set limits for yours.

@BakingIrene--that's easier said than done. My daughter sees me making really awesome cakes for other kids, so I feel bad when I make a scraggly little cake for her (although I have done that--since I tend to run out of time when I'm the one planning the party!). I started decorating cakes because I wanted to make cool cakes for my kids' birthdays, so it seems a little lame that I put all my time and effort into someone else's cake. But also, when it's your own kid, you tend to get a little more creative license, so it's fun to be able to do a design that you want to do.

I'm not talking about a scraggly little cake. Those character pans when covered in colourful icing stars are not scraggly. Put them on a sheet cake for a bigger party--they do just fine. The kids like to play with the plastic toys for about a week after the party and then they forget where those toys came from...

I guess I was lucky that my female family and in-laws asked for cakes with their favourite flowers on top of their favourite flavours of cake and icing. Also not scraggly or a half hour job. And the ones who got cakes at 17 or 18 were more entertained by the booze in the layers...they didn't seem to need a 3D sculpture.

I'm not talking about saying "no" to a specific theme or image. But the translation into cake can be effective and accurate without entailing a month of work by Michelangelo. I'm also talking about managing expectations that are different at different ages.

As far as I am concerned, a multi-tier job with a carved tea party all over it for a 3 year old (it was on TV) is WAY WAY WAY over the line. It teaches the child that "over the top" is a normal way of life. Because after you do that for 3YO, what do you do when they can find pictures online by themselves??? Do you really spend $500-$5000 for every birthday cake or do you teach the kids to put that $$$ into their college fund?

I started cake decorating in the 1980's when my kids were little and I used the character pans piping a gazillion little stars on them...I hated them then and I hate them now. If I never saw another character pan, it would suit me just fine.

Yes, I agree that some of the cakes we see on tv are WAY, WAY over the top to the point of being ridiculous....unless you're having a party with a couple hundred people. But I don't think too many 3 year olds have birthday parties with that many "friends" attending! But I guess we can thank "Buddy" and the like for bringing these types of cakes into our lives. Totally ridiculous!! How much of that cake really get's eaten and in fact how much of that cake is really cake!!??

I guess what I'm saying is, make what makes you and your family happy and in a style that reflects the child, or person's likes and personality. And in a size that fits the number of people that will be eating it!

JMHO....

I agree, no scraggly cakes for any age. No booze for any teens. We all want to take our decorating to the top. It might be for a friends child and especially our children. I make what i am paid to do (if getting paid) . for family(to impress) and to get other business.

I also hate doing character cakes. But I wasn't referring to them when I made the comment about scraggly cakes. I only mean that the cakes for my kids tend to look a little weaker than the ones for my friends' kids, which I feel a little guilty about. Things always go wrong when they're for my own kids, for whatever reason. I guess I get a little more experimental, but don't have as much time to fix it....

I get what you're saying about expectations for your kids, but I don't think a shaped cake is too much for your child. It's a labor of love, and frankly, I'd much rather do a tiered or shaped cake for my kids' birthdays than a character cake! I hate piping all those stars... My kids get really excited when they see their cakes, and I don't think they're spoiled. It's easy to judge the people on TV with their big cakes, but maybe we should cut them a little slack. After all, I'm sure many of them make great customers.

Oh for goodness sake! When it's your own kid and you are basically your own customer, it's a treat to get to make something that you've always wanted. My little boy has had two 3Ds: one blue race car when he turned 4 and one jumping monster truck when he turned 5 (he got the short straw for his 6th and he had a sweet little round cake with fondant truck silhouettes cut out on it). He LOVED both of his 3D cakes and has since come up with some designs that completely overestimate my ability

After seeing what i make for other customers, both of them look forward to helping design and choose their cakes...and a character pan and star tip has nothing to do with it! (and believe it or not, some families really try to avoid the commercialization of children's toys and stay away from marketed character items, cakes included). I know for sure that i have one Star Wars cake in my future and the other...hopefully i can pin down an idea a couple of weeks before, but seeing that he's my guy that loves to 'bake and decorate' cakes with the Cake Doodle Ap on the iPad, i think he's leaning towards a three tier, star shape cake covered in black cats, the number 7, and secret agent men (aka groom toppers) LOL

@lorieleann...
LOL...love your post, love your attitude, and love, love love your cakes.

this entire thread take "white whine" to a new level.

I hear the OP's point. I wanted to make a doll cake for my g'daughter's birthday a few years ago, but she wanted a dog food bowl cake with Reese's cereal on top for dog food. So that's what she got.

This same child doesn't even like cake that much, and doesn't like frosting at all. She 'allows' me to make cakes for her other guests, while she enjoys the store bought ice cream cake, or this year...it will be cheesecake.

Ok the cake turned out really good and she lives it so I'm happy!