Do any of you get requests from people to make decorations only? And if you did or ever got that request, did/would you make the decorations? So far I've had two. One to make a bow to put on top of a cake that they were getting from a local grocery store (with their foodstamps) and one where they were making their own cupcakes and wanted me to make the fondant toppers. I declined on both, personally b/c I want to see things from start to finish. What is everyone elses' take on this?

Honestly, no I wouldn't do it either. Sure I can charge them for my time, and materials but to put my stuff on some grocery store cake is not acceptable for me. I would be so upset if a guest asked the host where her beautiful cake from and she said Walmart.

But that's just me.

There are many people selling edible toppers on Etsy. There's everything from figurines to edible fondant cupcake discs.
I don't do it.
The only thing I sell apart from fully completed baked goods are personalized polymer clay toppers.

A bow? Heck, yeah, no problem. It'll take all of 5-10 minutes and cost about .25 to make. I can sell it for any where from $5 to $10 bucks! What I wouldn't do is decriate an entire cake that someone else made. But a bow can be made from anyone.

Either I make ALL of it or I make NONE of it.

So long as I get paid handsomely for what I do - I don't care what they do with it

To be honest - there is a great market out there for ALL sorts of things - people want to make cakes but somethings are outside of their skill set? so what - they purchase off me/you/whoever

I use these sorts of things as additional income and am still amazed at the amount people will spend on cupcake toppers etc - no problem getting upwards of $2 per cupcake topper. I have found it also INCREASES your chances of further complete cake business - the people that may not have thought $4-$6 per cupcake was worth it - after doing it themselves - they will come back with a different mind-set.

I teach classes and sell all sorts of things to students. They may not want to purchase 6 new colours to make a small model - so I colour up the fondant in the colours/quantities that they want and on-sell it.

EASY money for somebody who has a 2 ft square box of colours

I probably would have until this past week. A very talented decorator I know put pictures of beautiful cupcake toppers on her facebook page. The next day, pictures showed up of those gorgeous little toppers on nasty cupcakes that had been iced with a butter knife, and the icing was melting and dripping all over. I would hate to have that happen to me. Grocery store cupcakes would have been better than those. I'm still considering sending her a sympathy message .

I have done many things, including Dorothy from the Wizard of Oz & many of her other decos. Have also made some 9 bows that were put on cheese cakes they made.
I'd do it for anyone who wants figures, animals, bows whatever at any time

I had a consultation with a bride who realized she couldn't afford the cake she dreamed of having. She had a friend who could make it for much less. Rather than losing the client completely, I told her I could at least make her topper. I suggested a barter, as I needed work done on my grapes and her fiance was a vineyard specialist. He came out and evaluated my vines and professionally pruned them and I made her a gum paste sugar topper.

http://cakecentral.com/gallery/2301862/rose-wedding-cake-topper

Naturally, she needed more flowers than just the topper so she ended up buying a number of additional flowers, ferns and foliage from me for a price I was very satisfied with. I did lose the creative control and was not happy with the arrangement on the cake, but I was well paid and she did credit me with making the flowers.

All in all, I'm glad I did it. We both ended up happy. She got a beautiful keepsake flowers, and my grapes have never produced better.

Jan

I sell flowers and decorations, including entire gumpaste "cake kits" on etsy. I've had people send me pictures of godawful cakes that their relatives made that they put my flowers on. So what, who cares? If someone in Germany wants to put my lilacs on their ugly cupcakes, have at it, I still get paid. I'm running a business, so I'm not in it for my ego, I want to actually make some $$$.