With so many people getting inspired by things the see online, I have been getting requests for cakes customers see on this site gallery, and pinterest... I am kind of torn about how to approach this. I hate feeling like I am stealing someone's creation and profiting from it... I usually say "I can't make that exact cake, but we can do something very similar" . How do you guys handle this type of thing? Should I feel guilty, or if it's on the web, it's fair game... I feel fine about taking inspiration from other cakes, but don't like replicating someone elses art.
I think you are right on track with telling them that you will not exactly replicate a cake, but will do something similar. I like to convince people that they want a cake that is unique to them.
There's no way that you could completely copy someone else's cake design since no two people do things alkie anyway. You can't copyright a cake design, and even if someone claims that a design is "original" it's more than likely that they got the idea from someone before them. Don't worry about it too much. Change it up some if you don't want to do something the same, but it's no big deal if you don't.
I get this all the time, I just tell them that I cannot do the exact same cake as someone else and I have to put my own artistic spin on the same idea. Usually people are very understanding and are ok with it. I haven't had anyone say, "NO it has to be exactly like this one." If so, I would say, " Perhaps if you find out who made that cake, you can get them to do yours as well!" I also do not like to do the same cake twice, I always do a variation, it's what makes custom cakes, custom. 
There's no way that you could completely copy someone else's cake design since no two people do things alkie anyway. You can't copyright a cake design, and even if someone claims that a design is "original" it's more than likely that they got the idea from someone before them. Don't worry about it too much. Change it up some if you don't want to do something the same, but it's no big deal if you don't.
I completely agree! Well said....
There's no way that you could completely copy someone else's cake design since no two people do things alkie anyway. You can't copyright a cake design, and even if someone claims that a design is "original" it's more than likely that they got the idea from someone before them. Don't worry about it too much. Change it up some if you don't want to do something the same, but it's no big deal if you don't.
I completely agree! Well said....
Haha! Except I typed "alkie" instead of "alike." No booze involved, but if that helps you be more original then have at it.
I disagree. You can for all intents and purposes copy a design. If someone sets out purposefully to replicate a design and either by their materials choice or by their own lack of skill does not manage to pull off an exact replication, they still intend to claim credit for something they did not come up with. Nothing has changed that intent.
It's one thing to be inspired by someone or someone else's cake. It's another thing altogether to replicate the cake down to specific items, colours and materials. I found a picture of a cake on this site that even I had to do a double take on... It was a blatant copy of my eyeball soup cake down to the number of eyeballs, colour of the irises, placement of the severed toe, scattered worms and ganache drip. You can compare the photos side by side and you cannot say that they took inspiration. It is a blatant attempt at copying. Even worse, this person submitted the photos in for a contest. Not cool.
My personal opinion on this subject is that we find inspiration anywhere and can pull ideas and thoughts from our subconscious without knowing or realizing the source, but if you sit down with a photo of another cake in front of you and set out to recreate it and it turns out slightly different from the original, it doesn't change the fact that you didn't design it.
If you call yourself a designer or an artist, don't copy a cake. Be inspired by a cake, but make it your own, Otherwise how are you going to set yourself apart from all the other joe schmoe decorators out there.
And if someone does think its ok to copy a cake, tell me, where do you draw the line? Is it ok for you to take someone's photo and post it on your Facebook page and claim it as your own. Two completely separate issues, but with the same moral dilemma. Be the better artist/designer - design.
I disagree. You can for all intents and purposes copy a design. If someone sets out purposefully to replicate a design and either by their materials choice or by their own lack of skill does not manage to pull off an exact replication, they still intend to claim credit for something they did not come up with. Nothing has changed that intent.
It's one thing to be inspired by someone or someone else's cake. It's another thing altogether to replicate the cake down to specific items, colours and materials. I found a picture of a cake on this site that even I had to do a double take on... It was a blatant copy of my eyeball soup cake down to the number of eyeballs, colour of the irises, placement of the severed toe, scattered worms and ganache drip. You can compare the photos side by side and you cannot say that they took inspiration. It is a blatant attempt at copying. Even worse, this person submitted the photos in for a contest. Not cool.
My personal opinion on this subject is that we find inspiration anywhere and can pull ideas and thoughts from our subconscious without knowing or realizing the source, but if you sit down with a photo of another cake in front of you and set out to recreate it and it turns out slightly different from the original, it doesn't change the fact that you didn't design it.
If you call yourself a designer or an artist, don't copy a cake. Be inspired by a cake, but make it your own, Otherwise how are you going to set yourself apart from all the other joe schmoe decorators out there.
And if someone does think its ok to copy a cake, tell me, where do you draw the line? Is it ok for you to take someone's photo and post it on your Facebook page and claim it as your own. Two completely separate issues, but with the same moral dilemma. Be the better artist/designer - design.
I don't consider myself either an artist or a designer. I don't have a creative bone in my body. I like to decorate cake, though. It's not 'art' to me - at least, not the way I do it.
I don't need to set myself apart from anyone. I'm perfectly happy being a Joe Schmoe decorator.
People often give me photos to copy. They found something they like. Who am I to tell them that they don't, in fact, want that cake, what they want is my 'interpretation' of it? It's not really up to me.
And, no, it's not OK to take a photo of someone's else's cake and claim you made it. As you say, two completely separate issues.
It's respectful to give credit where due. "A copy of an original design by XXX" or at least that it was "inspired by XXX."
I often get cakes that I've seen done so many times it's impossible to decipher the original artist, so I just go by whomever's name is on the photo given to me - or find one similar if the photo does not include a name.
I always tell the person requesting the cake,though, that I prefer to make a custom design, and ask them which aspects of the cake in the photo they like the most. Usually they get excited about having an "original."
And if someone does think its ok to copy a cake, tell me, where do you draw the line? Is it ok for you to take someone's photo and post it on your Facebook page and claim it as your own. Two completely separate issues, but with the same moral dilemma. Be the better artist/designer - design.
Right, two completely different issues.Using someone else's pictures and saying "I did this" Is a lie, and a copyright violation. Making your own cake and sayng "I did this" is fine because it's true. I do agree that entering a contest with someone else's design is sketchy, although if that's the case then you'd better eliminate all of those stringwork cakes from contests because they're pretty non-original style-wise.
No moral dilemma about it at all. I've had people copy my cakes and it either stinks or it doesn't, but oh well. You can't copyright a cake, and for myself I don't consider doing cakes to be art, it's a craft. I know that people will argue about that, but there are plenty of people who call themselves sugar artists because they're making a birthday cake with tapits, so the label holds not a lot of water with me.
I generally try to give credit if I post a picture of something that I've done that a bride wanted based on a photo, but there aren't a lot of original ideas out there. If someone brings me a picture of a cake with pleats I'm not going to worry about who invented the pleat. If someone brings me a picture of something that they want copied exactly I either won't bother posting a picture or I'll give credit as an "inspired by" thing, but I'm not going to worry about whether that decorator was the first to think of the themes in the cake, because they probably weren't.
Amen costumexczar!
If a bride brings in a photo and wants that as her cake, I will do it. For the most part some things get changed (colors, patterns, etc) so it's not an exact copy. As costumeczar said, I couldn't exactly replicate it if I wanted to.
It's rare, but If I see the design is from another local baker, I will tell the bride that we need to design our cake, so I do draw the line somewhere. When I blog about a cake, I will always give a shout out to the bakery that did the cake I used as inspiration, if I know it. But there's no way of knowing if that was really the original baker or not - could have been just another copycat.
I think of it this way. If you live in California and I live in Georgia, we don't have the same customer base. The bride is not going to buy her cake from across the country, and I'm not going to turn down the business.
I totally agree with chief_wickeds. I have someone who has copied me twice and gave me the same insulting excuse. You KNOW when your being copied and I guess just lucky when you can call them out on it.......
And yes designs do over lap but again you KNOW when someone just TAKES what they want and claims it for themselves. NASTY
debbie
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