your customer appreciated your work in the past ?? and wants elaborate decorations,  made of "what"...and what did they appreciate

in the past....use the same product

No. It's a complete sentence.

Here are some from my friends/acquaintances.

- "Can you help me bake a cake for my 21st? Two tiers, -inserts fussy details about the cake-, then I'll cover the ingredient costs ok?"

YEAH SURE, BECAUSE 18 HOURS OF MY LABOUR IS FREE, YOU DIPSHYT.

- Wow this looks easy. Must've taken you less than 2 hours. What did you use, cake premix and canned frosting?

THEN YOU DO IT. And accusing me of using premix/premade frosting is so hurtful.

- Is there a way to make the icing not so sweet? Your icings are always so sweet.

facepalm

My friend's girlfriend whom I barely know... just my luck to run into her at the train station.

Sunday noon:

Hey S, you're invited to C's 21st birthday! Also, can you help me bake him a cake as well?

When do you need it?

Tomorrow morning.

TOMORROW MORNING.

...

Some friends expect me not to charge them because of our "friendship". Sigh. Come on, FRIENDSHIP doesn't pay for ingredients and electricity usage.

I don't make super spectacular cakes like most people here. I'm still learning and experimenting with stuff, but most of the time it works out and looks decent.

Every time someone approach me to bake a cake for them, I always warn them that Im not a pro baker, and that it is all new to me. It may turn out to be different from what they had in mind. Once they are willing to take that risk, I'll do it.

And then AFTER i do it, there are little harmless flaws sometimes, they (some of them are even my friends) demand a half/full refund.

By harmless flaws, i mean a slightly chipped gum paste flower because they were careless in the transport of the cake... or the rilakkuma slippers fondant are of different size by a few millimeters.

Sigh, sometimes their demands make me want to stop baking for them. Id rather bake on my own pace, try out various recipes and experiment with all sorts of flavours than to please these unsatisfiable, condescending arses.

ANo sah! Dwl! Then why the hell she wants a cake from you then. Too funny. I'd say something like the deposit is used to reserve a date. I unfortunately do not accept specialized orders without a deposit. At the time the date that you has expressed your interest in no no longer available and will not be able to make that cake for you. I wish you all the best on your endeavours. Have a good day

A very close friend who has been ordering a half-sheet every other week told me to expect a call from a lady he works with.  She's finalizing her wedding plans for a couple of months from now and will probably want a 4-tier cake for 150 people.  Seriously?  Just out of curiosity I asked him if she had any idea of the cost of that type of cake.  Oh, yes - she understands it will probably be around $200 - $300.

So this lady wants a practically last-minute wedding cake - - 4 tiers - - for about $2 per serving.

You would all be so proud.  I didn't snort or laugh one little bit!

I would have thrown my head back and laughed out loud.................wouldn't have been able to control myself.  Even Wal-Mart is more.

A

A

:grin::grin:

That was not a friend's request. That was a customer!

Wow, some of these posts I have actually had to stand back and go "Really?"  I can relate though, several of my friends have told me that I should open a bakery so I got the necessary permits and started slowly out of my home (Brick and Mortar is out of the question at this point) so the other day a one of the friends who suggested I do so actually became applauded that I was going to charge her for a cake...wow, really???  Not just a hobby anymore folks!

I know that once am ready to charge people they will react the same way but that's ok.I understand what you are saying and am ready once I start charging I will have the same issue

I received at text at 12:15 AM inquiring about wedding cake pricing...doh!

and an email asking about a cake tasting for a 35 serving shower cake...double doh!

A

I would make them sign something like...

"By agreeing to have me make your cake, you recognize that I am non-professional/hobby baker who is learning the craft. As such, there may be discrepancies between the expected outcome and actual outcome of the cake. No refunds will be given for less-than-professional results. I will also not be held responsible for the transport of any cake and any damages that may occur therein. "

People tend to get the picture more if you make them sign a document :grin:

ADon't know if anyone remembers the large cupcake meadow with gumpaste flowers on each plus the large three tier wedding cake that my "friend" wanted. We haven't spoken much since then she calls out of the blue to talk about everything which wiggles it way back to the cake.....said her aunt that will bake it doesn't want to bake it for the finances aunt to decorate it And the finances aunt doesn't want to decorate any cake that the other aunt bakes AND she doesn't know who she can get to decorate it with fondant because the finances aunt only work with buttercream. So, I told her I still have those three sheets of butterflies for her and will call her back as I was about to eat. I never called back. So proud of myself.......forgot to add. She wants me to deposit $20 in her account all because she wants me to help pay for her honeymoon..... (I never even had one btw. Still can't afford it) and she wants that in addition to providing her with edible print which locally would cost her $30

AI am tired of this young girl who asks for a price on a cake then has someone else make it! I think she is giving someone else my price and they are beating it..although the cakes she is posting on FB are sloppy... you get what you pay for! So, she just asked for a price again . This time I asked when she needs it for. When she responds I will be booked that week ;-)

AHmm. I have been known to do the precise opposite with my travel agent, on trips in which she was doing part of the booking, and I was doing part of it: I'd get the best online prices I could, report them to her, and then offer her "first refusal" if she could come anywhere close.

After about the first few trips involving rail in which she was unable to keep my Amtrak Guest Rewards attached to my reservation (so I wouldn't have to send in ticket stubs to get my points), I did all my own rail booking; she understood my reasons, and had no objections (after all, I'd been the one who taught her how to read a rail timetable). Now, unfortunately, she's retired. I stuck with her, even through office changes that put her 20 miles away from me, because she knew what makes me tick, and I knew I could trust her to help me get my vacation, rather than somebody else's idea of what my vacation should be.

But the more I say here, the further off topic I get, so I should shut my yap.

I had a funny one. A woman calls and tells me she wants a 3 tier cake so I say "sure, how many people do you need it for" her answer "8"!

A

My brother cut his 8" round into 7 pieces that would each hold a door open... you could suggest she do the same lol

Good one

I want to play too...

For years, people sheepishly say to me, "Well, this cake is from the grocery store, so you probably won't like it."

This does get on my nerves. I am not, nor have ever been, a cake snob. And I've never acted like one, either, so I don't know where it comes from.

I will never go to your casual birthday party and turn my nose up at what you are generously offering me. I will never mock a cake, and in fact I want a big 'ol piece of that, thank you very much. And the leftovers, too if you're giving it out. I'll eat it right out of the tupperware with a fork. In my pajamas. That night.

Yes, I make fancy cakes. But me and regular sweets - we're best buds.

Not me! I will freely admit that I am a cake snob, and I can't stand grocery store cakes! We have actually turned out friends into cake snobs now too!

OTOH, I would never be rude about eating grocery store cake at a party, and I would certainly never mock the cake. I would (and have) graciously accept and eat it, or tell them no thank you since I am on a diet (which is true!). But I wouldn't enjoy it!

Actually, the white cakes from Costco (at least, I think that's where the Printing Museum gets cakes for paying guests, when we serve cake at a special event) don't taste half-bad to me. Not the dense, non-whipped, all-butter BC I'm used to, but to me, they taste better than I might expect. And I've tasted wedding cakes that didn't taste as good (although I'm biased: I don't care for the citrus flavors that seem so popular for wedding cakes, and [as some of you are probably already aware] I don't eat chocolate at all [having cultivated a loathing for the stuff as a child]).

And as I recall (I didn't put it on Flickr, in my "baked goods" set because all I did was pipe a large "48" on it in CakeMate frosting from a tube), the Ralphs single-layer round cake I bought for my own 48th birthday didn't taste half-bad, either; same comments as the Costco cakes.

And NO, I do NOT take the SLIGHTEST offense at not being asked to bake for paying Museum guests. After the monumental mess with the "wood type cookie" project, I could not only do without the workload of baking for a "full house" in the museum theatre; I could also do without the responsibility of baking for a bunch of total strangers. (At least when I'm baking for my fellow docents, they're mostly people I know, and who know me, and who, not being paying customers, are somewhat less likely to sue.) I'm more than content to cut and serve the Costco cakes (although now that I think about it, I WAS a bit miffed that this year, one was chocolate cake, and the other was chocolate frosting), and to stick candles in them (in traditional flower-shaped plastic candleholders, of course) if it's the "Franklin's Birthday" event.

AGot this one today...since you are to busy to do my daughters birthday cake, I have decided to do cupcakes and buy something to put on top, it can't be that hard, just a squirts of icing on top.

He he he she wants to save some for later or they really love cake

About 3 to 4 years ago I use to buy store cake just because I work but one day went to a party in the beach. they had store cake and it give me stomach ache I thought it was just me but some of the kids started cry also with ache, well that was it for me. I am a caterer why don't I make my own cakes and 2yrs ago I took a big cake to the beach party same people and they had some store again when thy tasted mines the owner of the party didn't was to share that made me start my hobby.