things NOT to ask/say to a baker! - Page 20

I guess some people are using "ghetto fabulous" to mean "covered with bling in a classy folk art style" just as "shabby chic" is routinely applied to "Victorian classy but I can't be bothered to look up the style".

 

The artwork in both cases is a lot classier than the terms applied by the stupid. 

Edited by BakingIrene - 12/20/12 at 5:54am

I just got some 'wonderful' feedback...

"I just wanted to email and say thanks again for the lovely cake... ...it was just too cute to cut on the day...'
So nobody got to eat it???!
'...we loved it so much it ended up going bad in the fridge,we just couldnt bare to cut it lol!'

Aw come on lady what makes you think i wanted to hear that??! Plus i told you not to put it in the fridge! ...if she asks for a cake again shes getting a dummy and a sheet! (I did say sheet right?)

Plus i love the way her 'lol' is presumably meant to disolve any offence I might feel!

There's nothing 'classy' about ghetto fabulous.  Imagine if you will a pimp all decked out in bling surrounded by his many,  equally decked-out 'ho's'.  Shiny and tacky is more like it. 

Oh! I was reading this to my husband and he reminded me about a lady 2 weeks ago. Since I am home based, I schedule appointments for pickup this lady showed up 2 hours early, and I didn't even have it iced yet! She sent her granddaughter to my front door, but I have a bakery entrance that that has double French doors with half lights and side lights, you have to walk right past it to get to the front door.

My husband answered the door thinking it was for my daughter, because she was at my daughter's sleepover in February. And she says "we're here to pick up the cake.....early!" So I sent on their way and said it would be done at 2. The cake was just a simple cake, white with black Dalmatian dots and hot pink border, bow and name, which were all done previously, so it only took 15 minutes to get it together. But i was doing other things.

so she shows up an hour later, still an hour ealy when i was putting the border on, But then I had to ice 12 cupcakes to ice and pipe simple bows on, so I told her it would still be a few minutes since she was still early, and she says,"aren't you good at all?" What . The . Hell?

But then she started kissing my butt about how great the other cake was that I did... Whatever!

I entered a cake contest and came home with two extra real cakes.  Saw the neighbors 9 year old boy outside and sent him home with one of them.  He came back the next day with the cake plate and was suppose to say "It was as good as it looked" but he said "It was as good as it was".  I've been laughing about that for years and they just called to book a wedding cake for him.  Boy does time fly.

 

And a second thought.  A bride came for a taste test and went on and on about how casual her wedding was going to be, with burlap, birds nests and birds then points to my most outlandishly blinged-out cake and says she loves that one - and do I think it would fit in with her scheme.....................ummmmmmmmmmmmmmmm............what???????

Whenever its Christmas or a holiday and I mention that I am too broke to get everyone I would like a gift and people say "Just make everyone their own cake!" Like it doesn't cost any money at all to produce a nicely decorated personalised cake...

 

(I just do this as a hobby, I go to college so can only work part time and don't have a lot of spare cash.)
 

Of course it doesn't cost anything to make a cake. Any cake decorator worth their salt can either pull ready-decorated cakes outta their @$$, or just wave their magic wands and *pof* - there's cake.

I have had many of those comments thrown my way, but the most irritating one is when they call the same day and ask if its too late to order a cake? oh and it shouldn't be a problem because I just want to order the smallest cake, the one thats not so expensive. ugh!!!!!
 

Right.. I would be more willing to do a last minute cake for $300 than $30... a little more incentive :-)

I'm waiting for one like this to call me in the next couple of days. the groom called about five days ago, asked if I was available for a small wedding cake for New Year's Eve. I said sure, why not, and told him to talk to the bride about what they were looking for. Turns out his adult stepdaughters were supposed to arrange for the cake and hadn't done it yet and he was a little panicked. So the next evening I got a message from who I think was one of the daughters saying that they wanted to talk about the design and pay for the cake. I returned the call, left a message and haven't heard back. I have a feeling that I'm going to get a panicked call from the groom again, since his daughters are obviously not the sharpest knives in the drawer. If they do feel compelled to order a cake three days before the event it's going to cost them more. Two days before and it ain't happening.

I work full time and did do cakes on the side up until a week ago....It was just too difficult to stay up until all hours, stress over construction design and I was having such a problem pricing cakes where I could actually make any money... People don't realize the time and cost involved with these cakes...It was really taking a toll on me and my daughter's life!  Well the best lines I got were:

 

"It's good to do mindless work."

"I don't know, maybe just a Thomas the Train cake...."

 

Seriously?....

No cakes for you!

Wow...RUDE! Definitely a no cake for you list recipient. What drives me crazy is when my husband takes a day off from work when I'm working, and decides that he wants to come into the kitchen and have a conversation. I've told him that it doesn't look like I'm doing anything, but I'm always either counting or concentrating on something, depending if I'm baking or decorating. He used to work from home too, so that was worse, at least now he goes to the office and I can have some silence while I'm concentrating!

Oh yes, the "How's it going? How much longer do you think you will be down here?" bit. Are you kidding me? It takes as long as it takes, do you really think that I make up more work for myself so that I can't spend time with you? (well... there ARE days... :)

 

 

I'm doing 3 New Year's Eve cakes this weekend and as I'm baking them, I'm thinking back on the brides, and I remembered one of the bride's comments during her tasting and design consult (she had already booked me)

 

Bride: "I don't want fondant, it's too expensive." 

Me: "Oh, I understand, well, we can do this design, but it won't be quite like in the picture, because that IS fondant."

Bride: "Ok.... but I want it PERFECT. Can you make it PERFECT, just not with fondant, I just don't want to waste the money."

Me: "Well, I will do my best, but do understand that this cake was done in fondant for a reason."

Bride: "Yes, but Suzy got her cake from a bakery and wanted a similar design in buttercream and the bakery totally screwed it up. I just want to make sure you don't screw it up."

 

I'm getting more and more of these brides that want fondant-purposed cakes but don't want to pay for it, and expect me to spend an extra couple of hours executing a design in buttercream AND charge them less because it's not fondant.

Thinking it may be time to switch my "all-design-inclusive" pricing structure.... 

I don't advertise a particular pricing structure. I ask what they want and give them a price. Or I ask how much they want to spend and show them examples of what I can do in that range. I don't charge per serving. And I have what we call a stupid fee added for irritating clients

 

ROFLMAO!  "stupid fee"....brilliant!!