Things Not To Ask/say To A Baker!

Decorating By step0nmi Updated 20 Oct 2016 , 2:28pm by ch5964

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step0nmi Posted 11 Dec 2012 , 4:14am
post #31 of 3221
Quote:
Originally Posted by BakingIrene 

I would have texted back, what flavour would she like?

 

My mother-in-law asked such questions over the phone with a gentle wistful tone of voice, and I always felt that she was being reasonable.  Her son-in-law was infamous in her family of very good cooks for only eating 10 foods, so the question made some sense.  I have also been asked a similar question by dinner guests who have a violent nut or seafood allergy, and again they ask calmly and I reassure them that I remember their special needs.  

 

On the other hand, "can I get this cake cheaper" gets me flaming mad.  

 

Ditto for "you didn't really need that cake book back, did you?" when my copy of Lambeth disappeared into the ether of friends-of -friends...

her text more-so meant "there better not be fondant on that cake" because she complains every single time. she knew it was wrong to ask. and my response was "i'm going to make what i make". because when it's MY cake i make no one is going to tell me how to do it! and she knows all this.

 

 

the Lambeth book...oooHHH i would have been fighting someone! ;) jk 

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Annabakescakes Posted 11 Dec 2012 , 4:22am
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AI just got an email tonight that I hate to see,"it was so nice to meet you and your cake was wonderful, BUT, we're having a friend of a friend make the cake for $2 a serving."

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step0nmi Posted 11 Dec 2012 , 4:27am
post #33 of 3221
Quote:
Originally Posted by Annabakescakes 

I just got an email tonight that I hate to see,"it was so nice to meet you and your cake was wonderful, BUT, we're having a friend of a friend make the cake for $2 a serving."

YUCK! that's one of the reasons i don't decorate for money anymore. too depressing! 

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vgcea Posted 11 Dec 2012 , 5:15am
post #34 of 3221

MOIST! icon_lol.gif

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Apti Posted 11 Dec 2012 , 5:19am
post #35 of 3221

you folks just slay me!

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vgcea Posted 11 Dec 2012 , 5:25am
post #36 of 3221

What Apti? What? You don't like MOIST cake? What's wrong with MOIST cake? Think about the rich damp dewy goodness of MOIST cake made even MOISTER with simple syrup. Mmmmmmmmmmm MOIST.

 

MOYYST!

 

ROTFLMAO!!!

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kazita Posted 11 Dec 2012 , 5:43am
post #37 of 3221

AI offered to make a wedding cake for a couple who are getting married in may...I messaged the mother of the bride over facebook that I would do there cake for them ( it was going to be my gift to them) the mother messaged me back saying a lady from there church was doing it for a cheap price....enough said

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Alana7 Posted 11 Dec 2012 , 5:55am
post #38 of 3221

AHow about this?: "if your prices were cheaper, you'll have more business" I have more than I can handle, thank you very much!

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Danilou Posted 11 Dec 2012 , 5:56am
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Ba ha ha ha .........

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kazita Posted 11 Dec 2012 , 5:59am
post #40 of 3221

AI bought the piping class on here and it shows him puting simple syrup between every layer than. Icing on top in every layer that sounds like a bit to much for my liking

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kazita Posted 11 Dec 2012 , 6:07am
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AAgain people just don't realize or don't care they just want a specialty cake at cheap prices Did you guys see the post on here about an electric cake scraper and some one posted a link on a assembly line making cakes? It was cool to watch but it wasn't making specialty cakes

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kazita Posted 11 Dec 2012 , 6:20am
post #42 of 3221

Ahttp://m.youtube.com/#/watch?v=sqhAZcrXm6o&desktop_uri=%2Fwatch%3Fv%3DsqhAZcrXm6o interesting to watch but not a specialty cake or a wedding cake

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auzzi Posted 11 Dec 2012 , 6:31am
post #43 of 3221

Automated. robotic, production line ...

 

Not one speciality, bespoke or original cake in sight [or available ....]

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kazita Posted 11 Dec 2012 , 7:39am
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AI know no specialty cake available but because they can make them so fast people have come to eexpect the same thing from a specialty baker for cheap prices not realizing all the work that goes into one cake

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Crazy-Gray Posted 11 Dec 2012 , 10:07am
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From those you meet maybe twice a year I always seem to get- "ooh that's a nice cake- it's my birthday next month you know.....<hint-hint-hint>"   

".....I must remember to send you a card then!" free cake vultures!! lol

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de_montsoreau Posted 11 Dec 2012 , 1:14pm
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Wednesday, around 5 pm. Phone rings in my shop.
"Hello, I bought some of your wonderful cupcakes yesterday." (So far, so good).

"Well, thank you what can I do for you?"

"It's my girlfriend's birthday on Friday and I wonder if you could make me a custom made and decorated cake with various gumpaste figures for me to pick up on Friday?"

"Eeeeehhhh - no, sorry...."

 

 

Phone rings today.

"Hi, I really love your website and your cakes, could you make me a cake for my birthday, to be delivered on 25 December?"

"Well, thank you, but I was actually looking forward to the holidays". (In Germany the 25th of December is a public holiday with ALL shops, and offices closed. Not even supermarkets are open. NOTHING. And you expect me to sacrifice my extremly hard earned holiday for a birthday cake?!?!?. No. Never. Ever.)

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anavillatoro1 Posted 11 Dec 2012 , 2:25pm
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Some of my husband fam   "is easy for u  you make cakes whit your eye's close" 

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Brettley Posted 11 Dec 2012 , 3:18pm
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AHow about when someone changes the flavors just days before... "Can you change the top and 3rd tier to just chocolate... I know this wont be a problem because chocolate cake is pretty common and it should be easy enough for anyone to make." OO-Kay then....

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sbrehill Posted 11 Dec 2012 , 3:32pm
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I just love this thread!  And, speaking of free cake vultures, how about this one:

 

A friend of a friend, whom I have never met, is having a Hobbit movie premier party and wanted a cake, so he requests my friendship on facebook and invites me to the party. Then he says he'd like this fabulous 3D sculpted cake of the tower with the eye of Sauron on top. He is very specific in his order too.  He doesn't like buttercream so he says he wants white cake filled with chocolate ganache and raspberry filling. I tell him how much the cake will be and then I don't hear from him.  Instead, about a week later, our mutual friend texts me and says that he just can't afford the cake and honestly he thought I was going to just bring this cake as my "dish" to the potluck party!  Can you believe that?  I was so totally blown away!   Here is a link to the cake he wanted me to recreate and bring as a freebee to his party. http://betweenthepagesblog.typepad.com/.a/6a0120a5924ef0970b017d3cba4ab9970c-550wi 

Let me know if you are laughing as hard as I was! I really can't believe the gall of some people!
 

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j92383 Posted 11 Dec 2012 , 3:56pm
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How about when someone changes the flavors just days before... "Can you change the top and 3rd tier to just chocolate... I know this wont be a problem because chocolate cake is pretty common and it should be easy enough for anyone to make." OO-Kay then....

 

lol when they do that I tell them sure no problem and then I quote them additional per serving charge for the new cakes on top of what they've already paid. For some reason they always decide that their original choice will work out just fine.

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cakeyouverymuch Posted 11 Dec 2012 , 4:12pm
post #51 of 3221
Quote:
Originally Posted by de_montsoreau 

 

Phone rings today.

"Hi, I really love your website and your cakes, could you make me a cake for my birthday, to be delivered on 25 December?"

"Well, thank you, but I was actually looking forward to the holidays". (In Germany the 25th of December is a public holiday with ALL shops, and offices closed. Not even supermarkets are open. NOTHING. And you expect me to sacrifice my extremly hard earned holiday for a birthday cake?!?!?. No. Never. Ever.)

 

My response would have been: Only if you can walk on water and turn water into wine.

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Gefion Posted 11 Dec 2012 , 4:41pm
post #52 of 3221
Quote:
Originally Posted by BakingIrene 

Ditto for "you didn't really need that cake book back, did you?" when my copy of Lambeth disappeared into the ether of friends-of -friends...

Whaaaat? Please tell me you made them buy you a new copy. Oh there would have been blood, if that happened to me.

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nhbaker Posted 11 Dec 2012 , 4:51pm
post #53 of 3221

OMG, this thread is hilarious!!!

 

Here's my ultimate favorite and I get asked it all the time

 

 

Customer:  "how much do you charge for a wedding cake"

Me: "$3.25 for serving for buttercream, $3.75 for fondant"

Customer:  "so... how much would it be for a cake to feed about 100 people"

 

UGGGGGHHHHHH!!!!

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FromScratchSF Posted 11 Dec 2012 , 4:53pm
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Haha - yeah I hate the word "moist".  Ug.

 

"We love clean and modern.  Here's some photos (insert clean, minimalist 3-4 tier cakes here), can I get a clean and modern cake that has a stork, mailbox, some zoo animals, a really big pink bow because she loves pink bows, polka dots, pinstripes, and maybe a teddy bear or two?  Oh and can you put my favorite sports team logo on the teddy bear because I want me represented somewhere in the cake.  Maybe you can make a small teddy bear standing next to a stork holding a baby boy next to a mailbox only instead of letters in the mailbox maybe you can have tiny books that are all her favorite children stories?  Oh and the zoo animals need to be a zebra, lion, tiger and a few monkeys.  She also loves to shop so maybe you can make a few small shoes, shoe boxes and maybe some shopping bags?  The bags should be from Neimans because she loves Neimans.  Everything should be edible, especially chocolate.  That would be so cool!  I obviously have no idea about cakes but we really want clean and modern.  Oh and it's only for 4 people and we need it in 3 days."

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jason_kraft Posted 11 Dec 2012 , 5:07pm
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A

Original message sent by nhbaker

OMG, this thread is hilarious!!!

Here's my ultimate favorite and I get asked it [U]all the time[/U]

Customer:  "how much do you charge for a wedding cake" Me: "$3.25 for serving for buttercream, $3.75 for fondant" Customer:  "so... how much would it be for a cake to feed about 100 people"

UGGGGGHHHHHH!!!!

There could be good reasons to ask this question. For example, depending on the number and size of tiers it may not be possible to get exactly 100 servings. Also, some bakeries charge different per-serving prices depending on the size of the cake.

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kazita Posted 11 Dec 2012 , 5:11pm
post #56 of 3221

AI had a lady order a cake for her daughter who wasn't with her at the time of ordering and order strawberry filling for the cake only after I bought the filling from cake supply store an hour away that when I finalized the order before making the cake that the daughter says how she hates strawberry make it raspberry as the mother claims thats what she ordered raspberry not strawberry

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Annabakescakes Posted 11 Dec 2012 , 5:16pm
post #57 of 3221

AOmg! I've totally gotten that cake request, Jen! They want clean and simple, then it's an explosion of crap on their cake. I make sure to charge what it's worth, so they change their mind.

The guy wanting the Eye of Sauron tower cake for free is killing me, LOL!! I can't even imagine the time and skill involved to create that! I do get invitations to events often, where I presume they want to get the cake for free, since I don't know them well, but to actually hear it confirmed, is flabbergasting!

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-K8memphis Posted 11 Dec 2012 , 5:18pm
post #58 of 3221
Quote:
Originally Posted by jason_kraft 


There could be good reasons to ask this question. For example, depending on the number and size of tiers it may not be possible to get exactly 100 servings. Also, some bakeries charge different per-serving prices depending on the size of the cake.

 

Maybe so. But in over 40 years of doing cakes I have yet to have anyone ask that question for that reason. In my experience the reason they ask that is that they are not processing the facts because they are overwhelmed in a foreign situation or they want a better deal if they have done the math or they are comparing prices as intelligently as possible.

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shanter Posted 11 Dec 2012 , 5:22pm
post #59 of 3221
Quote:
Originally Posted by FromScratchSF 

 

"We love clean and modern.  Here's some photos (insert clean, minimalist 3-4 tier cakes here), can I get a clean and modern cake that has a stork, mailbox, some zoo animals, a really big pink bow because she loves pink bows, polka dots, pinstripes, and maybe a teddy bear or two?  Oh and can you put my favorite sports team logo on the teddy bear because I want me represented somewhere in the cake.  Maybe you can make a small teddy bear standing next to a stork holding a baby boy next to a mailbox only instead of letters in the mailbox maybe you can have tiny books that are all her favorite children stories?  Oh and the zoo animals need to be a zebra, lion, tiger and a few monkeys.  She also loves to shop so maybe you can make a few small shoes, shoe boxes and maybe some shopping bags?  The bags should be from Neimans because she loves Neimans.  Everything should be edible, especially chocolate.  That would be so cool!  I obviously have no idea about cakes but we really want clean and modern.  Oh and it's only for 4 people and we need it in 3 days."

 

Bwa-ha-ha-ha-ha-ha-ha-ha!!!

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Apti Posted 11 Dec 2012 , 5:26pm
post #60 of 3221

Still having LOTS of fun reading these gems. [vgcea.....you have to stop.  You are making me wheeze.]

 

sbrehill~~Hey, I don't know why you couldn't make an Eye of Sauron Hobbit cake!  Everybody knows we can do cakes with our "eye" closed!   Just be sure it's clean and modern.   Does this mean the cake vulture, friend-of-a-friend-that-you've-never-met is going to dis-invite you? 

 

nhbaker~~Here's one of my Indydebi favorites:   "Do the Math"

http://cateritsimple.blogspot.com/2010/11/doing-math-or-going-math-dumb.html

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