even if you charge $$ it's a hobby - Page 4

I called my county health department this afternoon and they're getting back to me. It seems like none of the people making the rules know the rules, at least not until you've broken them! 

 

I have a street like that near me, I get the most evil looks as I'm slowing to 40 in time for the sign and nobody else is! 

I hope it is illegal to get reimbursed for cost of ingredients when you're a hobby baker.  I invoke that line ALL THE TIME!  It's the best way to get out of doing a cake for someone you wouldn't otherwise gift a cake to!  AND I rarely have to make a cake for something I don't already want to. 

I'm not saying I won't still claim it is if it isn't! 

We're gonna claim it's illegal, even if it isn't, because it's just a convenient lie.

 

Think about it "Can you make me a sheet cake."

"no sorry but it's illegal"

 

"Can you make me a wedding cake that looks like me in my wedding dress"

"oh I'm sorry but that's definitely illegal"

 

"I need a cake to feed 250 people for tomorrow afternoon"

"I know but's it's illegal"

 

See, if we could just use it for ALL those other things. Who woulda thought regulation could be convenient?!

Can you make me a 7 tier cake for tomorrow, it should only cost around $50 for the ingredients and I'll reimburse you? Sorry - I'm not allowed. 

The people who make the rules are legislators, when you call the health dept you are typically speaking to clerks or inspectors. Usually someone at the supervisor or manager level will have a better idea what is going on, there's really no reason for an independent legal opinion when you can get the info directly from the agency that enforces the rules.

It was the department manager that I spoke to. Didn't get back to me though yet 

 

I would think that if you were making cakes specifically to make money then you are a business. If you take orders, especially from people you don't know, you are a business. If you say you have "customers" then you are a business. If you promote yourself as a cake decorator, cupcake maker, etc. you are a business. If you make a cake because you feel you must because you need the money then you are a business. If you turn down making a cake because you don't have time, the skill to make something specific that someone may want, because you don't like someone or just because you don't feel like it you are not a business.

 

When I was growing up my mother made cakes for all occasions for family and friends. When she accepted money, which wasn't always, she basically charged for the ingredients and few dollars more, maybe a bit more for very labor intensive cakes. But she didn't solicit people, didn't take orders and didn't do cakes for "friends of friends". She never thought of it as running a business. It was a chance for her to do something she liked without going broke doing it.

Legitimate businesses do this all the time, as long as you don't discriminate based on a protected class (race, color, gender, age, disability, s3xual orientation, etc) a business is free to turn down orders for any reason.

I don't quite follow.

I turn down cakes rather frequently. I refuse to do naughty cakes or boob cakes, I don't like them and don't like working on them. Does that suddenly make my business null and void? 

If someone brought me a picture of an 7 foot tall cake, sculpted to look like Shaq, I would turn it down because I don't have the skill set to handle something like that on my own, again, that does nothing to affect my business, except show that I know my parameters.

 

Personally, I think someone turning down cakes outside of their skill set is a sign of good business management. I get where your coming from, unfortunately there is no legal merit to it.

 

In any case, it has nothing to do with what people's personal feelings are towards what constitutes a business. It has to do with the regulations where you live.

lol! I made a boob cake once, at a place i used to work, and it was awkward because we used buttercream, and the viva method, so it was spherical, and the only way to smooth it was with your hand and the icing there is very dry so I had to heat it up with my hand, over and over to "buff" the wrinkles out... weird! My friend took a picture and sent it to my husband, lol! I actually told them I didn't want to do them anymore. Traumatized me, hahaha!

 

I also turn down cakes for religious purposes. I will not do naughty, or body part, or anything I do not want to do. I will not do cakes depicting hate-groups or other things I feel strongly about. And while some of the people ordering the cakes will fall into those "protected classes" I will not do the cake depicting it, they can order any cake I have done, or any cake with flowers or stripes or whatever custom cake they would like, except the banned ones, but I will not violate my own beliefs to hold up someone else's.

 

Pretend my example is an old lady, (since I LOVE old ladies*, it is ludicrous, and no one should be offended ;-D)  I will not make a cake depicting afghans, crochet, or denture cream or blue hair dye. I will, however make an elegant wedding cake, or their grandbaby's Elmo birthday cake. KWIM?

 

*seriously, I love them! I had my grandma teach me how to knit and crochet and paint ceramics when I was 8 and younger, she is 80 now, and we speak weekly. I also use to volunteer in nursing homes, passing ice, feeding people, and playing cards and fetching blankets and rubbing shoulders and arthritic hands and helping them get into their nighties when I was only 11, 12, 13 and 14 :-) I can't wait to be good and old, I am going to pretend I am senile and tell it like I see it. lol

Edited by Annabakescakes - 2/28/13 at 8:32pm