Opening up another session of the FNCC! This is a place for you to share your week, share photos of your work, ask for help or provide help if you can! Hope to see lots of photos tonight!

Cat

Party planning and cake planning this week but no baking. My younger daughter turns 30 this month so she is having a huge event. Working out the finishing details today including the cake design. But first up is Valentines! What are your plans? I'm doing cupcakes and making a fancy meal for my family and a couple of friends.

Cat

AHey guys.... this week I had my first class in Wilton Course 2. I learned how to make pansies out if gum paste and flowers out of fondant... still getting the hang of gum paste. I had two cupcakes orders this week and I made superbowl cookies. Working on two orders tonight as we speak. Just finished baking red velvet cupcakes and a 12 inch Heart shaped cake. Here are pics of what I did earlier this week and I will post this weekends orders next week! [IMG]http://cakecentral.com/content/type/61/id/3182362/width/200/height/400[/IMG]

[IMG]http://cakecentral.com/content/type/61/id/3182364/width/200/height/400[/IMG]

[IMG]http://cakecentral.com/content/type/61/id/3182365/width/200/height/400[/IMG]

Hi Cat,

Happy Birthday to your daughter.

lellosweetship, those cuppies look great, as do your cookies.  Although I am not a football fan, lol

I have 3 cake orders for tomorrow. A Tinkerbell cake (haven't decided on the actual design) its for a friends daugher so I have creative freedom on this one, hah!

A baby shower cake that I hope is as fairly simple as the design I created for the poor girl, lol 

The last one I've already done before its a 2 tier minnie mouse with a large bow on the side.  

I have a problem with this one. I'd like to ask all your advice.

I've been subcontracted by a friend who owns a cupcake shop.  She gets a cake order, I work directly with the customer on the design, the customer pays the shop.  But she doesn't mind if I show pics of my work. They bake I decorate.  NOW, on this cake I showed the customer my work, AND they baked the cakes but one of them came up short, which I feel will be throwing off the design.  I have brought it to my friends attention and her response is one like she really isn't too worried about it.  She said do the best you can.  

What do you all think?  Am I over reacting?

AAuntG-seems like this would be a topic that deserves its own thread.

Basically, you are an employee (or volunteer since you didn't mention how/if you were getting paid) at least this is what I would think as a customer-the shop is in her name.

However, if you want to go into business for yourself you need to sit down with your friend/boss and figure out what you are comfortable with. Especially if you are trying to build your own reputation. We are in the customer service industry, much of my business comes from repeat customers & referrals. It appears you both have very different management skills (such as how to deal with complaints). If you don't feel you were able to deliver what you promised your customer, due to the cake you had to build from, then I can completely understand why you want to do something for your customer (whether it's a discount on a future order, quick repair, etc.)

That's why it's very important to establish contracts, guidelines, something along those lines before agreeing to work with her.

I think you need to ask yourself what you want; a partnership, an employee, or simply someone she refers actual cake orders to. Perhaps you can form some sort of contract that would allow you to use her kitchen (like an incubator) as a rental/with a percentage of the custom cakes going to her business. I don't know much about that, I work alone.

Something to keep in mind, depending on the decorating your doing-whether it's basic sheet cakes or stacked custom cakes-her cupcake recipes won't always work. This is what I assume you've had problems with, you might want to choose your own recipes.

It's a confusing situation.

Thanks Smckinney, Everyone tells me to let it go, just wanted to hear (or read in this case, lol) from a pier.

Made a Pittsburgh Penguin cake

A

I would nip this in the bud. The bakery should have standard amounts of batter, cake height, etc. have a sit-down with your friend and outline your expectations clearly. Tell her you want to be able to represent yourself honestly to the customers and also give her bakery a good name/reputation. "Friendly fire," as Wendy Williams would say.

My cake this week was so boring and this is the first time I've had to make a cake I was not excited about. White icing, black satin ribbon, real roses. Snore. Plus it's a behemoth. I am not digging it. :(

Two cakes from me this week ...so much fun!

Hi Boyka! Your book cake is just EPIC! And what fun that butterfly cake is! That must have been harder than it looks to get the icing to look that crazy and still look great! It's not easy to make random actually look like random and make it look as fun as this does!

Cat

I'll play.

Made this cake for a mom and daughter who share a birthday.  They wanted candy crush for the mom and wubbanub pacifiers for the daughter.

Nanasmom, that is too cute! I'd never heard of the pacifiers before but those are adorable! I love how colorful it all is, just like the game!

Cat

AThanks Cat, actualy that is not icing, its caramel cream, and while its still warm you can play a lot and do this creazy looking :D

A[ATTACHMENT=1529]PinaWedding4TheCake.jpg (73k. jpg file)[/ATTACHMENT][SIZE=3]For my daughter's wedding on the 8th.[/SIZE]

csue....it turned out just lovely!

AThank you.