My mom has a friend at work who wanted to order a couple of graduation cakes from me. I gave my mom my portfolio book to show the lady and told Mom to have the lady call me for the dates she wanted. Mom came home Monday evening chuckling and said the lady wanted a cake for 40 with a 3-D fondant nurse's cap on top and wanted for this Wednesday!! My mom told the lady no way I could do it, as I work full time at another job and my daughter is currently playing in a middle school volleyball team tournament that is every night this week. Do these people think we pull this stuff out of thin air? I told mom to let this lady know that if she still wants the other cake for June, I need to book now, as I have three weddings booked in June already and I DO NOT take orders with less that two weeks notice at that time of year.

Yes, people think we have a cake tree out in the yard that produces whatever flavor they want and whatever design they want with practically no turn around. That is funny...

BTW, my cake tree is right next to that fabled money tree in my yard...... LOL!

I had the same thing happen yesterday, and I'm not even doing cakes yet!

Dropped off some sample cookies at a local business that I had called and they were really nice with helping me. One of the guys asked if I could do a birthday cake for the next day. I said sorry I couldn't. He said he was serious about needing one. I said I was serious too, I seriously can't do it! LOL! Nice guy though.

Ya know... after watching me do my wedding cake on site as they decorated, my friends no longer assume they can call me the night before and get a cake! They saw what it took to do just ONE two-tiered cake, and how long I'd been at it to decorate the rest... and that was going there with all the cakes already frosted!

Family, at least, has heard enough over the years to understand that they, too, need to get orders in fairly early, if I'm going to have time to be creative and produce something really cool.

I think the issue is that most folks who've made cakes before dumped a mix into a mixer, cooked it, and dumped a tub of store-bought frosting on it when it was cool... no leveling or anything. They don't realize exactly how much extra work has to go into a cake to give it that 'professional' look... they just know that with $4 and an hour or two, they can make a cake. I guess they assume that it's only another hour or so for us to make it pretty, so why all the fuss?

Hey, if Duff can do a half dozen elaborate cakes in a half hour, why can't you do one overnight?

ROFLOL!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Deanna

well, heck! If I had his staff, I'd be able to churn cakes out like that, too...

Yeah, Duff's staff and Awolf's money tree!

Deanna

I run into this all the time, and I'm just a hobbyist. I work full time, 2 kids, etc also. But let me drop everything to make sure you have a cake!

I did a wedding cake for a friend a few weeks ago, and started the fondant flowers (70 of them) the week before the cake was due. Started baking on Wed for a Sun wedding, 3 tiered, fondant covered with fondant overlay. Took a week, total. When my 9 year old daughter tells people her mommy made a wedding cake and it took a week to do, people tell her she's lying! It doesn't take that long to make a cake! And my daughter very matter-of-factly says, "Oh yes it does!" You gotta love her.

This actually happened to me last week..and surprisingly it was the first time for a super short notice....(if i have nothing to do with 3-4 days notice, then why not).....but I had this woman call Thursday around 7 at night and ask to order 4 dozen cookies....double-heart shaped one half like the bride, one half like the groom...i said sure, no problem, when did you need them....she said "well we are leaving for Detroit at 7 am TOMORROW!!!!!"....I was like no way!! thats less than 12 hours to bake, AND have glaze dry and do details?! (the glaze alone can take 12 hours...) shes crazy..but the kicker was...she said "well we can just leave the box open on the way there and they will have time to dry" some people...

I know what you people mean! My to be future aunt in law put in an order for a 4 tier wedding cake for a Saturday wedding the WEDNESDAY before the wedding, and it was to be covered in hand made fondant roses, daiies and leaves, and they were all to be handpainted with with food coloring.
When she called me for the order, she started out just like this, "I want the top tier vanilla with strawberry creamcheese filling and I want the filling to be 1/2inch thick and then I want......" (you get the picture) then she proceeded to tell me HOW to make the strawberry creamcheese filling!!!! When I told her I was a professional baker and wedding cake designer and I knew how to do it, she responded with, "well, I'm picky and I uses to work at a bakery." I later come to find out that she worked for 3 months at a grocery store bakery, and was comparing MY cakes to them. I had to do the cake, or my grandmother would have got super mad. I stayed up ALL night every night until the wedding baking and making all those fondant flowers!! Needless to say I did a REALLY god job just so she could see that my cakes are NOT like grocery store cakes. Everyone at the wedding marveled at my cake. She said nothing.

mwah, ha, ha ,ha! Take THAT Aunt-in-Law!

Cheryl, I don't have the close up pic here, but the fondant nurses cap I made for my friend's daughter's cake (overall pic is in my photos) was from a scaled down actual cap pattern found online. I just trimmed it out, folded it as directed and supported it as needed while it dried. I then added the black stripe at the top. It came out really cute. It didn't take long at all - thankfully - as I made it the night before!
HTH,
Wendl

I'm gonna go plant some cake balls in my garden now to see if they sprout cupcakes!

Well I must say that I myself I found this to be and I just tell them Sorry I can't do it.....I am full time paralegal which is sometime more than 40 hours and then on top of that I have a very demanding family at home and I am not Wal-mart so 24 hours is not available.

It's good to see humor on this board again...after all the griping, ha ha.

I always tell people I can do WHATEVER they ask, but then I (with a straight face) tell them that it will cost $xxxx.xx (which equals your usual price plus a LOT extra). The look on their face is usually worth it.

some people just don't realize just how much time it takes to put a cake together...especially when you have to use fondant, gumpaste, or some other medium. i think these people stand in front of the walmart bakery and see how fast they put a cake together and think that's how everyone does it...assembly line style.

My mom's friend called me last week "I know it's short notice, but..." This was one o'clock in the afternoon. For delivery at noon the next day. for 10 people. She wanted a sculpted horse. And she said it with a straight face! It was just a good thing I was already sitting, because I just about fell over!!!

Beings I have no cake balls on hand, do you think you could just send me a small start from the money tree and one from the cake tree. How do I plant them--shaded area, direct sunlight, partial shade?????

Diane

I would have to guess the trees need to be planted in a shaded area so the buttercream doesn't run and the fondant doesn't fade!

you guys are so funny!! thanks for the much needed laugh today!! I need a starter of the cake and money trees too!!

ha ha ha You are all making me laugh today. So, I guess I should give up my dream of owning a cake/cupcake store one day and focus on developing cake tree seeds instead. Seems like I already have a customer base!

(And lanibird - Jack can be my Dr. ANY day too!!!)

It's funny, I had this happen to me also. A family member wants me to make their wedding cake. I said fine I won't charge for the labor. All I wanted was 100.00 for supplies and the rest is my gift to them. The reaction? ONE HUNDRED DOLLARS??????!!!!!!!! IT'S JUST A CAKE!!!!!!! I told her to shop around and see if she can find anything else cheaper that would feed 300 people. I mean, Is this unreasonable?

You guys have me cracking up!!

I had a lady call last week .... at noon ... for a birthday cake that she wanted to pick up at 4:30! When I explained that I DON'T keep cakes frozen and stacked up in the freezer so I can pull one out and slap some icing on it, she asked if I could recommend someplace other than walmart or kroger. I said, "No. If you need a last minute cake with just 4 hours notice, walmart or kroger is about the only choice you've got.

And for those "just a cake" people, I tell them, "Oh ... you want "just a cake"! That would be Walmart ... Aisle 8 ... knock yourself out."

Reading everyones posts here... I just had to share. I am a part owner of title comany and I work alot with many different loan officers. For marketing I have started to bring my decorated MMF sugar cookies over there. I have had great response to the cookies but everyone thinks that I work for free. I got asked by one of the girls who is getting married to make 200 heart cookies two shades with there private message individually wrapped. She asked me to let her know how much it would cost. I told her I usually charge $3.00 per cookie favor, individually wrapped, ribbon tied. Her mouth dropped and said you can just put them on a tray, and then said she would need a payment plan to afford my cookies (not in a funny way). Then to top it off I was talking to her today about her Wedding Cake (Which I declined to do since she is getting married in another state..and probably a good thing) and she told me that she found a lady who would make her cake for $225 to feed 200 people. I had to ask her again to make sure that I heard her correctly, there is no way. She said it is just a small town and she is the only baker. ??? I showed her a picture of my sons birthday cake (It fed 50+ people, two tier fondant, lots of detail) and told her that I would have charged $200 for the amount of time from family, money, detailing, etc. I asked her what type of cake she would be getting and she said she had not decided but that she would forward her baker a picture like it was not big deal. This girl has her mind set on a $1000 cake but wants it on a Walmart buget. I get so frustrated. I realize that this is not my day job but my time and hardwork are worth more than that...as well as everyone else here on CC who has to deal with this!!! I would never go to her work and ask for a loan for next to nothing? I have to wonder if the baker even knows what she is getting herself into.

Last summer a friend was having a family reunion and asked me about a month ahead if I could make a dessert for about 70 people. He wanted a sheet cake ~ I am a hobby baker, don't have a sheet cake pan because I really don't make cake in that quantity. I said if he wanted to buy the pan, I would do it, and suggested that as it was for a bbq, that cupcakes would be a good alternative (and I have cupcake pans LOL). He wasn't too happy about having to buy the pan, so we kind of let it drop.

So a couple weeks go by and he contacts me again - wanting the cupcakes. I know he's not well off, so I'm willing to do simple cupcakes for a reasonably cheap price as a favor (he's a good friend)....100 of them....he says that's great, can he let me know on Saturday night? I ask - when do you want them for - he says Sunday afternoon. By the time I finished laughing, he figured it was time to clear out the Entenmann's stock at the grocery store.