Hi folks, Sorry... this is kind of long. Here is a question for you:

What are your thoughts on JUST doing the decor for a wedding cake for someone, say a daughter of a close friend? The girl I did this cake decor for is getting married in the middle of rural nebraska. She really wanted the Woodlands cake in Martha Stewart's new wedding book. (Link is below).

So... since I'm not about to ship a made cake in this hot weather in the south, I made the decor for her and she is going to get a local baker to make a plain, white, stacked 4 tier cake for her. She plans to put these gumpaste/royal decor on herself. (I gave her some tips about needing to have a small bag of royal on hand, etc).

Is it just me... or ... I don't know. I know personally... I would have felt very strange is someone asked me to make a plain white 4 tier cake for a wedding. What about my portfolio? What about my reputation? What is the bride planning on doing with it? Yet, in this scenario I find myself on the other end, doing the decor that is going to land on this blank-canvas-of-a-cake.

My husband says "shouldn't be a big deal for the decorator. They are getting paid to make a wedding cake, right? Once it is picked up, the bride can do what she wants with it". Yet, I can't help but say to myself, I would not want to sell a cake like that. What do the rest of you say?

Oh, and attached are a small spattering of what the gumpaste/royal woodland decorations that I shipped to rural Nebraska looked like. Below is the link to the original cake in Martha Stewart's book. Im crossing my fingers on this one!

http://www.marthastewart.com/portal/site/mslo/menuitem.3a0656639de62ad593598e10d373a0a0/?vgnextoid=893696ec8a863110VgnVCM1000003d370a0aRCRD&rsc=type_7&autonomy_kw=woodlands%20cake

You are in Memphis? Your work is going on a cake in Nebraska? I don't think there is anything to worry about If the baker of the cake doesn't care then there should be no worries

I wouldn't worry about either. I don't think the baker would have a problem with it at all - it's her cake, she can do what she wants with it. That's how I would feel anyhow!

Really, you guys think so? Im glad to hear so far. Guess it was my paranoia starting to kick in, plus you know how people can be about their work LOL and I didn't want to step on another baker's toes.

I told the bride that if the decorator wanted pictures of the cake, she could have them with the woodland decor on it, if that would help. I don't know if that was a smart move, but then again you are talking to someone who probably wouldnt make a blank-canvas-cake that was leaving in a bride's car

No I don't see a problem with what you've done. The last wedding I did the bride provided all the fresh flowers, ribbon, etc. I pretty much just made a plain cake and put her stuff on it.

I know several decorators who would disagree with this theory.

On the other hand, since the business of the decorator in NE has no effect on your own business (being about what, 1000 miles away from each other?), and since this is for someone close to you, then as long as the baker has no problem with it, then you should not have a problem with it, either.

Theresa