I was thinking of putting some pictures of other people's cakes on my site. I will label the album "inspiration photos", will let people know I did not make the cakes but am able to do something similar and post who made the cake.

will this be alright?

I would ask the owner of the image permission first...

I think that even if you label it as "inspiration photos" and give the names there, you could still be misleading people who come to your website. I think you should instead provide a list of links to others' sites for "inspiration."

I personally wouldn't do itvif I were you. If you'd like, make dummy cakes and take pictures of it. It will also be a great reference when you have someone look at your creations.

I love saving pics of inspiration cakes. I have photobucket and I just made the account locked and private with my album there. That way only I can see them and don't have to worry about posting other peoples cakes up on the web. It works for me.

I wouldn't think this is a good idea.
I'm in the process of making a website and do not at present have many cakes on it.
I'm offering family cakes at cost price for now so I can build up my portfolio.
I think it's best if you show your own work as we can't always do the same detail as others, even if we think we can.
So time to do a bit of baking and decorating for you I think

I would say no..I recently had an incident where I accidently uploaded a photo I had saved to my files for inspiration of another CC members Princess cookie on my site...I had no idea until she emailed me and kindly thanked me for liking her cookies but could I please remove her picture and replace it with my own...I was soooo embarrased and removed it immediatley...Even if you stated they were other people pictures...I wouldn't want mine on other people sites either.

all4cake, that has crossed my mind and I will do that if I go down this route.

varika, links would be okay, i think but most people are more into the visuals and links would sadly be missed IMO.

rylanTy, oh if i could only afford it I will. but I am unemployed and my DH, sweetie that he is, says he will only give me money for ingredients when I get orders. i swear it's like a cycle. i can't make money until i have orders but i can't get orders until i have samples or pictures. *pulls hair out* lol

just to clarify, i'm NOT trying to justify doing this, I'm asking is there a way for this to be alright. Will it be alright if I get permission first? will it be alright if I provide a link back to the original caker? Cause if I wanted to be sneaky about it, i would have just gone and done it. but since this community is so generous and give great advice, i wanna be able to stay here

ETA
thanks for the replies so far You guys are really helping me. it's nice when I can bounce off ideas with people other than my DH I really appreciate it.

I'm sorry....I just don't think there is a way for this to be alright. Maybe you could try to talk to your husband about buying some cake dummies? Global Sugar Art has them for fairly inexpensive prices, and you can re-use them to decorate them endlessly. That would give you your sample pictures to start with.

I can't talk him into buying me new cake stuff, unfortunately i've tried

Has anyone tried decorating cake pans? like turning them upside down and icing them?

Cake dummies are an investment in your future. If you're gong to do this where you actually sell cakes, you're going to have to get licensed and that's going to cost some money also.

You know...I wouldn't mind if someone used my photo on their site as long as it was in a labeled area as you had suggested "Inspirational (although, not sure how I would actually word it) Cakes"....cakes done by other artists that are within my abilities to create.

(feel free to use any of mine in that area should you decide to do it that way)

Do you not have any family or friends that would pay for ingredients (including any little tools you may need ) to get your portfolio up and running

LOL - i did ONCE a long time ago -
I wanted to see how a certain idea would look, so i bought a cheap fondant - and decorated it.
Sat the covered tin in the den/cake drying room (lol) for 3 days and when i came to lift the fondant off it all came away in one clean piece-
I sat it on a cake board to gauge the affect - and it just loooked like a real covered cake

So yes - you could do that - If you are not sure if the fondant will come away cleanly from the tin i guess you could always rub some shortening on the tin OR tape some non stick baking paper onto the tin - that way you can lift the fonant off cleanly....

Happy sample making AKAccs

Bluehue.

or even molded sugar castings of your pans. or plaster castings....or stacked cardboard circles/shapes cut from boxes attained from empty stock boxes from area stores (just get them before they've been crushed.

Hello everyone,

This is my first time to this discussion. I'm not sure if I am doing it right but here goes.

About buying dummy cakes and decorating them. Please bear in mind, the cost of making a cake is nominal compared to the time and materials needed to make and decorate a real cake. I have purchased dummy cakes in the past and they look great and easy to travel. However, if funds is your problem as is mine, make the real thing. Even if you have to donate it to your church or something. The PR you get from that can start your business. You can't sell a dummy cake but, if you tell a friend or two about your problem, they may want to buy the real thing. That can get you material for future cakes, besides, if you are as good as you think, they will be a source of advertising for you too.

Good luck

AKA_cupcakeshoppe ,
Get creative. I hoard different size boxes and when I want to make a dummy, I gather the ones I want, sometimes I have to cut them to size and ice them with RI with no flavoring, first and then add decorations. These are all made that way.
http://www.cakecentral.com/cake-photo_1335599.html ,
http://www.cakecentral.com/cake-photo_1293738.html ,
http://www.cakecentral.com/cake-photo_63087.html , http://www.cakecentral.com/cake-photo_781283.html on this cake, there is only one tier that is cake. The top is an oatmeal box and the two larger tiers, I cut out of styrofoam that was on sale at HL.
I don't plan on reusing these dummies, I suppose if you want to reuse the dummy, you could spray-varnish over the RI

Oh yes, I totally understand. This hobby requires some money.

Btw, have you been to chocolate lovers? Do they still sell a lot of decorating things over there?

Dynee, great ideas and great cakes thanks so much! Off to hoard boxes.

I have gotten styrofoam from furniture shops....they use it as a packing material. I just go and shop and then ask if they happen to have any foam that they will be throwing away. I tell them what I will be doing with it and even show them a pic and usually they are very helpful. I have a table full of huge rectangles of foam that works perfectly for dummy cakes!

The first wedding cake I did was for my fiancee's Sister she had four idea in her head as to what she wanted. The cheapest solution I could think of was dividing a styrofoam dummy into 1/4's like big slices. Then I could decorate each 1/4 and still have a decent size sample to show.
That was years ago though and I didn't get any pictures of it. I cant remember what site I got the foam off of either. Sorry bout that, but I hope my idea helps.

oh my. thank you so much for all the ideas guys! boxes! cake pans!

all4cake, thanks so much I will let you know if I ever do this.