she just wants me to make the jungle animals. I just got an email from a friend, seems her co-worker is making a baby shower cake with a jungle theme for her step daughter in law....she wants me to make a giraffe,elephant, monkey, lion etc.....she started the email by telling me how she liked my work....am i out of line by thinking this is a little"nervey"..anyone have any thoughts on how to reply....i make the whole package not just the accessories.

i think the level of never depends. given the person baking the cake is pretty much related to the recipient, maybe they are getting a good deal. so maybe understandable they dont want to pay you full price for everything, even if they have had your cake and know its good.

your work will be associated with someone elses baking - if that baking isnt up to it, then your name is attatched to that cake. so its perfectly fine to say that ' i wish them a lot of joy with the baby (or something), but i can not decorate cakes that i havent made'
xx

Charge as much for the figures as you would have for the cake. If she pays, you've made a little extra. If she doesn't, you've saved yourself the trouble

Or just simply tell her that you don't sell the figures alone.

It's kind of like just buying the figures from a bakery and not the cake. I agree though that with your figures on the cake your name will be associated with the whole thing.

I've made a couple of figures for others. I see nothing wrong w/doing that - if they are willing to pay your price per figure I say go for it.

If you have the time why don't you surf the internet to see what kind of prices others are getting for figures? I charged like $35 for a pg girl that sits on the edge of a cake. Don't know if that helps you at all or not.

I'm with Texas-Rose....NO sweat if they don;t want to pay the price. Although the person making the cake may take credit for your figurines which really means that you need to charge big time for them so people don't just buy them from you and do the cakes themselves.

Teri

I had a lady that had baked 130 cupcakes and a 6" round cake for her nephews wedding and said she agreed to make them (she decorates cakes) and for some reason her roses were just NOT coming out. She hired me to pipe the roses and decorate the 6" cake. I charged her .50/cupcake for a rose and 3 leaves (normally I charge .75/ if i bake it and all) and charged her 7.50 for the 6" round (if I baked it I would have charged 10.00).......so i made almost the same amount of money and she took the credit for the roses, but I don't care......I didn't have to bake 130 cupcakes OR a 6" round!!

I can actually see a whole new area of business opening up here by offering your figurines for sale. No one needs to know where the figurines came from. I would suspect more times than not the person baking the cake would take credit for them rather than tell everyone "so and so" made the figurines.

I don't see how you could be associated with a bad cake just by doing the figurines, especially since the figurines are typically not eaten. I mean, if I go to a party and there's a cake with purchased decorations from Michael's and the cake itself stinks, I wouldn't blame Michael's. I would blame the person who baked the cake.

Look at this as a way of branching out and creating a whole new niche for yourself if you like doing the figurines. It's no different than someone purchasing pre-made sugar flowers for a cake.

I say go for it!!

everyone, thank you so much for your advice and suggestions, i am sure going to give it some thought.....i guess i am kind of a control freak...i want more control of what they are going on and the colors to blend etc...thanks again

I wouldn't do it. I was supposed to make 250 cupcakes for a wedding reception at church and by the end of the whole thing all I did was decorate the tops. I didn't like the idea of people thinking that I made her boxed cupcakes and made sure I told everyone there that all I did was decorate the tops, what if they tasted horrible!!

We don't sell our decorations. Our decorations are a big part of what make our cakes special and different from other people's cakes. The caliber of our decorations is just as important as the taste of our cakes.


Minette
My Blog www.minetterushing.typepad.com

I would just sell the figures for whatever you normally charge. i mean, chances are she's gonna take credit for everything anyhow......but at least you'll make your money from the figures.

No different than buying pre-made gumpaste flowers. You may open up a whole new branch of business here!

Spring, I can see your point if yours are super special, though.

Are you going to the shower? Have you ever tasted this person's cake before?
If not then I can understand you being a bit worried.

no i dont know her at all.she is a coworker of a friend.., andi have no idea about her cakes...for all i know someone else may be doing her cake for her...i just dont have a good feeling about it and emailed her telling her that i prefer to do my cakes start to finish so colors blend,match etc and the scale is correct...i just think it will make her mad if i charge what i need to charge for each one especially if she thinks she is saving money by making her own cake....and i definately dont think my figures stand above compared to others i have seen on cake central....

Why not make the figures and sell them. Like indydebi said it's no different than buying gumpaste flowers.

I'm torn on this. All depends on the situation. Possibly the person offered to make the cake as a gift and so they really are saving the money on that but still want it to look great. I totally get where you are coming from though about your reputation being on that cake. I also get the whole figurines being separate and a side thing so to speak. I recently helped a friend out who originally inquired about me making a baby shower cake for her sister but I know she is taking an interest in caking so I told her she could do the cake with me walking her through it. She was still afraid to make the topper so sure I'd make it for her ( I enjoy making those figures) I worried too my purple wouldn't match hers but it is what it is and worked out for all of us. Her cake wasn't as great as I would have done but it was wonderful for a first try and she could have told everyone she made the topper for all I care. Think about what you would ultimately feel comfortable with. I kinda think it would be great if you could just sell your figurines and make the money off that. Like someone buying premade decorations at the cake store. Kick in the gut if they take credit for making them but hopefully they wouldn't.

I did just the gumpaste flowers for a bride. seems their fantastic baker did not do flowers and they wanted mine I am MO the wedding was in Texas

so I told them to clear it with the baker. he said fine but he would not put them on so I had to wire them in sprays and hope for the best.

Aunt drove them to texas and the baker ended up placing them on his cake. They paid me a pretty penny. but they were not local either.

It sounds like a great way to expand your business. Even though the baker may take credit for your work...figure out a way to etch a logo, your initials or something into the bottom of each piece to mark it as your own. People may not notice right away or ever, but your name is still on your work.

I would love to just do figures! It's my favorite part of cake decorating. If anyone asked me, I would jump all over it. Maybe you could ask the customer to place a card next to the cake that states that you were the creator of the figure(s).

A HUGE part of my business is based on selling figures and other decorations for cakes. I sell to moms who want to make thier kids cakes but dont know how to decorate them. I have sent things as far as Canada. I would be happy if I just did that and never made another cake. I give them a quote based on the amount of time I feel it will take me to make the items and charge them for postage. Works great for me!