Honestly, It works like this: build a relationship with fellow decorators in whatever fashion you find that works- and really it amounts to a desparate phone call to another decorator asking if they'd be willing to take on the order- I say desparate, because it's not like people know when they are going to be ill and usually don't know until the day before or day of filling an order. If you are super lucky, they may be able to take on the order for you. And if not, you need to find a back-up plan of calling the customer, even if you are very ill, and try to help them find another arrangement such as some names and ph numbers of other bakeries, decorators, or other ways to make up for the desert they were expecting. It's upsetting for customers to not get what they wanted, even if due to illness, and the least they should get is an attempt to find another solution, some sympathy, and apology- it will go a long way for future business.

You poor thing!!

I understand both sides of this coin, though.

Personally I refuse to prepare baked good when myself or my daughter are contagious. I am NOT going to have anyone pay me to make their entire party ill.

What I did, instead, was find a decorator whose work I respect, and whose prices are similar to my own. We have made a pact to "fill-in" for one another if and when this situation happens, pending our schedules can fit it in. Yeah you lose an order but in the end you get to nurse yourself to health in peace and you aren't the cause of 20 vomitting children.
LOL

It's a nasty bug gastro.. and EXTREMELY contagious. Don't doubt that you did the right thing cancelling the order.. maybe next time, as other posters have suggested, you could have helped organise another decorator with the same level of experience for the customer. But we all live and learn.. and sometimes when you are that sick and trying to run a family.. and a business, we just can't think of everything. As for the poster who got 'up you' for letting the customer down.. well that attitude as a baker is outrageous and not acceptable when handling food. In fact in any working environment there is suppose to be a 48 hour exclusion period where you isolate yourself to avoid contaminating others. It is neglegent attitudes that spread this bug rife.. it can be deadly to the elderly and extremely cruel for infants to fall ill with.

The OP was right to cancel the cake. Yes, there are times that we work when we're not feeling well, but working around food with diarrhea and/or vomiting is a health dept violation!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! If one of my staffers showed up with these symptoms, I would be REQUIRED to send them home.

A national chain restaurant in our city was shut down a couple of years ago because the manager would not let an employee call in sick. The employee spread the noro (sp?) virus and sent multiple people to the emergency room.

This is no joke, people.

At the restaurant I work at, which is also a national chain restaurant, if we try to call in sick our manager tells us to get our shift covered or come to work. I can't count the number of coworkers(servers, hostesses, etc., including myself) that have come to work sick with stomach bugs and had to run back and forth to the bathroom the whole shift because we can't afford to lose our jobs. All because the manager doesn't want to be inconvenienced. I make a point of telling coworkers that it's a health code violation for any of us to be working while sick, as most of them don't have any idea. Our manager just doesn't care. I refuse to eat in our restaurant and have already made an anonymous call to the health inspector but it didn't help. Luckily I'm only there until the end of April when I start a nursing program to get my BSN.

That's why its a good idea to have a buddy system if you can.... if I got that sick, hopefully the cake would have already been baked and I'd have called a cake friend and had them do the cake and paid them to do so.

If I did NOT have a cake buddy...honestly...I'd have put on a mask and gloves and sterilized everything and done the cake, and then had my husband (if not sick) deliver it.

If I were a bride who ordered a cake (I forgot if this was a bride or not, but regardless) I'd rather have a cake made by somebody else OR by the sick person taking extreme precautions using mask and gloves and a spotless work area, than to have to face my guests without cake.

I do realize there will be people who disagree....I do NOT disagree with the OP...I feel it was her decision and that it was not a bad decision...it was definitely the safest...I'm just saying what I personally probably would have done. I would NEVER want to leave a client without cake, no matter what....I would BUY them a cake from someone else before I let them not have cake....

Our family had the stomach bug a couple weeks ago and I was so happy I didn't have a cake order that week!!!!

I've had to cancel one cake due to illness, and it was because of the Norovirus. Luckily, it was for a friend and she was VERY happy to have me not do her cake! My kids brought the virus home from school, and the outbreak was terrible! They had to close the school to decontaminate the building, with well over 800 people sickened. It's just cake, people! The world will not end if you have to run to Walmart to pick up a last minute cake. You won't want to, but it's better than your whole guest list becoming violently ill.

I had to cancel a donation cake for a charitable cake auction once. I hated it. I felt like I was letting them down. But what can you do when you are lying in the hospital with a kidney stone that feels like the Rock of Gibralter. I don't even imagine they even noticed there was no cake there with all the other cakes there, but I still felt bad. But things do happen, and you should try to be prepared when you are doing it as a business. I thankfully do not do this as a business, so I have an out. I do hope that you and your daughter get to feeling better. I do believe you made the right call about not making the cake, and I hope you don't have any further problems with this wicked woman on facebook.

In the UK for your H&H qualificaion it states that if you have any form of stomach bugs or illness you are not allowed to prepare or serve food for 48 hours after it has cleared up.

Whoops...delete

Moving to the Cake Decorating forum.

Having a "cake buddy" sounds like a great idea; However, the only people I know that make cakes close to me are not licensed & are not trying to get licensed. So if I refer someone to them & something goes wrong I would feel responsible.

I would really be like oh well, go ahead and be angry. The price of one cake will not cover fines, penalty, attorney fees etc...for someone getting violently ill off something I made. Not to mention getting shut down. Why risk it?

A mask & gloves can't stop the spread of all germs. Even if you sterilized all equipment before you start..once you touch them they're contaminated all over again. I know it would be bad not to have a cake on your wedding day, however, how many people's health are you putting at risk for a couple of hundred bucks.

Health Code policies are put in place for a reason. I totally agree with the decision the OP made.

i definitely agree with the op's decision. it would have been ideal to have had a back-up, but in her case i think she did the best she could. some people just don't understand that not everyone is out there to ruin their day- sometimes its for their safety!

i'm a waitress at a national chain restaurant and i am so lucky to have the best managers in the world! if we even look sick we get sent home (sometimes bad if we need money, sometimes great if we're trying to get the night off heehee!). i honestly think this is how everything should be run- its not safe, sanitary, or moral to have sick servers and cooks running around!