Since I've only been caking a short time maybe this has gone on forever. But what is the true etiquette in the cake community when someone copies another design but gives no credit to the original owner?

I understand that some techniques etc... will be used by so many it's silly to keep repeating the designer who inspired such but when you blatantly copy another artists cake and then give no credit, isn't that just wrong?

I keep seeing so many copies of truly amazing cakes and the owner of the photo taking all the credit as if they designed this cake themselves. For me if something inspired me I always try to make mention of the user that originally designed that, or if I learned it in a class I mention the class I took.

So is this just something that is accepted or is it just plain rude but not much you can do about it?

I think everyone agrees that the ethical thing is to give credit to the decorator/designer when you know who it is but what about those pictures you see in magazines or on theknot.com that don't tell you who the decorator was? I'm not a very original decorator and I know most of my work is inspired by the likes of Ron Ben-Isreal and Sylvia Weinstock...and no one in a million years would even see the connection because I can't come anywhere near the quality of their work.

I did a cake based on a very intricate drawing by an 11 year old girl only to find out later (after the cake was delivered and devoured) the little girl and her mother had copied it from the webpage of a caker in the next state. I gave the caker credit. Sometimes it happens without even intending to copy.

I have seen some pictures of cakes that closely copy Andrea Sullivan's darling drippy icing cakes and honestly think that the posting caker knew that was Andrea's signature design.

I try to give the benefit of the doubt to the poster and perhaps comment something like " what a wonderful version of Andrea Sullivan's cake. You do her proud". I don't have a desire to judge or join the cake police. Peace, Love and Understanding in this harsh world.

Sometimes people may not know who the original designer was. Others just choose not to put that information. When i look at cakes i look at them as being a statement of the persons abilities to translate something into an edible form. I dont look at the design as being original.

So many times clients bring in cakes and we have no clue who it was made by. If it is a replica (which I try very hard not to do... I try to tweak the design and personalize it) I will say so, but sometimes I don't know who made the cake. It's tricky like that.

In my mind, it's all about the execution, not the inspiration. No matter where I saw a cake or a piece of a cake originally, when I make it with my own hands I get credit for that.

While it is polite to give credit where credit is due, to me it can become a tricky situation. I try, if I copy a design to at least mention I got the idea from somewhere else.

The Western Baby shower in my pictures is such a design. I was given a picture to go off of. When I looked on CC there were tons of version of it, so honestly I couldn't credit the designer of the original idea, because I have no idea if the picture I was given was the first person to do it, or if they saw it from somewhere else.

To me when we are viewing picture on here, and you are commenting on the cake you are commenting on that exact picture and that person, that executed it in a way that made you want to stop and compliment it should get credit for the work they did.

We all know that just because you use an idea as a basis for your cake, that does not mean that the work will be awesome. There is a whole website of proof of that.

I don't think that someone should necessarily play it off as if they completely came up with the cake design, especially if it is a dead on copy, but I'm not going to lose sleep at night worrying about others that feel the need to get all the credit themselves.