I made zucchini cupcakes with caramel frosting, cause we had harvested tons of zucchini from our garden. I sent them with hubby to work. It was a huge hit!
Ok here's the bad part the Warden abosultly loved them, wrote hi
A thank you note, hunted him down just to say thank you. My problem is now she wants the recipe. I had no idea she would try them since my hubby is just a CO. I want to open my own bakery someday so I am using hubby's co- workers ad guinea pigs. If it was any one else I would say no to it's a family recipe. But it's The Warden asking. What do I do?? E
What would y'all do?

Give her a recipe that is close and will work. It doesn't have to be exactly as you make it. If she says they taste difference you can tell her it could be in the ingredients. Not all zucchinis are the same. This goes for butter, eggs, even water.

It's just a suggestion.

Michele

I don't care if the Pope asks, I just say that it's a family recipe and that I'm sorry, I can't give it out to anyone--and I don't.

Rae

Do it Martha Stewart style...leave one thing out.

I do think you'd better give her some recipe, even if it's not your recipe. I know I'd have to, in your situation...wouldn't want to think that I made my husband's tough job any more difficult.

...............Do it Martha Stewart style...leave one thing out. .........

Oh Please!
Would YOU want someone to do that to you?

I go for the 'family secret' idea and offer a similar recipe.

Don't give her the recipe, be nice, but say you couldn't possibly because you plan to open your own bakery!

I just thought of something. Many times when I make something new and I am asked for the recipe I tell them that I really don't have one because I just made it up and I didn't write down the steps as I went along. This is true. I experiment all the time and I just wing it.

Maybe you could tell her the same sort of the thing.

Michele

Is it a recipe that you created or tweeked? If so then I would write her a not back, "telling her how much you are glad she liked it." Then just explain that you are in the process of testing and tweeking recipes for the business you hope to start.

If it is just a recipe you found online that millions of others have also found, then just tell her where she can find it. "Oh that recipe I found it on such and such site."

I can't even begin to count the number of times I have been asked for a recipe, only to not remember to send it and not get asked again. So you can always forget about the request for not.

I wouldn't freak out about it. I doubt she'd take it out on your husband just cause you didn't give her a recipe, if she did that would be an abuse of power.

Having worked corrections, wardens are just not that sensitive, period. They have WAY more dangerous things to think about then getting hung up on a recipe. And if my warden was like that, I would transfer, cause my life is too valuable to be in the hands of warden who runs their prison with a petty attitude. By the way wardens do get told no.

I rarely use recipes, more of an intuitive baker. When people ask me how I made something I say "about 2 cups of flour, around a cup of sugar", that sort of thing. Although it's true for me, you could tell her the same.

On the note of leaving out an ingredient, I think it depends what is in it. If you have a kind of special secret ingredient that won't make any difference to the way the cake bakes like a spoon full of ketchup lol then fair enough, if I got a recipe off someone and it didn't taste the same when I baked it I wouldn't think they tampered with the recipe I would just think it was to do with the way I had made them or the ingredients I used.

She might not have even tried the kind of flavours before, but really liked them, so in that case she probably wouldn't notice if you left out the secret ingredient or gave her a similar recipe off the internet.

Regardless, deceitfulness is never a positive quality in any person or situation. I don't understand why it's so hard to just say, "Oh, I'm sorry. Because I do this for a living, I just don't share my secret recipes with anybody." Or make a joke of it and use the worn out, "If I told you, I'd have to kill you..." and people get the idea.

Personally, I don't get the whole not sharing recipes thing. Chances are, no matter how clever or original you think you are, it's probably been done before and is probably available somewhere on the internet. I always share my recipes when people ask for them. I don't feel threatened in any way by the idea that they could bake something at home as well as I did. Big deal. If it were a direct competitor, I'd just say, "Sorry, you'll have to research and test your own recipes just like I did."