it needed to be cut--because it was too convincing -- way too cool
"....... I have to admit that the reason I ask is because I have folder in my computer with hundreds of cakes ......."
SugarJen, I also did that! Just recently deleted them all. (I'll never ever make one, and everything is just changing too fast)
Started saving techniques, tutorials, and tips instead.
Cakes are the last frontier of intellectual property.
As recently as the 1400s, nobody gave a rodent's defecatory orifice if you copied a book without the author's permission: it typically took several man-years to do so, and if unauthorized copies hadn't been made, many important works would never have survived the Middle Ages. Then came Gutenberg, and movable metal type, and things slowly changed
As recently as the 1800s, nobody gave a rodent's defecatory orifice if you copied a musical score without the composer's permission: there was nothing equivalent to movable type for musical notation, and engraving even a relatively short score to print an edition was obscenely expensive. Indeed, there are many important compositions from the likes of Bach, Mozart, and even Beethoven that only still exist because unauthorized copies were made. Then photoengraving was developed, and things slowly changed.
As recently as the 1960s, nobody gave a rodent's defecatory orifice if you copied software. People with computers wrote programs for their own use, and if somebody else needed the same program, they typically handed over the source code, and said, "have at it." Then companies like Digital Research, VisiCorp, MicroPro, Ashton-Tate, Microsoft, Borland, Lotus, Oracle, and so forth, started developing mass-market software, and selling it to people who bought the first desktop computers, and now, the only reason why there's still open source software today is because people like Linus Torvalds made a conscious decision to develop software that everybody can USE for profit, and DISTRIBUTE for profit, but that NOBODY can profit from simply by OWNING it.
Today, we have lots of copyright owners, trademark owners, and design patent owners jealously protecting their works from appearing on cakes without permission, partly because somebody putting a copy on a cake would be profiting from something they didn't own, partly because an unauthorized copy could harm the image of the original work (think Disney characters depicted doing non-G-rated things), partly because they can make money licensing things to companies like DecoPac, and partly just because they CAN.
But so long as there aren't any misattributions, or other misrepresentations, there aren't a lot of cake decorators who get their underwear in a knot because somebody else copied their design. (Indeed, I sincerely hope other people do copy (and improve upon) a few of my clever ideas, because most of them (like my own 51st birthday cake, with Squad 51, Engine 51, and the L. A. County station that was the real-life counterpart of the fictional Station 51, or like the phonograph record design on my dad's 78th birthday cake) are ideas I'll probably never have a chance to use again (Not too many people left, on the verge of turning 51, who were fans of Emergency! while growing up.)
If I didn't need to copy, I'd not buy the Wilton Year books, the Cake Decorators Books & DVD's, Cake Central Magazine, or view the galleries etc. etc...........I'd have never thought up something even as simple as the 'rosette' cake by myself. (confession made...Whew).
A[quote name="AZCouture" url="/t/776017/copying-cake-desings/30#post_7514895"]Aha! It was posted here actually. [URL]http://cakecentral.com/g/i/3190113/i-made-this-cake-for-my-friends-40th-birthday-she-loves-baby-spinach-everything-is-edible-including-the-bag-which-is-made-from-gelatine-the-leaves-are-modelling-chocolate/[/URL][/quote]
Wow- the "bag"! I must save this to my "I will one day make this" folder.
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Original message sent by MBalaska
If I didn't need to copy, I'd not buy the Wilton Year books, the Cake Decorators Books & DVD's, Cake Central Magazine, or view the galleries etc. etc...........I'd have never thought up something even as simple as the 'rosette' cake by myself. (confession made...Whew).
And Craftsy! I'm a craftsy addict.
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Original message sent by AZCouture
[@]SugarJen[/@], next time someone contacts you for a cake, provided they don't give you a bunch of cakes for "inspiration", do the following:
Ask what flowers they'll have at the reception, and what they'll carry in their bouquets.
What's the overall theme for the wedding? Any interesting decorating styles? Fabrics? Specific patterns?
The dress...any details from the dress that are unusual or neat? How about the jewelry?
Ask to see the invitation, those can have neat details.
And of course...what about the couple? What hobbies do they share, interests, things particular about them that could be incorporated into the design.
These are standard questions I ask my clients if I need help coming up with ideas. The more custom I can get for them the better. Doesn't always work out that way, sometimes it's already established what they want to see, and that sure makes it easier. But if you get lots of ideas from those questions....you won't have to to look for previously done cakes, because you've got everything you need from the bride. Just a matter of organizing ideas and translating them into cake.
Original message sent by AZCouture
Same for birthdays and other celebrations. Show me the invitations, the decorations, the party outift if there's a theme, etc....that's all I need to go on. My goal with most designs is to compliment the decor, and not be too matchy matchy. Unless there is a specific detail that will translate into a design, I try to stick to matching colors and patterns only, and make one single focal point, whether it's a tiara, or a big flower, or a name in fancy font or something.
This is really good advice. I think there is soo many books out there on techniques but not really on inspiration. @AZCouture if you authored such a book I'd definitely buy it! Think about it! :-)
I never find myself wanting to copy exact cakes, I always end up taking 3 or 4 cakes I love and combining the elements of what I love from each cake into one cake. I would love it if someone copied a cake I made….it would be so flattering!
You really can't copyright a cake design, so there's no law against re-creating it, unless it's a patented character.
I'm not a cake artist, just someone who likes to play with their food. Sometimes I do my own thing, sometimes I copy and sometimes I will download a whole host of pictures if I have a theme in mind and steal a bit from this one and a bit from that one and so on until the cake is done.
As recently as the 1400s, nobody gave a rodent's defecatory orifice if you copied a book without the author's permission
Buahaha..I like your style!
But the message was also very well put. I think its very hard these days to say that was MY cake design..information dissemination is so fast these days; and its very hard to claim a certain "look" as unique. We are constantly sharing our ideas and putting them out there for others to get inspiration from or even copy; so its difficult to lay ownership to any design I suppose.
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Buahaha..I like your style!
But the message was also very well put. I think its very hard these days to say that was MY cake design..information dissemination is so fast these days; and its very hard to claim a certain "look" as unique. We are constantly sharing our ideas and putting them out there for others to get inspiration from or even copy; so its difficult to lay ownership to any design I suppose.
No kidding...I was going through some old wedding magazines, and there was one that I got in Alabama in 1998 that had a picture of...drumroll please... a ruffle cake! And I did a ruffle cake with the vertical strips of ruffles in 2000 or 2001. I didn't claim to have invented the ruffle, though, I think I had seen one before then.
Buahaha..I like your style!
But the message was also very well put. I think its very hard these days to say that was MY cake design..information dissemination is so fast these days; and its very hard to claim a certain "look" as unique. We are constantly sharing our ideas and putting them out there for others to get inspiration from or even copy; so its difficult to lay ownership to any design I suppose.
No kidding...I was going through some old wedding magazines, and there was one that I got in Alabama in 1998 that had a picture of...drumroll please... a ruffle cake! And I did a ruffle cake with the vertical strips of ruffles in 2000 or 2001. I didn't claim to have invented the ruffle, though, I think I had seen one before then.
i was doing ruffle cakes decades before then but i never ombred them i don't think and it was buttercream--what i like is that it is ok to like them on here now and the former ballerina i think had a hand in re-iventing them -- i think she has a lovely portfolio-- do you think she helped bring it back? and i mean she 're-invented' in fondant too but...they look like tutus--her cakes are ballerinas--
i love that buttercream flowers and stuff are making a nice splash here on cc too-- it's cake deco at it's finest to me--as fine as fondant but you gecther cake & eat it too--
didn't mean to sound one uppy although it could be taken that way--sorry--meant to agree wholeheartedly--here's two published cake photos, the books are copyrighted one year apart by the best in the business--i know the second one will be instantly recognizable but the first one was published first-- "there's no new thing under the sun"
And is it just me, or do people get a little overly possessive of cakes that are carved to look like "things"? Tree stumps, for example, but how about cans of Coke, or candy bars, or storks. I know someone who, while I love her death, complains that people copy her cakes, when they're copies of "things" to begin with. I don't quite know how to feel about that sometimes. :/
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And is it just me, or do people get a little overly possessive of cakes that are carved to look like "things"? Tree stumps, for example, but how about cans of Coke, or candy bars, or storks. I know someone who, while I love her death, complains that people copy her cakes, when they're copies of "things" to begin with. I don't quite know how to feel about that sometimes. :/
I've always thought that was the biggest load of self-important crapola. You copy a THING, probably without permission from the trademark holder, then you get po'ed when people do it too? If my kids did that I would tell them to stop and think about what they were saying. But I bet if someone complained about that on facebook they'd get a bunch of people talking about the injustice of the people who copied the design. Just roll your eyes and walk away...roll your eyes and walk away...
copying.......hmmmm
It's fun to look at the class photos of people who have spent a day learning a new cake technique and all of the smiling happy decorators faces standing in front of 30 cakes. All pretty much the same. Copied.
They all go home, make more of those cakes, make more smiling faces..... how can it be wrong.
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copying.......hmmmm
It's fun to look at the class photos of people who have spent a day learning a new cake technique and all of the smiling happy decorators faces standing in front of 30 cakes. All pretty much the same. Copied.
They all go home, make more of those cakes, make more smiling faces..... how can it be wrong.
Hahahaha! So true.
Stop AZ! First the comment in the other thread (you know the one I mean) now ratocopters. I'm eating peanut butter icecream and laughing so hard my laptop's looking decidedly messy.
maggie austin is the name of the former ballerina who makes stunner cakes that i love that i mentioned on this thread around page 2--just came across her name...finally
Hi! You all are so funny! But seriously, I cannot come up with my own designs so I have to copy someway somehow. LOL. I love some inspiration too! I mean if someone does not want their cake to be copied, then don't post a picture up for the world to see. I would give credit to someone but then who knows if that someone did not copy from someone else. Like someone else stated. But, if you really want to credit a cake, just put, "An inspired creation", or something like that. LOL. But thanks for all the info here.
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