I made the Jack Skellington cake last night for a party we were going to. They all LOVED it, but no one wanted to cut into it. Part of me wished they wouldn't as then we could take it to our society meeting in the morning, but... that was just wanting more bang for the buck...

So, for like the fourth time, I have to go and cut the first piece and then people dig in. I suppose I should take that as a compliment, but I don't like cutting into my cake either! After I spent 3 hours making a cake start to finish, tearing at it with a knife pangs my heart sometimes! LOL

(I will upload the cake pic in a bit - not perfect, but they loved it)

BTW... I doctored a cake mix like all you guys say here and you know what? I don't like it. The texture is still cake boxish and cake mixes are just more "crumby" even if doctored. I added a box of pudding, added an extra egg, and replaced 1/2 the water for milk. It was denser and tasted better, but ...still not anywhere near the flavor and great texture of the scratch cake! Darn.... because it's TONS easier to mix! 2.5 minutes and voila, done cake unlike all the mixing and adding ingredients of a scratch cake.

Melissa

I know what you mean. Whenever I take a cake somewhere I am usually asked to cut it - people just aren't comfortable cutting them! Take it as a compliment - they are too impressed to think of it simply as a cake.
I hope you post pictures of this soon - my kids love that character!

Also, where do you get your scratch recipes? Do you have a favorite source/book/site?

I just had this problem last night! My mom's sudoku cake (in my photos). We argued over who had to cut it and I finally just made my mom do it!!!

Yes ny guitar cake (fruit) took two weeks to cut into. The boy was adamant that it should not be cut. The Elvis cake was never cut and was thrown away/ as the woman did not want anybody to touch it/ I am a baker before a decorator so I put alot of effort into the taste/ but I take it as a compliment and insist it should be cut.

Yep. I often have that problem. I sent a cake to my Mom's work a few weeks back and everyone in the office would stop by and look at it but they insisted they didn't want to slice it because it "looked like a wedding cake" and "was too pretty to cut". After two hours she finally convinced someone to cut it.

Now my work is a totally different story. I work with a bunch of men and some of them are bachelors so they are less concerned with the asthetics of the cake...practically by the time I sit it down on the desk, they are waiting with plates and forks in hand. I consider both a compliment. The first group, because they appreciate the effort of the decorating and the second group, because they enjoy the taste.

PS. Agree with you about scratch cakes.

Somebody FINALLY cut my cake besides me. Last night at a party I took a pumpkin cake and I couldn't believe somebody actually cut into it. For all the other functions I have baked for they just hand me the knife without a single word. I actually find it rather therapeutic, helps me to remember it's just cake, which can be hard after investing so many hours decorating it.

LeeAnn - Now that's just sad, actually throwing it away because she didn't want to cut it. I may get attached to a cake but how could the dumpster be a better end then the memory or sharing it with others. Though home baked anything very rarely goes to waste in my family.

I used to get that at work all the time. I would just say, "well, I just make them, I don't cut them. So if you are not going to cut into it, thanks so much for wasting my time!" I tell them that I am so over the whole people destroying my works of art because that is what they are there for. Now they all know to admire and then just dig right in!

I always tell them thank you for the compliments, but cakes are made to be eaten! And around my house, so many come and go, there will be another one next week...so, my theory is "cut it and get it over with already!"

People won't cut into my cakes either - and really, I'm not making these elaborate wedding-type cakes either. I like to think of them as something like "bakery cakes on steroids" or something...

I hate cutting into them myself. I already had my fun with them!

People are funny about cutting the cake. I know part of it is that they really like it and want to just admire it for a while, but on the other hand I think that if it is not a grocery store sheet cake a lot of people are unsure of "how" to cut it. I think they assume b/c it is not a standard cake there must be some top secret procedure that they are not privvy to- they are afraid to mess it up! In some cases (like 3D) I can certainly understand it to an extent, but I am all for diggin' in. That happened at a party I went to last night...no one wanted to cut the darn thing! So I grabbed a big knife from the kitchen and hacked that bad boy up while grown women nearly cried!!! Ha Ha Ha!!!!

I think you should take it as a compliment in the long run...your cakes must be too pretty to destroy!!!

I made a cheeseburger cake for my boss and everyone refused to cut it because they thought it looked to cool, they ate all the sugar cookie fries though! I found out that about a week later my boss finally cut into the cake. He said it still tasted great, which I have to believe was because it was still "sealed". At least someone finally enjoyed

that happened to me for the first time this month. it was a cake i made in a cake decorating class. nothing spectacular, but like the instructor said, when you're baking and decorating for those who can't and don't know how, anything is something to them. they wanted me to cut and like I always say, i only bake them, i don't cut them, that's not my job. honestly though, i say no because it's not something i really know how to do. i can't cut, slice, filet, or any of that. Hack and butcher are the only 2 things i can easily do with a knife. and i have literally drawn blood from my fingers and hands using sharp objects.
and i don't even eat my cake. i get my taste from the raw batter and a sample cupcake, but after that, that's it.
but like everyone else, it is a compliment when people enjoy the look of the cake so much they hate to cut into it. and like someone else said, we men tend to enjoy the look for all of 2 seconds. i made a spider cake last week and no one wanted to cut it. they wanted to look at it. my supervisor, male, looked at it, complimented me, and then dug in.

Same thing has happened to me, sent a cake to my MIL, for her birthday, with my husband, white fondant, with yellow daisies. Inside chocolate, with a type of mousse filling. Anyway, she put it into the freezer, for "5 MONTHS", they just had it a while ago, said it was fabulous, moist etc. Was saving it for a special occasion!!!!! (I guess her birthday wasn't special enough!!)

Ahhh, yes...this happened to me once. I made a cake for my niece's high school graduation party. It was a dessert party, and there were TONS of desserts. I made a beautiful 3 tiered fondant cake with black polka dots and hot pink flowers on it ( in my photos). NO ONE would cut into it, and I of course went after it with a knife and my niece cried! She said " NO...NOT YET! I'll do it tomorrow! I want everyone to enjoy what it looks like right now". Well, I called every day for 2 weeks to find out if that cake was ever cut into, and it never was! What a waste! I know I should have taken it as a compliment, but I was actually hurt that no one ate it! I guess I shouldn't be hurt, it was her cake to so with what she wanted...but still, I wanted them to enjoy it by EATING it! I told them if they wanted a centerpiece, I would have GLADLY done it for them in styrofoam, and they could have kept if FOREVER and maybe not have gotten ants!...lol...after 2 weeks, I told them to not eat it and throw it away...it couldn't have possibly still been good! Sheesh..get a grip folks...take a picture, and eat the darn thing!...lol

OK, now that's just sad!

Maybe that is part of it - it's a centerpiece and people want to enjoy it visually first - I get that... but then letting it sit for 2 weeks just to throw it away!?!?!

that truly is the ultimate compliment, but sort of twisted at the same time - it is FOOD! LOL

Have to admit though, some of these cakes you all make don't look like they should be eaten. I would have a hard time destroying art too.

Melissa

the christmas morning cake i made... no one would cut into it! it was my first fondant cake and i couldn't do it (why i took it to the neighbors to begin with!) i finally just left it with them and came home LOL

FINALLY someone cut the cake besides me! I did the cake for one of my future SIL's bdays a couple weeks ago, and she wanted to cut it! "It's the birthday girl's right" she said. YES! Of course, it had been sitting there for 8 hours being admired first! She carried it around the house showing everyone first, though. I almost died - it wasn't THAT stable - but it was her cake, and it was awesome that she though that much of it!

I agree with the others - look, take a picture, then EAT it!

I am always asked to cut the cake because they thinks it's too pretty to cut or it looks like a wedding cake. I also know a lot of people don't know how to cut a cake. I took a sheetcake to a party and someone started cutting it into huge 4x4 hunks! Someone did come over and tell her to cut it up smaller.

I did a cake for an auction last year... Upper end cake (Honey Queen theme for a honey queen fundraiser auction). If I had sold it to someone here, I would have charged at least $100+ for it because it was so detailed... sold at that auction for $45 because the people (my moronic cousin) running the auction screwed it up (she started auctioning it without ANYONE seeing the cake in the room, then was afraid to take it out of the box it was in, so people couldn't actually SEE the detailing this cake had ).. My Dad bought it in the end because he KNEW how much I would charge for it and the $$$ ingredients I used in that cake (only 8" so it would be a centerpiece at the banquet the following evening). They brought it home and it took them WEEKS to finally cut into the cake after a lot of "Eat the thing already!" from me (and telling them a couple times "Um, just throw it out, I don't think it's food safe anymore" because they hadn't frozen it).. They finally did eat it and gave it the "eh" response .. Nothing like family to bring your ego right back down to the toilet, but yiesch, they waited weeks to eat it (without freezing), of COURSE it wasn't going to taste perfect and fresh..

I always end up having to cut it - I don't mind. I tell them that's why I made it - to be eaten! I also don't mind cutting because I hate to see a good cake hacked up by someone who does not have a proper cutting technique. So honestly, I'd rather cut it myself, unless it is a sheet cake, that doesn't really matter how you cut that. I almost called my business "Too Good To Cut", because I hear that everywhere I go! LOL!

I think people who don't want to cut it also think they are destroying your work when it's obvous that you put a lot into it. I get the "I can't/don't want to cut it." all the time too. The first time I made a 3 tier cake for a friends surprise party, I told her to just cut the first few pieces for the pictures and I would cut the rest so she could visit with her guests. As I was cutting the cakes, there was little boy on the other side of the cake table that kept repeating "there goes allll your work".

And before I started making cakes I would have thought that it would bother me for them to be cut into but it really doesn't bother me at all. Like the rest of you, I get just as much satisfaction from hearing that the cake is delicious as I do about how good it looks. It would upset me if no one got to enjoy eating it.

I bake for the sheer pleasure of baking. the only reason i give my desserts away is because i have nothing else to do with them. when i bake and give it away, i feel my job is complete. i've done what i needed and wanted to do. if the recipient doesn't eat it because they're on a diet (and for some reason lots of women at my job are on diets and i don't understand why) or it looks to good to eat or whatever and they decide to throw it away, oddly enough that doesn't bother me. if it had stayed in my house, and i live alone, i would have had a piece or two, my cats would have had there taste, and after that the trash is the only thing left. i don't bake to eat it i bake because i love to bake. and since there are people who want what i bake, fine. sorry to say, i have thrown quite a few things away because i have baked so much and i know my co-workers can only eat so much. and my landlords are no help because they don't care for sweets. and my relatives live in another state and my only one relative here doesn't eat desserts either.

Happens to me all the time, with both my cakes and cookies. With one recent cake, they simply refused to cut the top tier. Saved it for over a month and finally had to throw it out. I've wanted into peoples houses only to find they still had my cookies. What can ya do? I'm always very flattered but tell them if they don't eat it, I can't make more.lol.

Yes it happens to me. Once I took a cake to a family party. And my family loves cake. But they did not cut the cake until finally when people started leaving I said I am cutting the cake and taking my cake stand. They were all like it's to pretty to eat. I was like I don't care I worked for 2 days so people would eat the thing. I had mixed feelings. Happy they loved it that much but upset no one wanted to eat it. Besides it was my favorite recipe...I wanted some cake-lol.

No one likes cutting my cakes either. My neice refused to cut my clown cake and instead made everyone eat brownies for her b-day dessert and my course 1 final cake i brought into work, people were calling my desk asking if it was ok to eat!