I agree. You need to cut at least half of it, and right through the decorations, before people will feel comfortable eating it.
Nowadays, I'll wait for a bit and then go cut slices out of someone else's work of art if nobody will do it. I usually get a quiet thank you from the baker.
I have been in that 'nobody will cut it' situation, and have no intention of someone else feeling that bad if I can help it.

I made a 2-tier cake for my aunt for her 60th birthday. We were celebrating with dinner at a restaurant. This was the first time my extended family has seen my new cake hobby. After dinner, they turned and asked me if they could cut the cake now. I was so amused, like, what if I said no, it's not for eating?

Why is it that some people have no problem sticking a finger into a cake, but then they get all shy when it comes to cutting it?

That has happened to me too, I made a sheet cake and a 3D cowboy hat cake for my dh boss's birthday. Boss's wife wouldn't let anyone cut the hat cake (even though they had people asking for seconds). Long story short, I was at their house 5 YEARS later and there sits my cake in her curio cabinet!! I was mortified and flattered, all at once! I begged her to throw away that petrified cake but she still refused. She finally threw it out when they got a divorced.

I agree with everyone else. This has happened to me twice now. The first time was with the Trick or Treat cake in my photos (errr...you know what I mean ), and the other was the Christmas package cake I made for my son's preschool. The package cake was eventually cut, but I never heard whether the mom of the Trick or Treat cake liked the flavor...

Yeah if I ever bring a fancy cake to a party or shower or something, I have to go up there and start hacking it up myself or it would sit there until the end of the world. People just don't want to cut/eat a cake like that, because they feel bad to ruin such a nice piece of art!

I've had customers tell me they couldn't cut their cake a few occasions...one waited three days and another one put it in the freezer indefinitely to look at it and show his friends. LOL. Its actually a compliment....

I have a friend who has one of my animal cakes in her freezer. It has been there for more than 2 years (yuck!). She wouldn't cut it at the birthday party, she liked looking at it. She tells me it makes her happy to go to the freezer and see it in there. I told her at this point to never eat it. I know... I have some strange friends.

Also the pig cake in my pics - I had a hard time convincing them to cut it. They kept it wrapped up in the walk-in for a couple of days before cutting it and eating it.

This has happened to me a couple of times once I made a car cake for my brothers friend he seen the cake and took it home and didn't let anyone at the party have any he called my
brother the next day and asked how to turn the lights off .The cake that is my avatar I made for a friends baby shower her grandmother seen me setting up the cake and said I was not to cut the cake. I thought this was odd most people want me to cut the cake when it is time . So after we eat the waitstaff start to bring cake to our table and I look and my cake is still there
I went and asked my friend what was up and she said her grandmother sent her father over to Kroger to get sheet cakes because she is putting the cake in her china cabinet and keep it for the baby when he gets older. I told the grandmother it probably would not last very long she said she would put it under glass. There was no changing her mind.

I actually take this as a compliment.... I have yet to make a cake that anyone wants to cut...

That used to happen with cakes I took to church suppers. No one would want to cut it. Now I just plan on serving the cake. Once people see someone handing it out, they can't get a piece for themselves fast enough.

When no one touches your cake (and you know you've done a good job) it's because they think it is too pretty too cut. On Thanksgiving, I made a chocolate cake with ganache and strawberries, similar to the ones in my photos) and everyone remarked how beautiful it was. No one cut it. My BIL finally asked permission to cut the cake. He said he wasn't sure if he should. I said of course cut the cake.

Also, if there was alcohol served at the party, a lot of people don't mix sweets with their alcohol. Once you get started drinking, people lose the taste for something sweet.

I agree with everyone else - people thought it was too pretty to cut. They probably worried they would have got their hand slapped if they tried It's a beautiful cake!

I had this happen to me also - made semi truck with trailer for company party - NO ONE would cut it - or let me cut it. I had to haul it an hour back home and back to the office. Sat on the counter for another full day - no one would cut it. I finally took a butcher knife - a big butcher knife!! and hacked into it - while everyone was in the front office. Then they couldn't get enogh or eat it fast enough. (was a pic in my photos but alas it has been removed along with the best of my cakes-all which only had one photo!)

Does anyone know why none of my cakes are here anymore? Every picture of every cake I have made has disappeared!

Wow! Thank you all so much for your compliments! I'm really glad this was something normal. lol. I never thought people would refuse to eat the cake because it was "too pretty." Oh what a curse!! lol j/k

I can't believe how many of you have had people save your cakes for years!! lol. That is awesome and unsanitary all at the same time. lol.

I've never known anyone who made custom cakes, and never had one before, so I've never came across this problem before. I've never been "on the other side." lol. Well, besides DH, but he never has any problem diving into my cakes! lol

I'll remember next time to cut up some slices and give them to people. DH said he talked to his friend today. His friend told him he couldn't take it anymore! lol. He said he kept smelling the cake and finally had to get a huge piece of it. He said it was the best cake he ever tasted (lol, well I don't know about that, but that was too sweet). He said he had tasted fondant before, and didn't like it but he loved mine and even asked DH how I made it taste so good (THANKS CC!! I got the recipe off here!) DH said his friend left soon after that, so he doesn't know who else ate some of it.

Thank you all SO much for your encouragement! I think I would have given up on caking long ago without CC. I'll definitely take this as a positive part of my learning process. It gives me hope that one day I'll be able to create cakes as gorgeous as the rest of you!!

I had the same thing happen to me. I made a fall cake for a friends beneifit dinner bake sale, looked like a basket of leaves, Everyone loved it but said it was too pretty to eat. The plain cupcakes that I made sold like hotcakes.
WHY are people afraid of a pretty cake? lol lol

Your cake was perfect! People didnt want to "destroy" it.

My brother had to be convinced to cut into his Trout birthday cake. We finally convinced him that cutting into the tail wouldn't "ruin" it. That and it's just a CAKE! being repeated more than once.

Glad you're feeling better about your cake!
Next time just cut it and serve a few pieces. Then others will help themselves.
That's what I had to do. People wanted to eat the cake but weren't sure if or how they should cut it. After I cut it ,it disappeared!

I've had the same problem when taking cakes (as a dessert) to parties. People don't like to cut into them, and yes, they'll take stale whatever storebought if the pretty cake isn't cut.

Most of the time it is the too-pretty syndrome. Once I hear a comment about someone wanting a piece, but not wanting to cut into it, I will usually take whatever serving utensil is there (big knife, cake server, plastic fork... whatever) walk over and pick up the serving utensil and whack right into the middle of the cake... the more dramatic the whack, the better the response! (gasps) It's just cake, people. *lol* Isn't that what people say when cakers charge a fair wage for their work? I wonder... is it more than "just cake" when I don't charge and it is obviously worth more than was paid for it.
--- and snarkiness.
*lol*

Well, we just had my dad's 80th birthday last saturday and guess where the WHOLE cake is? In my freezer. In all fairness I did make cupcakes too but I intended for the cake to be cut..oh well..I will say this too, if it's a dinner people get full too but even when I made my FIRST simple thanksgiving cake everyone remarked it was "too pretty" to cut and waited for me to cut it. When my nieces husband was taking a piece home he reached up and plucked off a tiny gumpaste pumpkin and stuck it on his piece he was taking home like a little trophy...go figure.

I worked my fanny off on this Darth Vadar groom's cake. I couldn't attend the wedding so I wasn't there to cut the cake. The groom wouldn't let anyone touch it and it went home with them. I think it sat at his parents home for a week+ and then they ate it. Yum- stale cake. They said it was great but I wanted to say it was great 8 days ago! I find that people have a real problem cutting my cakes. Esp if they have a face on them. They will eat all around a face once they finally cut into them.

You should have gotten your husband to ask the next day why nobody ate the cake?
 

Personally, I think it looks so neat they didn't know it was a real cake.  And probably after your husband cut it.  Most either didn't see it was a real cake or if a few of them did at that point    they were already full from the meal and cupcake..

You did a really great job.

Of course, this is all ancient history, from back in December of 2009.

For my own part, when I made the "speed limit sign" cake for my parents' 55th anniversary, we were expecting the neighbors to show up that evening, and when they weren't able to, I cut around the edible image myself, so that it would be intact if they were able to show up the following night (no, and not the night after that, either).

Days later, (I think my one-week New Orleans/Houston fall vacation fell in there) my kitchen cake (I don't eat chocolate, having cultivated a loathing of it as a child, when it was suspected of aggravating my allergies) was gone, the border areas of the anniversary cake were gone, and the edible image was ruined because the foil over the cake had sagged and made contact with it (like a total bozo, I didn't think to use the one 9x13 pan I have with a snap-on lid, which doesn't fit any other pan!), and the cake was probably stale to boot, but it was still sitting in the refrigerator, and not one piece had been cut in the image area.

On the other hand, with the Leland Awards cake (on which I did remember to use the Wilton covered 9x13 pan), there was a legitimate concern that my fellow docents wouldn't get to see it before it was cut! (They did; it didn't stop them from devouring it, and I made sure I got a piece with an edible image on it, so that if anybody got sick, I'd get sick along with them).