Talks about all the labor and love put into a cake:
http://www.motherofcakes.net/2012/01/03/free-cakes/

I understand the sentiment, but I think the message is somewhat flawed. The most rewarding cakes I've done have been the free ones.

Maybe. But I think it puts into perspective that it's more than just "flour, sugar, and eggs" that go into a cake.

There are a lot of good articles, some by CC'ers (costumeczar and indydebi to name a couple) that make the same point without making the customer sound like an a**hole because the cake maker couldn't say no or wasn't able to price their cake appropriately. This article obviously speaks to a lot of people, judging from the amount of times that it's showed up on my Facebook feed the past few days, but I really don't care for it. Just my opinion.

And I understand the frustration, I do. It's a delicate thing to discuss and it's hard not to be stand offish.

I agree with the message of the article. a friend just got engaged, not a very close friend, and I was thinking of doing her wedding cake as a gift, then something stopped me. (this was last night). If she pays tons for crafts and hair ornaments and $200. plus for hairstyles (I could go on forever), then why would I simply give such a large present for free especially since I', not employed right now. DUH, Anyway I had decided to make a mini 3 tier cake with a gumpaste/ fondant peacock (this will be her theme) as an engagement gift. she has another baker friend and in all probability she will go with her paying full price. If she were a very close friend who also loved my cakes, then I would not hesitate. sorry long post, lol

Interesting blog post, but it does read a bit harsh if I were just reading it off the street and didn't make cake.

But if you change the wording from "customers that want free cake" to "all the calls I get from deal-of-the-day companies" maybe it would resonate with me more. I swear, I get a call from some new company at least twice a week, all promising that they are "different from Groupon", yet all wanting to sell my cake at a discount and keep the profit for themselves. GRRRRRRRR. At least those jackholes know they are trying to screw me. Customers are only looking to not get screwed and don't understand the impact of what they ask.

Sorry, personal rant.

I didn't like the article. Possibly it was written with the best of intentions, but it made the author seem very conceited.

To me, cake decorating is a skill and a craft, like any other. I don't think I'm any more special than a mechanic because he fixes cars and I bake cakes. I don't think I work any harder than my husband, who puts in 15 hour days and loads and unloads about 12,000 lbs of coin by the time his day is done.

If the article was aimed at people asking for donated wedding cakes, then I might agree more with it.

That kind of article makes me roll my eyes...it has some serious anger flowing through it. I'd recommend that the author learn the word "no." It will lessen her obviously heavy load.

I have people ask me about discounts all the time. So what? It's called life, suck it up. I had one girl today ask me whether I'd give a discount if she ordered a lot of custom cookies. I said no, because they're a pain in the butt to do, and she said "Yeah, I know!" People realize that it's a lot of work, but if you choose to say yes to a free cake or a discount you have nobody to blame but yourself. Go get mad at the mirror if you resent it so much.

Seems a bit mean-spirited to me. People ask for discounts on all kinds of services, It doesn't make them rude or disrespectful of the person doing the work. Sometimes that's the case, but not always. It also drives me nuts to see so many fragment sentences and bad punctuation in one place! Ugh!