http://www.cakecentral.com/g/i/3054537/a/84/round-wedding-cakes/

So, I have been using CC for a few years and have learned SO much on here.  There is always someone to pitch in and help solve a problem or give advice.  I just love this site! 

Here is my (maybe) silly question...I was asked by a family friend to make a wedding cake for her daughter's wedding.  The above cake is what she wants.  I think the cake is fabulous but have a couple of questions about the design.  I feel like I'm somehow breaking an unspoken rule, copying someone's cake.  Do the pros on CC mind being copied?  Is this a silly question?

Thanks! 

Christina

AIf you're uncomfortable copying the design, ask for permission from the owner. Although that particular design has been done a million and ten times already.

AWhat about when someone asks you for a cake, you search the web for the closest example of your idea, then send the pic to the client. When I sent the pic I clearly said "this is not a picture of my work, but is close to what I'm thinking."

.............  I feel like I'm somehow breaking an unspoken rule, copying someone's cake.  Do the pros on CC mind being copied?  Is this a silly question?.........

Ill answer your last ? here 1st:)        No ? is silly or dumb when you don't know the answer.  How would anyone learn if ?s were not asked?

My opinion is if anyone - pro or novice alike - did not want their design/cake copied they would not post it in a public forum like this.

Asking permission of the original creator OR giving credit to them is the way to go as others have said.

Remember, most likely you version will not be an exact copy.  We all have different pressure/ways of doing some technique that will change the final look enough to make it different.

@mrsmac888 if I didn't buy books, DVD's, magazines, and view photos on the internet I'd never get anything decorated.  With zero-nada-none-zip in the artistic vault.....I'd be SOL.  what fun would that be??

Practically all my clients send me pics from Pintrest and Google (and Cake Central) that they like.  There's no way I am going to spend time tracking down the original decorator asking if I can make a copy of their cake.  You just can't take credit for a cake you didn't make personally.

I look at cakes all the time to get ideas. As someone stated, your cake will probably look a little different but close to what you were looking at. Good luck and post pictures of your cake!! I am sure it will look great!!!

I am not too creative on my own so I am thankful for being able to look at pictures of everyone's cakes. You see some really beautiful cakes here!!! Many people here are very artistic with their cakes and I for one appreciate being able to look at their ideas which really are awesome!!!  I am just a hobby baker and do not make cakes to sell. I only cook for the grandchildren and close family members.

to seal the deal and provide published fact -- here are three very similar tree trunk cakes published in three different cake decorator books all within a year or so of the other -- all famous beloved decorators sylvia weinstock, debbie brown and scott clark woolley -- none of them credited each other nor even God for their reproductions because it just is not necessary --

i could show you nearly alike marzipan fruit decorated tier cakes -- they are trends and we all do them -- and i know some of our current trends are from cakes made long ago and one person brings it back and everybody jumps on the bandwagon -- it's just cakedom --

there's just zillions of similar cakes -- there is no new thing under the sun -- as they say

fwiw -- i edited this over and over and it's right side up in my folder but it won't come through -- anyhow --

AWell, I was going to agree with you until I saw (a variation of) the worst, most depressing, creativity squashing, comment of them all:

"There is nothing new under the sun"

There is plenty of new stuff going on out here, some of us come up with unique techniques and new designs all the time. No, there aren't many ways to make a tree trunk, or any literal object look different, it's a tree trunk. But yes, there are new things out here, and plenty of innovators and people who like to experiment.

AI'm kind of in the middle of the "nothing new under the sun" argument. I think a lot of people think they're creating something but it's actually been around a looong time, they just don't know the history of it. Then there are people who make a cake based on a classic pattern from another crafting genre and call it new. Then there are people who do something new that hasn't been done with cakes before, but that's usually a chemistry thing, not a decorating thing (I'm thinking the sugarveil kind of stuff that's out now.) But then again, people have used gelatin in all it's forms for decades in special effects and moldmaking, so the sugarveil stuff isn't really new...Most of it is what's trendy now and how short a memory people have. Usually if you look at "new" cake designs it's something that's been done before but it was before social media where people could spread it so fast it made it look like they're the ones who invented it, which they didn't. Then pinterest gets hold of it and it becomes a trend and the first person who posted it takes credit. Oh, how I hate pinterest sometimes...

Being creative doesn't need to mean that you came up with something that nobody in the world has seen before, that would be impossible. It can mean taking something that exists and reworking it somehow to put a new spin on it.

But this did give me an idea for my facebook question of the day for today, so thanks for that haha!

I recently had a message through Cake Central from a baker who requested to use one of my cake designs. A lady had gone into her store and requested my exact cake. She normally doesnt copy cakes, but the customer was adamant that she didnt want anything changed. So the baker emailed me to check if I was happy for her to do that and said that she'll credit me with the original cake design when posting online. It made me feel like a million bucks that someone had loved one of my cakes so much to request it from a store and I really appreciated being asked by the baker.

it's scripture -- 

in the same sense that scientifically "matter cannot be created nor destroyed"

we cannot use mud/materials from another galaxy to create a sculpture -- we got what we got here and that's all we got -- not in the sense that we can never be refreshing and inventive -- sure we can dress it up different and present something singular and ground breaking but it's still a re-hash of everything that's already been here--