Last night after my husband dropped off a cake at our neighbors house he came by and asked me for the recipe. He makes cakes as well but not for profit at least I don't think. Anyhoo, he asked if he could get my recipe. I told him that I'd stopped giving it out years ago because my husband didn't want everyone having it mainly because they were messing it up when they used it. Now since I was about to begin my business I explained to him that I really wasn't comfortable giving it out anymore. As flattering as I find it when people ask I was wondering what do you all do when people ask for recipes.

I give out my recipes. I have found that even if they ask for the recipe, the odds that they will actually make it are very slim. Doesn't bother me a bit.

I don't mind giving out my recepies at all. In my opinion if you don't want to give out recepies just be tough enough and don't give them but the worst is if you give the recepie out and actually change some ingridients so that the cake ( or whatever food) will not come out. That's bad.

I have also come across this situation. I share my recipes, to my advantage.

1. For those who bake cakes, I share the recipes with them because you get to learn a lot. These guys will get back to you on how it turned out and possibly have suggestion for coming up with a whole new recipe.

2. Some who ask me for the recipe hoping that i will not share it and will opt for making them the cake instead. No, that's not me. Making a cake for someone for free, comes from me only if I am free and it does not interfere with my time with my kids. In such cases i just give them the recipe knowing it will end up in their trash can... that's mean, but getting a cake done from me for free is also mean.

3. Nati, i don't have to go far. My aunt's are also in the cake business, and they are like holders of top secret recipes, they don't share and they were suprised when i handed out my recipes to them. Out came the ??? you dont mind? I told them to try out my recipe and I also told them at the end of it they will still say their recipe is the precise, original, traditional whatever recipe. I don't care.
I also know they will give it a try and who knows my recipe may end up being the new top secret recipe.

Tell you frankly my mom is a fanstatic cook. i have written down recipes while she cooked, each and every recipe in detail, but till date i can't cook like her and she can't bake like me. ......

JennT - I think that was also an "Everybody Loves Raymond" episode where the MIL gave his wife an altered recipe so that she had no chance of making it as good as mom. I think she ended up sneaking into the in-laws house in the middle of the night to try to steal the correct recips. LOL!

I see where MsTamara is coming from. This past holiday season someone people asked me for my gingerbread cookie recipe. I told them that it was from a cookbook and I tweaked it a little, so I photocopied it with my notes on it and gave it to them. When they gave me some of the cookies to try they tasted awful. This happen with 2 different people and I don't know if they thought they tasted good I just pretended that they were. Then I took some leftover cookies home to my husband and he took one bite and said, "Ewww". I felt like if they told people that it was my recipe then they would think that that was what my cookies tasted like too. From now on unless I'm confident in someone's abilities I don't think I will be giving out any recipes for fear of making myself look bad.

I SOMETIMES give out my recipe...but only to close friends, relatives, and some other cake decorators. But Not just to customers or neighbors. I tell them I'm glad you like it. I'll make it for you again...I'd give you the recipe but it's a family secret!

ayost - that is an excellent point! You've given me something to think about!

VAcakelady - YES!!! LOL That show was exactly what happened to me...lol. Turned out that the mom replaced the oregano with tarragon or something like that...lol. I promise you, that is completely what my life is like...to a T! My in-laws live one street over, but it doesn't keep them from coming over everyday and at somepoint critiquing (sp?) what I do/don't do... I do love them, they are invaluable to me & my kids, but I could do with less 'togetherness'...lol. I keep telling myself that one day when they say something or question the way I do something or point out that something needs to be done or is wrong...I'm just gonna say..'Well do it yourself!'....lol. Doubt I ever will, though.

I give recipes freely.

The way I look at it is a recipe is just words on paper.

It's the skill and experience and expertise that make the finished product good.

I think of it this way. I make something; this person really likes it, and asks for the recipe, I give it to them. But they don't have the same baking training and skill I have, so it doesnt come out as good, or they can't decorate as well as I can, or they just don't have the patience or time, so they still come to me for when they need a cake for somebody's birthday or something important.

ayost43:
I don't know why their bad representation of the recipe would reflect on you. I've never experienced something like this.

If somebody used one of my recipes and it came out badly the response usually is "I used Abby's recipe, but it didn't come out nearly as good as her cake did."
The person using the recipe knows their product isn't the same, so she usually doesn't try to compare it to yours, or admit they were using the same recipe.


An amusing anecdote:
One woman I used to work with fancied herself a master baker/cook, and guarded her recipes like gold, even the ones that were given to us by the head chef, so everybody had them. You still were not allowed to look at them. And she often lied or sabotaged others work to make herself look better.

One day there was a miscommunication and I ended up using one of her recipes to make a desert for a party. When she saw it on the table she was livid.

She got even angrier when the owner, who hadn't know I was using her recipe, told me that my recipe tasted way better than hers.

Alien_Sunset :

I commend you for admitting when your recipe does not come out as well as someone else's. Unfortunately not everyone is as gracious as you are. Some people just say I used so-and-so's recipe, and while some people may assume their's just came out differently than yours, some people may think that is how your's tastes. And then there are other people who just blame you because they don't want to think that they did something worse than someone else. Unfortunately I work with a lot of the "other people" who would rather blame than ask what they did wrong. Trust me recipes is not where this ends they do the same thing when a mistake is made at work.

So perhaps giving a recipe comes down to how well you know a person.

This happened with cookies recently. My Aunt asked me for a recipe for Snickerdoodles. One of the easiest cookies in the world to make, and the recipe isn't so secret. You can find it anywhere. I gave her the recipe 3 times total, and she still couldn't get it right. Now she just asks me to make them for her.

As for cake recipes, if someone has a recipe to share with me, then I'll share with them. But like other people here, I know they won't do it "right". Not to sound snide, but my own Mother doesn't even know my recipes. And she doens't ask me for them. I know she could do a better job at some of them, but she has her own and I have mine.

I don't usually mind giving out my recipes. However, in the past when I have given out my recipes to certain friends, they call me every five minutes while making it and ask me questions about it, then it still doesn't come out for them and they call to ask why! What do you say? I don't know, maybe because you just aren't a baker?
Sometimes I feel like just telling them to order the darn cake or cookies or whatever from me if they want it to come out right! Byt the time they make it 3 times to get it right they could have bought it from me at full price, decorated and tasting perfect.