After reading all the comments above, I felt that I just had to add mine as well. First of all, Bethrose, I think the cake was awesome! The colors, the design, the decorations... all first rate!.
I too have a customer who insists on writing 'Happy xth Birthday NAME' on every birthday cake I do for her. Some times writing on the cake just does not fit in; so I do one of the following:
1) make chocolate letters, on a toothpick & ask the customer to place them on the cake just before serving
2) put the cake on a larger board, and do the writing on the board, either with icing, fondant, or chocolate (writing or moled letters)
3) make a chocolate plaque with the writing, either in chocolate or royal icing, and ask the customer to place it in front of the cake just before serving
4) make a banner from fondant, with the writing, and as the customer to drape it over a corner of the cake just before serving.
I tell her.. this way the birthday person can take the birthday wishes home
I take the cake pictures before to add to my album and she gets what she wants.
Hope this give you ideas for the future.
Good luck with the next one (I'm sure it will look beautiful too!)
First off - Bethroze - your cake is absolutely fantastic and you way under charged. And sorry she asked you to write on it!
Okay, okay, now for sheet cake story - jeez. So I have a client (who use to be my boss) ask me the other day to make a cake for her daughters b-day. Of course my ex-boss has seen my style of cakes.......so I ask her, "How many should it feed?" And she starts to box it with her hands, I stop her, laughing and tell her she is never getting that kind of cake from me and that she should go to Target, she laughs and then states she wants it to feed 15 people.
As far as writing on the cake, everyone who comes to me knows I am an artist first - no messages unless they are initial part of the design! And yes, I can be a snob, because I only do this because I want to and not because I have to.
Bethroze - good for your husband! That woman needs to be educated on Cake Design and the heart and soul you put into your creativity. The thing is - everyone thinks they can bake a cake. It is they just don't understand creativity!
Definition of creativity: "The capacity to challenge the existing order of things, by deliberately forcing ourselves out of our usual way of thinking, to see the status quo from a new and enlightening perspective, to form new ideas and find practical ways to implement change in the light of fresh insights." ---Tim Bills. And our society respects artists!
So Bethroze hang this statement up and the next time someone asks you to change your design, point to that plaque on the wall and say NO, I am a cake artist and that is not creative! And remember - people just love snobby artists! 
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