Does It Urk You Just A Little....secret Recipes?
Decorating By nickymom Updated 22 Aug 2006 , 2:32pm by lionladydi
I usually get annoyed when it is a "secret" recipe. Once I was helping with a school cookie exchange and someone made this wonderful toffee. I found out who made it and the next time I saw her I told her how much I loved and would love to have the recipe. She flat out said "It is a secret adn I don't give it to anyone" and then walked away. I was stunned. I found a recipe later that tasted exactly the same on the back of a "Heath Toffee Chips" package. I figured her "secret" recipe was the one off the bag and she didn't want to admit it.
Yeppers patton78 I know what you mean. I have searched at the icing recipes and tried to find one close to the one I have but no luck yet.
I takes a lot of trial and error to come up with your own "signature" flavor.
I am sure you all have that one secret recipe passed down from your family.... geez even Bush baked beans swore their dog to secrecy!!!! LOL
Well, I've been lucky enough to come across lovely women that PM me their recipes! I have nothing against our fellow CC'ers.
HOWEVER, I do have a grandmother-in-law who acts just like the mom off of "Everybody Loves Raymond"!!! Remember that episode where she "teaches" Deborah how to cook just like her, but switches the labels of the seasonings??? Yeah, I wouldn't put that past my GIL!!! She's very sweet when she wants to be, but has "forgotten" to make us ladies our cookbooks that we request EVERY Christmas!!! I think she's wanting to take them to the grave! 
I have always felt flattered when asked for a recipe! I do know people that won't refuse to give out a recipe ....they just give out a different recipe.
Personally I have found that when I've tried to make someone's recipe it was never as good as when they made it! To back up that theory, I once gave a friend my frosting recipe because her husband kept raving about how wonderful it. I have no clue why he thought mine was soooo great. It was just a basic "buttercream" recipe....you know.... the one with no butter 
Try as she did, he still said mine was better! We really couldn't figure out why hers didn't come out the same. It may have been that I used a KA and she didn't.
I also feel complimented when someone asks me for a recipe....I have no secrets! I guess if you are planning on using your "secret" recipe to launch it as a product nationwide, I can understand that...but otherwise I dont see the point.....share the good stuff in life!
Well I do a lot of trial and error baking because I love to experiment the only problem is that I never write anything down so my secret usually remains a secret even to myself lmao even when it turns out absolutely delicious. jeeze you would think that I would have learned by now to write it as I go along. lol
Gosh, I haven't noticed any "secret" recipes in the descriptions, but I will pay closer attention. I guess I thought that if you were going to be on this site it was to help yourself and others to be better bakers and decorators- to challenge one another. I guess not everyone takes that to heart. Too bad.
-Michelle
I understand the "just throw it together, it's never the same twice" kind of recipe, but I do think it's silly to keep "secret" recipes unless you are really using it as a signature item for a business. If it's just an every-day person who cooks for various events, I say share the wealth
I put that "secret recipe" in my description but I never thought it would offend anyone. Sorry. I htink this is a great web site and I am hooked on looking at it everyday (of course I dont do it at work 
)
I guess I should take that out of the description so I dont cause further problems. I will see if I can edit it... if not again, I am sorry to upset anyone.
Mimi
I guess if you don't like to pass it on, you could always tell people it will be available in your book as soon as it's published--heck, make 'em pay for it!
But until then.............I don't have many recipes that are truly my own, but, most people who ask are not actual cake decorators and don't have the desire to become one. They're probably not going to take the time and expense to whip up a batch of IMBC even if they had the best recipe.
I guess you could always refer them to a similar recipe or one your recipe is based off of. "Oh it's pretty much the same recipe as the such and such mix in the cake bible, I got the book at the library. I'm sure you can get it there."
That's giving it to them, but the're probably NOT going to go to the library to find the book and look up the recipe.
OOPS! Am I adding to the problem? 
Sorry!
To me a recipe has to be tasted to be truly appreciated and since I can't taste the cakes in the gallery (that would be heaven, huh? 
) it doesn't bother me at all if the recipe is a secret. I don't even know if I would like the "secret recipe". Besides, I already have so many recipes for cakes, frostings, etc. that sound sooo good that I would have to bake, only bake and nothing but bake to use them all. Not that I don't still collect every recipe that sounds yummy, but if I don't get them all that's ok.
i have 2 recipes that i wont give out....my cheese cake recipe and a butter cookie recipe. the cheese cake recipe i came up with on my own. the butter recipe has been passed down. what i wont do is say a recipe is a secret when i get it out of a book and do not tweek it. my white cake recipe that works wonders is martha stewarts own. those recipes i will give ut all the time. its a lie if you say its a secret when its right off of the bag...in that case its a free for all.
I'm in two minds about this one.....
firstly, I don't have a probem with giving out recipes but there have been times when I gave a recipe and for some reason it didn't turn out like mine or maybe the person didn't follow the recipe correctly and then the comment was made that maybe it wasn't the correct recipe.....that sort of upsets me actually.
Secondly, now that I make most of my cake/tarts/cookies for 'clients', I don't really give out recipes that help bring in business.
Does this make sense????
I have a couple of recipes that are my own. It was my time and effert and expense to come up with those that i like. I used to freely give out my recipes, now i don't cause one that i did give out ended up on the net as another persons own and that really pissed me off.
So i figured live and learn, i won't give out one of my own again. But i will share one that i use from a book with no tweaking.
..this reminds me...
When my kids were young we hung out with two other familes all of the time. One Mom would NEVER give out any of her recipes no matter how we begged.
We used to have what we called "Souper" parties where each family would make a different kind of soup and we would get together for dinner. She would always serve a killer New England clam chowder. Of course we begged for the recipe and nada.
Anyway one weekend we were gathered at her house and of course that soup was her offering. We were finishing dinner when her son was asked to take out the garbage and he trotted over and asked if she wanted to keep some containers that were on the top. They just happened to be soup containers from a local restaurant that just happened to make killer NE clam chowder.
The other Mom and I about busted a gut laughing as our red faced friend left the room dragging her son and the garbage can with her. 
I'm kind of a hypocrite on this one. I have a recipe for a coconut cake with a key lime BC filling that I have happily given out in the past. This summer I entered the cake into our county fair - and won. Now I'm going to compete in the state fair with the same cake. And until that's over, the recipe vault is locked!
(inserted - I wanted to mention that the basic concept for the scratch version of the prizewinning recipe did come from someone else here at CC edencakes, hence the hypocrite part)
I do believe in family secret recipes that are passed down from generation to generation. We have a few in our family. Guarded and cherished. But generally speaking, I am flattered when someone asks me for a recipe, and unless it is a family secret, I will happily share it!
That being said - I wouldn't post something here at CC and then say "sorry this is a secret recipe, and you can't have it, nyah nyah nyah..." because that's mean! If it's such a secret, don't even mention it in the first place!
All in all I have had a wonderful experience at CC, so many who freely exchange recipes and ideas. I love to bake but suck at creating recipes, and it's really nice to have such valuable resources here because the experience has really improved my baking AND decorating! I LOVE YOU GUYS!!!!!
I haven't seen that yet but my grandmother definitely does that a ton!
..this reminds me...When my kids were young we hung out with two other familes all of the time. One Mom would NEVER give out any of her recipes no matter how we begged.
We used to have what we called "Souper" parties where each family would make a different kind of soup and we would get together for dinner. She would always serve a killer New England clam chowder. Of course we begged for the recipe and nada.
Anyway one weekend we were gathered at her house and of course that soup was her offering. We were finishing dinner when her son was asked to take out the garbage and he trotted over and asked if she wanted to keep some containers that were on the top. They just happened to be soup containers from a local restaurant that just happened to make killer NE clam chowder.
The other Mom and I about busted a gut laughing as our red faced friend left the room dragging her son and the garbage can with her.
Thanks for the morning laugh.
I don't care one bit if someone has a secret recipe. There are so many great tasting recipes out there to try and I love to experiment. If someone wants to keep one a secret, more power to them. I wish our family had some secret recipes to hand down, but we don't. We do have certain things we make, but they're certainly not secret.
Well, I have been selling homemade assorted chocolates for the past 28 years. My Buttercreams are to die for, among the other varieties. And I have never given the recipe's out. This is how I make my living. You wouldn't expect any candy store to give out their's!
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