Have any of you got a back up plan if you go sick just before a cake is due? Imagine having a wedding cake due and a couple of days before you start to bake or ice you get so sick there is no way you could finish it off 
Luckily not happened to me as yet (fingers crossed)! but it must happen to someone!!
cheers
Jan
Funny that you should post this. Thank God that I do a tremendous amount of prep work so that just in case this problem arrives I can still go forward. And yesterday such a problem did occur. I was pretty sick all day but by the evening I was well enough to start working. All of my icing was mixed, all of my flowers were already made, it was like I had an assembly line ready to go. I didn't work as fast but I still got the job done. And now this morning I'm feeling sooooo much better!
Make friends with some other decorators in case of dire emergency (like hospital or death in the family), and, if at all possible, teach family some basics so they can help you out. I have had to use my husband for stacking and my daughters have made royal icing, piped dots, and do other basic decorations.
I also highly recommend keeping your medicine cabinet full of pain relievers and cold medicine... Airborne is a wonderful invention that you can take at the first sign of a cold and it keeps it from getting worse. Vitamins, water, good diet....an ounce of prevention is worth a pound of cure!
ALWAYS get a phone number where you can reach the person buying the cake in case you have to cancel! I've had to cancel two cakes in the last 10 years. One was due to a death in the family. The other was because my kids brought home a Norovirus from school that was so bad, they had to close the school for a good cleaning. Both my husband and I still got sick, and found out that we would be contagious for 3-5 days after being sick. No way could I do a cake and pass on that nasty bug (which loves to multiply in buttercream frostings). Luckily, it was for a friend, and she was grateful to know I was passing on the cake. She probably just went down to the grocery store and got a cake.
Have any of you got a back up plan if you go sick just before a cake is due? Imagine having a wedding cake due and a couple of days before you start to bake or ice you get so sick there is no way you could finish it off
Luckily not happened to me as yet (fingers crossed)! but it must happen to someone!!
cheers
Jan
There was recently a post where a member got violently ill and had to cancle a bridal shower cake. The customer got very annoyed. And at that time I posted a similar question, of what people would do.
I have a back up plan. I have two wonderful friends who also decorate, they would be my first option, to call them, if they were not able to help me out, then i would buy the cake. There is a cake store not too far from me that has wedding cakes ready to take home. They may not be exactly what the bride wanted, but it's better than nothing. I would ring them, explain what happened and tell them what i intended to do, if they disagreed at least i would have tried to come up with a resolution. If my friend's agreed to do it, i wouldnt tell the customer, they wouldnt know the difference, i trust my friends to do the job just as good if not better than mine ; )
Cheers
Nati
I was asked by an area cake decorator to take over a cake she couldn't do because of a family illness. When I called the customer, she pitched a fit and said forget it. If you have friends willing to do the cake, check with the customer first to make sure they're okay with it.
well, what if the customer isn't ok with it? it's not like the decorator can still do it - she had a problem. People contract for a cake . . . if they get that cake at the level of quality and skill agreed upon, who cares who makes it? Life happens . . . your contract is to deliver a cake, their contract is to pay you.
I think it would be a good idea to have a dummy wedding cake just for emergencies, if you took a lot of wedding cake orders.
I know it wouldn't be what the bride wanted but it would better than being embarrassed and not having a wedding cake displayed.
Maybe something you could change ribbon or flowers to match the brides colors.
i guess a dummy cake is a good back up, though I don't have them hanging around decorated and If you were sick I guess you wouldn't want to decorate even them!
I suppose I would send hubby out to get some pre iced ones and then add some flowers as I usually have some flowerpaste flowers & leaves already made up for emergencies!!
Of course I would have to call the bride and tell her what was happening as the cake may not look like anything she ordered!!
cheers
Jan x
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