Do you charge them?

If so, how?
1) For materials only?
2) Your "going rate"?
3) Somewhere in-between?

Depends on the family member.

My IMMEDIATE family gets free cakes - but no final say in the design.

My aunts and uncles and MY close friends get an in between price and final say on the design - although they usually just give me a theme and tell me to do whatever I want.

Friends of family members that I don't know, get a regular price.

If they ask me to make a cake then they get a 10% family discout (line itemed on the invoice so they know they are getting it)

If I offer then it is free.

I have a flat rate and sometimes go more or do a line item $ amount and label it as a Gift from Me. So they still see how much the cake should have been.

I also offer a 10% discount for a Free Reign Design. I use this at my discretion depending on the family/friend. If all they give me is flavor and number of servings and let me do what I want then I am more then willing to give this little extra discount so I can do something I want and have been trying to do. I don't give this often, but if I go above and beyond my standard pricing in the design then I figure the above and beyond price the discount. Hope that makes sense and didn't confuse you.

depends on how much they've pi$$ed me off lately!

Family get a 9x13 left in the pan because they love me and they know it's work. Everybody else coughs up big time.

Indy, you're so funny!!!

Just make sure that you don't get asked to make a cake or cookies for them.. and then suddenly they expect it to be FREE!!! and forget that you incurred costs making it for them.

It happened to me TWICE.... yes... they said they would pay... but then somehow.. never did.

So now... if I offer it's free.. if they ask they need to pay me for my work. or at least my expenses.

My family knows up front that they usually cover the cost of supplies.

Also depends on the family member...hahahaha.

If I offer then it's free. If it's for a kids birthday then that is usually my gift to them.

I agree with Indydebi!!! Too funny!!!!

Indy you trully made me laugh!

First and foremost, Indy hit the nail on the head.
If I offer, it's free. If not, they pay for the supplies and they know that they better not complain.

If you ask, you pay. I may discount a little for a simple cake/design, but not much and not often. If my family aren't willing to pay for my supplies plus the time it takes me, then I'm not going to waste my supplies/time making a cake when I could be doing something else.

If I offer, it is free. I do make cakes for birthdays free for my brothers, parents ans such. When it is a free cake they have no say on the flavors, design or size.

I do my immediate family's cakes for free....but most are in April, May and June so I decide the design and most times we are celebrating a few birthdays and mother's or father's day with one cake so it's my choice what I do and how I do it.

Now my nieces are a different story. They are the only kids around ....two are 15 (cousins born 8 days apart) and other is 8. They get anything they want completely free (I was not able to have kids of my own so they are kinda like "my girls" too.) I've done things like huge cheeseburger and fries, lifesize Hannah Montana guitar, Dracula, Dora, Barbie princess, Jack Skellington from Nightmare Before Christmas??, castle cake, cat cake, horse cake, etc but I love doing it for those girls. They are good kids and brought up to appreciate what people do for them. If they weren't, I wouldn't do it for free.

At this point in time, I am blessed to be able to afford to do cakes for family for free. I have two nieces having babies this year and one niece getting married. I am thrilled to be able to give them cakes as shower and wedding gifts. Unless you are financially able to be this generous, I think you should at least collect your cost and not feel bad about it at all. Your time and talent should be gift enough.

Depends on the person. Close friends and family get a discount- sometimes 10%,sometimes more. I always,always notate it on the invoice so they know what they're getting and I don't tell them that they'll receive lifelong,consistent discounts. Depending on person, event, I may offer to do the cake - in that case, I still give an invoice and zero out balance as "gift from me".

I do all of the kids cakes for free. I have to start demanding notice though. My sister let me know on a Thursday that she was having a party for my nephew that Sunday. Blah! No other family get cakes. At all. My close friends at work get free baby shower cakes. That's it. Everyone else pays!

I make everyone's birthday cakes as my birthday gift to them. I started doing that because I couldn't afford to buy them gifts, but now I could afford gifts instead and everyone still wants cake

Of course, we don't have a lot of family members. If all my cousins lived in town and wanted cakes for their birthdays, I'd charge or I'd starve

My free cakes are for my in laws only and that's because they are really nice people and I get to do whatever I want with the design and flavors.

I think most people have said what I do too. I usually do them as the gift. My DH used to think that it wasn't enough, and then I started telling him how much I would charge for it, and he started "getting" it. I think I married him for his looks....

If I OFFER, it's a gift. If THEY ask, it's an order and is treated just like any other client and they honestly don't mind. They know that any time i spend making a cake for them is taking time away from my work so they don't mind paying my rates. If I feel like discounting their price, I do it. If I don't want too then I don't. It's worked out fine this way for me. A few years ago I had a issue with an AUNT and cake pricing (not wanting to pay for an elaborate cake SHE knew she was quoted a price on). So this way was the easiest way to solve that problem for me.