I was asked by a colleague from my husband's office to make a cake for my husband's birthday (my hubby is the boss). They want a cake for him made with hazelnut praline SMBC and ganache, so the cake would be quite pricy (compared to a grocery store cake). Do you think, I should give them a slight discount on the cake because it is for my husband? (I wouldn't want to seem gready)
Thank you for your advice on this.

If an employee where my husband worked had asked me to bake a cake for my husband's birthday, I:

1 - would be flattered that they thought so highly of him that they wanted to do this for him

2 - would do it free of charge

3 - if, for some reason, I could not afford to do the cake free of charge, I would only ask for the cost of ingredients.

Theresa

Your client isn't your husband, your friend, your mother, or your anything else. Charge normally.

Think of it this way: I work for your husband, and I think he's a great boss. I think he's so great that he should have a new Porsche for his birthday. You're gonna pay for it so I can give it to him, okay?

Depends on how large the cake is...just an average sized cake to serve 25-30 I would just do it free, no biggie. To serve 100 or so, though, I'd probably ask for a little something. I would hate to charge for a cake for my own husband though! Maybe if you surprise him by bringing it in yourself at just the right time, he will know its actually a gift from YOU.

If you didn't know who the birthday boy was, would you discount to THIS customer? Hubby isn't the customer.

So since I know your policy, all I have to do is tell you the cake is for some relative of yours and I can get the cake cheaper?

And by the way, I made my hubby pay for a chocolate fountain once and he didn't get a discount! The bride was a personal friend AND she was his hair stylist. I had already given them the friend-discount and he wanted me to give them the choc fntn free. Couldn't do it. So he offered to pay for it. Fine. He didnt' understand why the bride was so excited. I said, "Because you've saved her about $600." His mouth dropped open and he said, "You're not actually going to make me pay that, are you?" I said, "Get your checkbook, babycakes, and I also take credit cards!" He stopped trying to get discounts for friends after that!

Hmm, I've never thought about this scenario before...

On the one hand, I see the logic of business is business, an order is an order, regardless of who the ultimate recipient is. But, if it were me, I would feel a little funny charging someone for a cake for someone in my immediate family.

I think if it was just a small cake, no more than 25 servings, and they were leaving the design up to me, I'd probably just charge cost. But, if it were a larger cake, and/or they wanted a specific design, I'd charge the price you would normally charge them.

I understand that the customer is not your husband, it's the other worker.

I also understand that if you want to have a business, you have to put on big girl panties and act like a business.

So I guess it depends where you are in life.

Still, I would be inclined to do it for free, or for cost of ingredients.

Now, if it were for my Dad? I don't know. I think I would be able to treat them as a paying customer, maybe a friend's discount. Is that because I know many of many husband's coworkers and not my Dad's? I don't know.

Very interesting question for me to think about.

Thank you, ladies for the answers, I wish I could have had all of them yesterday (I had to give her an answer yesterday). I ended up telling them at cost, which came out to be around $27.00 with cake box and board (I bake from scratch and use high quality staff). By the way, they said the reason they asked me, because my husband said he loves my cakes the most . I should have put in the post that I'm throwing my husband a birthday party one day earlier with his closest friends at the house, where there will be a cake for him. I didn't have any intention to send one to work with him because his office gets a cake from me free at least every other week (I'm developing some more flavor selection and dessert cakes for my business and they end up with the sweet results of my testings). I'm at the early stage of my starting up in business and we still rely on my husband's income so shelling out another free cake from his income felt awkward to me. My gut said, I should charge full but it felt weird too (I know, you are right, Deby, but I'm learning) and as I mentioned in my post, I didn't want to seem gready either in front of his empleyees eyes.

I know it's kind of late now, but if it were me I would have asked my husband what he thought I should do. He's the one that has to work with these people every day. He may have said, tell them you're booked.

She never said, nor implied, that they thought they should get a free or cheap cake from her. They said they wanted her to bake it because he had told them he loves her cakes most.

Edit -

There's no need to tell you what you should do, if any of those co-workers of your husband's comes to you to order a cake for their own purposes, right?

Do you send a survey with the cakes you send into the workplace? If not, you should. If they want free cake, make them earn it by participating in your focus group. Ask about taste, texture, moistness, color, whatever questions you would like answered, about the products you send in.

Theresa