What I thought would be a quiet week has turned into a cake fest filled with several birthdays, baby showers, easter cakes, a wedding tastign and a wedding (Which I knew about earlier!)

However, I am now under the weather! (Only sinuses, but still.)

This got me thinking. What would I ever do if I got REALLY sick. Like in bed sick and had to churn out all these projects?

Do you network with other bakers who can pick up your slack for a fee?

I can't imagine just not doing the work. Especially after being paid. Any suggestions?

I just power through. I don't have time to be sick.

I'm a working mom. I tell folks that I dont' have time to be sick. The last time I was sick in bed for days was about 15 years ago, when I had the flu .... the REAL flu.

I've had it happen a couple weeks ago when I had a bad sinus infection complete with fevers.

take meds...go to bed...meds kick in...get up and do what you can...take more meds....etc.

It was horrible, but I muddled through it. I do have connections with one other cake lady in our area whom I have a great relationship with. She was down in her back weeks ago and I was able to help her...she offers to help me if needed. We refer back and forth too. It's good to have that if you can.

I think I will make it, but it's very frustrating.

Wife has been training me for several years !!! I'm learning to follow her recipies and can do BASIC decorating which would allow her to finish up with the "talent" parts. This allows her to be MIA for a while to recoupe.The more I learn ,the more I apprepiate what you talanted people do.

As leahs said, you don't have time to get sick if you have a cake business. Unless you have a life or death situation with a family member, you get the cake done no matter what.

It really helps to have a couple of local friends in the business to pick up slack if you have an emergency situation - sick, or otherwise. I used to have a drapery business and we very professionally helped each other out.

There's no shame in reaching out and sometimes one of us were better at doing some things than others so we subbed out work. We worked out a price for each other's work, were very fair about our charges. We also batched orders from suppliers to save on shipping costs and to take advantage of volume orders.

You never know what's going to come up, especially if you have kids at home!

It's a little of both for me - I power through most illnesses (I am a migraine sufferer, so have learned to work through pretty much anything now!). With that in mind, I plan my week ahead so I spread my work over the week, and don't keep it all to the end of the week - keeping everything to the last minute is a recipe for disaster (for me anyway!).

The nicest thing about working from home is just what jammjenks said...you can take your meds, go lie down for a while till they kick in, then get up and work again.

I also have a friend who has helped out once or twice for me - and I have done the same for her. It's always good to have someone at your back!

Yeah I learned pretty quick as a hairstylist that your clients don't care how sick you are you damn well better be there to cut and color their hair!

Same with cake orders......esp. Wedding cakes. Thank goodness in all my years I have never had to cancel any.

When my Dad died a couple of years ago, it was unexpected, he died in his sleep. I had a tasting scheduled for that morning. I phoned the bride to tell her I'd have to reschedule since my Dad had passed away a few hours ago and her response was....."So, you can't do my tasting this morning?"

Yeah, people are really ignorant sometimes!

This became a huge issue for me. Last Thursday night( I work a full time job) my right arm got pulled between two rollers of a machine I was working with. It"s amazing how many thought can fly through your brain at a time like that! While I was still in the moving machine it was just blind panic I wasn't able to see my arm it was in past my elbow. Luckily My co workers were quick on that E-Stop. Thanks again Jack! Within minutes after I realized I was going to be OK , bruised but no permanent damage, I started worrying about the wedding cake due next weekend. It only took a moment to realized that I am truly blessed with family who would pull together to help me. The Lord has blessed me with a loving husband, daughters, and sister that I can count on to help. The wedding cake (4-tier Bride and Grooms Fondant covered) will be completed, my family will be there for me.

In relation to this, a lot of you have said you would muddle through and I'm sure if I was in that situation I would try my best to muddle through too but I used to work as a cook in a restaurant and if you ever had an upset stomach etc you were not allowed to work with the food and were sent home, you were not allowed to return until you had been clear of whatever whas wrong with you for 24 hours, I have been reading up on Health and Safety as I am expecting my kitchen to be inspected in the next month or so, so that I can register my cake business (Yay!) and it definitely says this. I just wanted to mention it as it is obviously something that sould be kept in mind!

I just keep muddling a long. I have only been very sick once.
I could not even lift the cake out of the oven. I had to call my MIL. Whos is wonderful. she came up and took care of it. She never decorated a cake in her life. She got a crash course. Needless to saw it was not a very attractive cake. I gave it to the customer. Also a coupon for a half price cake when I am not ill. Now she is one of my best customers.

I had to have my gallbladder out on a Tuesday and had a wedding on Saturday. It was very hard, but I got throught it because the bride was expecting a cake at her wedding.

I had a friend who help and carried everything. This was my biggest fear, had it happened on Thursday I don't know what I would have done.

I guess I need to find someone in my area to work with, just in case.

I'm another one who never gets sick until the first day of vacation , but I also have friends who are bakers in the area, so I could call one of them to get some emergency help if need be.

I would just power thru, and have several times this year (bad sinuses and allergies). But, I did get the Norovirus (aka double ended stomach bug) right before valentines day, and had to throw out all the decorated cookies I made for friends. In that case, I would have had to call and beg to area decorators - no way would I have made a cake to sell if I had been that sick.

I guess I'm fortunate to have 5 cake decorators working for me who can do anything.

I used to close the shop to take vacations, but now I can leave and know that things will get done well. In fact, I am leaving in the morning to go to St. Louis for my niece's wedding....taking the wedding cake with me, of course! So, they are on their own Friday and Saturday.

We have bailed out a reception site numerous times that is nearby. They have their own pastry chef and do most of their own cakes, but we have a very good relationship with them. When their chef is down, they call us.

Ah, well i am lucky, I have a DH who can do excellent work in a pinch. The fall wedding cake I have posted happend when i had pneumonia last fall. I really was sick but I had made the cream cheese mint leaves ahead of time and froze them. I did the baking bit by bit and my hubby iced and smoothed them beautifully. I put on the leaves and when it was delivered i went along for the ride and stayed in the van.

We also have a close network of bakers in our area, not competitive at all! We had a baker DIE a couple of years ago and a lot of bakeries pulled together and got his weddings done.

I personally have thrown out my back and had to go to bed for two days. But I was still able to get my cakes done. Currently I am suffering from what is called Trigger Finger (dont laugh! Its very painful) where my pinky is stuck in a bent position. This is caused from um, squeezing things too much with your hand. (ie a piping bag!) I just take a lot of breaks and hot packs and advil and am learning to pipe with my left hand till it gets better (you aren't suppose to use it. hahahah! Wedding Season and dont use your right hand) for a few weeks.

My biggest fear is getting in a car accident or something!!

I think it really depends on what your illness is. If I had a cold or something, I would just muddle through it. But in a case of vomiting or diarrhea that type of thing, you really shouldnt be making cakes! I think what I have decided to do is make some dummy cakes (for weddings). That way in a pinch if something happened (illness, cake accident etc) AT THE VERY LEAST they would have something to display. Hopefully they could get sheet cakes or something last minute. If there were a couple days before the event, maybe another baker could bail me out. For birthdays and smaller events, I think it probably wouldnt be quite so devastating to not have a cake (from me anyway!)

No way do i want to be passing on germs whether viral or bacterial to many others.
So i either get someone to stand in for me - or if there is time - cancel.
Touch wood i haven't been sick for many a long year.

I don't think many people realise just how ccontagious we become when even suffering from just the *sniffles*.. let alone anything else.

Arghhhh - shudder at the thought

btw, dont forget to get your flu shot...not only do you not want to get sick, but we deal with the public so much, you are more likely to come into contact with it.

I also wash my hands a lot!! Even when I am wearing gloves.

woah... we have the option to be sick?

When did that memo come out!?

I've had a myomectomy on 28th of february,after the surgery the doctor said it was more complicated than he thought and so a 1hr operation turned to 4hrs,he said recovery was 6 weeks of doing absolutely nothing,ok i understand (still in pain anyway) .Went for my checkup and now it's 3months sitting on my arse,can't lift anything heavier than 5kg,( so no kenwood mixer),and hubby wouldn't help me.I turned down orders but took some for end of this month and May,don't know how i'm going to do .If my operation was an emergency,i would have have to cancel but for now my health comes first .

I'm now craving for every kind cake you can imagine and no one to bake them One would have thought i would lose some weight but noooo i'm compensating with other stuff.

Thanks for all the advice and "warnings" about being sick. It turns out, last week, my being under the weather was the LEAST of my problems!

I began to feel better Thursday and since I had Friday off due to the easter holiday, I decided I would just break the rules bake and decorate the 3-tier wedding cake and birthday cakes all in the same day. However, as my bad luck would have it, MY OVEN BROKE !!!!! I had to pack my entire pantry up, mixer, etc and borrow my mom's equipment! It was one of the most hectic unpredictable weeks I have ever had. The pressure and uncertainty was almost unbearable! But just like the rest of you super women, I pulled through and the cake was perfect and SPS ROCKS!! I will post a pic and dedicate it to you all when I get my filmed developed. (Lost the digital camera... Another long story!)

Sorry to hear about ur crappy week sweetlayers I hope it get better for you!