Thanks for the new thread janelwaters, I am motoring there now.

When someone wants to give you money to which you do not feel entitled, you can ask them to make a donation in your honor to a charity of your choice. If they slip the money to you and you feel you shouldn't keep it, you can make a donation to your favorite charity (or a charity you think they would like) in their honor.

This IS an expensive hobby. I've had people offer to pay, which I have never before accepted. I kind of laugh at them because they just say let me know how much it is or what do I owe you. Seriously, my cost of ingredients alone is pretty much equal to the price you would pay for a grocery store cake (sometimes more), and the fastest I have ever been on a cake was 4 hours, not including clean up, so you would DIE if I named a price that I thought was reasonable. The lady who paid the $20 would have had a heart attack if I'd said, well, 5 hours of work (because they knew I had spent 4 hours decorating plus say an hour for baking and cleaning) is $50 (which is what I pay their kids when they babysit for me, so I figure that is reasonable) plus ingredients, equipment say $30, so $80, she'd have had a heart attack. But I am happy to make cakes for her for free because (1) she RAVES over them which makes me feel good, and (2) they are the ones who are over here in -40 pulling my van out of a snowdrift or trying to get the well unfrozen, which is worth FAR more than any cake. Sometimes I just laugh it off and tell people to just pay me in icing sugar. Ha ha.

Cakedoll: I've been in your same position! The good thing was I convinced my friend to instead donate to our Church's humanitarian fund instead of giving the $50 to me. As much as I like $50, I don't NEED $50 like some of our global neighbors. That way everyone wins.

I have found that people who already donate to charity will donate more at the drop of a hat (finances permitting). People who do NOT donate find every reason not to. For a while my husband had us exchanging Christmas gifts with several neighbours. After a few years of that, I told him to tell everyone that we didn't need any presents, and we were going to donate to charity instead -- we did the "buy three piglets for a family" kind of stuff and put the info card in their Christmas cards. A couple of them thought that was GREAT, and who knows if they did a specific donation or were just relieved to have that off their list, but I know they are strong supporters of other charities, so I figure it all works out. One guy, though, just kept going on about how who knows where the money goes or if it ever does any good. Good grief, there are so many charities, there has got to be SOMETHING somewhere that you could support -- local groups, medical research, global poverty, SPCA -- heck, bring a bag of new toothbrushes to the crisis centre. You can even donate to reduce the national debt -- it's on one of the first pages of the tax booklet (Canada). And I know for us, there are several charities that we give to monthly or annually, but then there are usually several that are $20 here or there because of a memorial donation or a kid asked us to sponsor them for something. I have one relative who will only donate to the Toronto SPCA. She thinks humans get enough donations, and for whatever reason she does not like the local SPCA. I actually tell my Baba that whenever she tries to pay me for something (e.g. I pick up a carton of milk for her) -- I always say, "how about you let me live with you for free for four years while I go to university. Oh, wait, you already did. If you really want to spend the money, you can donate it to church".

what I want to know is how many ppl actually have been "caught" or in "trouble" for selling illegal cakes etc... from home. I have never known anyone or heard of anyone ... I have had many friends who have done this and I see many ads for home bakers.

Thanks for the info indydeb!
I guess here in Canada they may be a 'lil more"relaxed" on that issue..wich is odd because they are really heavy on the resturants etc... every shop needs a sign in the window that has a green pass and date of last inspection. Not to mention we have a strict food regulations and drug regulations compared to the states from what I understand.

DOGS AND CAKE = GROSS Some ppl have no sense YUCKOOOOOO

To the OP, I'd consider it a tip.

TORONTO

as I said.."may be a 'lil more "relaxed" " As I have never heard of anyone getting in trouble for selling cakes etc............

I'm in a similar boat, but I'm not about to look the gift horse in the mouth. I hate the "money" argument. To me it is insulting to the person to give their money back to them when they go to that much trouble to give it to me.

We just consider it a donation toward my son's health costs since we are trying to raise money for therapies. What I've been paid barely covers the costs of ingredients anyway, and I don't advertise. I do have pictures of the cakes I've done on my facebook account, and people will ask me about them, but I tell them I only do cakes for friends and family.

I don't really see the lady running out and reporting you for selling because she gave your son $20 to reimburse you for the ingredients of the cake.

Oh, heck, the lady who gave me $20 wouldn't report me in a million years. She would probably LIE for me and say whatever she could to keep me out of trouble if something happened.

Speaking of websites, she now has a photo album on facebook called "Margaret's cakes" and she has pictures of three cakes I've done on there. I think that's hilarious. Not a concern re being paid because it was only this last one where she gave me $20, and for her I wouldn't expect or ask to get paid.

HOWEVER apparently another neighbour (lives near them, new to the area so I have only met him once very briefly) left a message here asking me to make a wedding anniversary cake for them. I don't want to be unneighbourly, but I wouldn't feel comfortable charging, but neither am I inclined to spend $30 bucks or more on a cake for someone I don't know. I actually figured out what the $20 neighbour cake cost me and I figure it was about $27 for ingredients, and you could add another $10 to that for cake board (unless she remembers to give it back to me), foil, gel colours for icing/fondant, electricity, dishsoap, etc etc. I think I will decline, unless I REALLY feel like making a cake. This is the busy time of year for me anyway -- four birthdays within a month, a grad cake the week after the birthdays are finished, and two more grad cakes the next month. Considering this is just a hobby and not a business, that's LOTS.

I suppose I should phone the health inspector and ask what the rules are, but then I don't want them to know who I am in case I decide to cross over to the dark side!!

I don't think it would hurt to call the health inspector and find out the legalities and see exactly what you can do. Some places say you can charge to be reimbursed for ingredients/supplies and donate your time. Some say that as long as you aren't making a net profit and the funds you make go back into your hobby then it's not "selling".

Cute cakes, by the way!

So the guy called and I ended up agreeing to do the cake. Grrr. Well, ha ha on him, I am making it just a littlish one and I am using some left over fondant from my son's birthday cake. THAT'LL show him, right? No, I am annoyed with myself for agreeing to it, and someone else asked me yesterday what I charge for cakes (the lady who posted the pictures has a LOT of friends, ha ha). So I am going to work up a little speech about how much it costs me to make a cake (I figure it would work out to between $20 and $50 for most of the cakes I've made, although my first fancy one had almond paste and easily was over $50), and how much time it takes -- abosolute fastest I've ever decorated a cake was 2 hours (included making icing), and that was just a little 10 inch not too fancy cake, and that doesn't include baking/cleaning time. So I need a little speech. Ohhhhh-- or THIS -- I can't charge, but I would be happy to trade time with you. If you want to clean up my yard/mow the lawn/weed the garden, I would trade (I live on a farm and my garden grows mainly pigweed, so these are HUGE jobs). I bet people wouldn't be that interested anymore. Actually, during this ramble, I just thought why don't I post a comment on the cake saying "this took 8 hours plus $27 in ingredients, so do your own math if you want to know how much I would charge".

I don't really have time to go through all the posts so if I'm repeating what someone said, forgive me.

Technically, is it illegal if you refused payment? No, it's not. It's a GIFT, plain and simple.

It depends on where you live if it's illegal or not. I live in MI. I talked to the HD and they told me if someone buys me a gift, gift card, or pays me for ingredients then I'm breaking the law. Under no circumstances are MI peeps allowed to accept anything. So not cool, but that's what Mandy from the HD told me for my state.