I sometimes give out my recipes (since most aren't mine originally anyway...thanks to someone else's generosity I have them!), but leave out the special little tricks I've figured out to make them better...certain brands to use, adjustments I've made after trial & error, cooling methods, etc. That might be a bit mischevious of me, but at least they don't think I'm being whatever about giving out my recipe. I'll let them figure out the lil secrets on their own!

Oh please. What on earth is wrong with saying "Sorry, it's a secret." With a pleasant smile, if someone has a problem with that, it's their problem.

It just seems a little trivial to want to keep a recipe a 'secret' when people like Rebecca Sutterby gladly share their recipes Really, who am I compared to her in this business?

EllieA, thank you for sharing your recipe! I now have it in my personal cookbook and titled it, "EllieA's Death By Chocolate Brownies" by EllieA (Cake Central).

May you be blessed for giving us smiles!

I just could not help but reply to this thread...to give out a recipe or not...huuum. I don't want people on here to have an attitude towards me so I appologize in advance if I hurt anyones feelings but most of us on here have gotten recipes from others; lots of recipes! Many have also "borrowed" them from books of other famous cake makers and decorators. Maybe you tweek them...maybe not. Most people whom you share your recipes with outside of the "cake world" are not turning around and starting a cake business on your recipe. Nor is the shared recipe that travels from a Cali baker to a New York baker really hurting anyone. You always have competitors and you always will. So I say share. What if the teacher who may have taught you something had decided "the way that I do this is a secret; I want to be the only one who can do this so I am not going to teach this".
The way of the world is to SHARE knowledge.
Which brings me to another pet peeve that I ran into on this site. I thought about posting then I told myself forget it and move on plus I did not want to start a war but it is some what similar and is on the topic of "sharing" so here goes. I recently saw a very well executed cake on here, relative to a cake I needed to make (for a family member no less; not profit). I kind of remeber seeing another cake that was this SAME design just not done quite as well. I LOVED this cake so I asked the person (with the well done cake) if I may "borrow" the design for my husbands birthday...she snubed me. WOW, I thought...that is not even your design....did you ask the original creator if you could copy??? That I will never know but man that made me angry. After making my husbands cake (which I ended up making my own design) I found the original of the other cake so I know for a fact that this person copied the design that she was unwilling to share and on top of that she NEVER mentioned the original designer!
Maybe I am a different creature; if I have an original design and someone copies...I take that as the highest form of flattery. Don't get me wrong I believe that you should always give credit where credit is due but again if people did not copy each other in some form or another there would not be Ford, Chev, Toyota, etc. Do you see where I am going here???
Suzi
PS - I just shared a favorite recipe of mine yesterday with two different people as well as a buttercream recipe. ENJOY!

"I don't get that. It's not rude."
I am not sure that anyone said it was rude...maybe that they just do not agree...as all recipes came from somewhere and very few are truely, 100% made from the ground up by the supposed owner.

You are correct though (as are the people on the other side)..it is your right to keep your secret.

If not for a site like CC and all the sharing that goes on, I wouldn't be where I am today with my cakes...so, I'm thankful for all the sharing! At the same time, it's someone's personal choice if they don't want to give out a recipe. I live in a small town and there are several home bakers. My goal is to one day have my own cake shop, so at this point in establishing my name & clientale, I feel that I don't need to give out all my secrets quite yet. All the top cake designers that freely share their recipes and tips have already established themselves and have all the business (plus more) they can handle. They have nothing to lose.

Just my 2 cents on the matter...

I think perhaps too many people have known someone who shared a recipe and then had it come back to bite them...

Someone made it badly and told everyone it was the first person's recipe;
or someone made it better and now nobody wants the first person's item;
or it's the item always requested to be brought to family gatherings and now the other person brings it instead;
that sort of thing.

I don't think it's selfish to not hand out your recipes. And more often than not, it's the technique that matters most...not just the ingredients.

If you handed them your recipe, you'd probably have to spend the next half hour explaining your technique as well. That's just not practical to do for everyone who asks.

I gave out my favorite lemon curd recipe last week and the lady called me up bawling because my no fail (I have literally made it hundreds of times) recipe turned into a ruined gelatinous mass (her words) and now she didn't have a filling for her cake for the party tonight!!! What should she do!!?? What went wrong!!!



Sigh. Note to self--don't give out any more recipes....

I used to have friends ask me for recipes and I quit giving them out because more often than not, they would not follow the recipe exactly and I got people coming back and complaining to me that it didn't taste the same! I guess you didn't use the european unsalted butter, Lindt chocolate etc. Quality ingredients make a huge difference in recipes.

I remember eating my first Sprinkles cupcake. It was vanilla and as soon as I took a taste I knew she used madagascar bourbon vanilla. You can taste the difference. Still trying to replicate that cucpake.

Joyfull,
Did you read the comment after the recipe? It's a hoot!

I was going to ask: what would be a good substitute for oppossum in New York City? Rat? But then I saw that it was an optional ingredient so I will omit it. Pfiuuu!!!!!!!