Hello! I got a message from a friend of a friend asking me to make a gumpaste flower for her daughters wedding cake. I told her no problem and gave her a price. Now she is wondering if I will also pipe a design on the cake she is making and covering in fondant. I'm not really comfortable with this but I'm not sure how to explain to her why. It just seems weird to me that she wants to make the cake but have me do all the decorating... why doesn't she just have me do the whole cake. Anyone have a nice way of responding to this odd request?

Tell her that you can't in good conscience guarantee the cake would be structurally sound if you don't use your own recipes. It's late so I can't exactly phrase it the way I'm looking for but I'm sure you get thhe idea... It seems like she's just trying to have you do most of the work but because she bakes it she wants a significant price cut.

I did a favor for a family member by letting her bake the huge baby shower cake and I decorated it. The cake was the most disgusting tasting thing ever. I was invited to the shower and after tasting it I kept telling everyone that I just decorated it and that I didn't bake the cake. It was awful and embarrassing.
I wouldn't do it if I were you.
Susie

I would just tell her i didn't have the time to do it. Seems like the cowards way out but that is how i would handle it.

I would just tell her that while you're sure her cake is going to be delicious you aren't comfortable decorating a cake that you haven't baked yourself.

I know most people on here say not to and from a decorators point of view I can see why (Susies1955 as a perfect example) but for my sisters wedding my mother made the cake and she got a professional to cover and decorate it. My mother would not have been comfortable with her decorating skills to decorate it but has been making cakes for many many years and we all prefer hers and she wanted to do it for my sister.

Saying you are busy might be easiest since it is a friend of a friend if you dont feel comfortable saying you dont ice other people's cakes.

If you have a clientel that recognizes your style of decorating (and believe me they do) they will assume you also made the cake- no matter what you tell some people. I would politely tell her no you cannot, no explaining required. She should understand. I remember reading another post where someone assisted the decorator and took all the credit, but that's another headache you can do without.

It sounds like a bad idea to me........

If you have a cake decorating supply store nearby (like in my town where they sell pre-made gumpaste flowers) -- refer her there that way she can purchase her own.

As for piping and decorating the cake, I've only done that for my best friend who bakes very well and I was proud to decorate her cake.

I wouldn't be comfortable either, no matter which way it goes, that person may take the credit for your work and god forbid that the baker did something wrong with the cake and made others sick than your name can be bought up as well. Either way seems like it could potientail be uncomfortable!

The only way that I would even consider decorating a cake that I did not bake would be if I personally had tasted the bakers product and new that it would be structurally sound...AND...only as a favor for a friend or family member.

Thanks for the replies everyone. I talked to her and told her I wouldn't be able to do it and she didn't even ask why, so it's all good! I can just see to many things going wrong in that situation! Thanks again.

Like you stated to us, just tell her, no that you are not comfortable doing this, but you would be happy to provide her with the gumpaste flower as previously arranged.

No need for explanations.

I could see if it was a special recipe or family traditional recipe or something but why not just let you do the whole thing? I wouldn't feel comfortable either. I, too, would tell them that you aren't comfortable decorating a cake especially in fondant that you didn't bake yourself because you aren't familiar with the texture of the cake and so on.

allaboutcakeuk said: ......."From a health and safety point of view I do not decorate cakes other people have made as I cannot guarantee a product I have not made myself"

EXACTLY! So you are not lying (I'm too busy) but gracefully getting out of something that is ?able.

She probably either thought baking it herself, or buying a cheap cake and decorating it herself would be cheaper.

I recently made flowers to go on a store bought cake, for my SIL's wedding. It was a small thing, they wanted a cheap cakes, and it was more or less a short notice thing. Which all was fine, because the cake I had done right before, was one of those hell cakes, so I wasn't really looking forward to do another one at the moment.

I did the flowers, and put them the cake. Now had they asked me to decorate the cake? Nope, I would have passed on that.

Yes, she might have thought baking it herself would be cheaper, or she is confident in her own baking and prefers it to other peoples'. My baking is excellent - decorating...not so much. Would I buy gumpaste flowers- absolutely.

OK I have the cake baked, leveled and buttercreamed-with a fairly smooth finish. Now, I don't really know what to do next. (Actually if my cousin is here, I just hand it over to her. She likes to decorate - I don't.) Since you will not decorate someone else's cake- I agree that you shouldn't, how about offering her pictures of cakes someone with minimal skills might create? It might turn out a bit of a cake wreck, but at least she will have a pattern to follow.

We've done this before...we just charge an hourly fee for cake decorating services, and since we decorate at the client's site it often turns out to be more expensive than if we had just made the cake ourselves.

Its very important that either there is an individual making the cake alone or the two making cake together are involved together. What you guys are doing will definitely lead to a creative difference which would hamper you in making the cake. You must talk to her regarding this.