A pet peeve: When I deliver a birthday cake I always include a color coordinated slim candle and put it in a strategic spot on the cake. Almost without fail, the customer will send me a photo and they will have taken my candle out and put a "number" candle on it or lined it up with several little candles....I must be missing something! This changes the whole look of the cake!

What do you guys do about the candle thingy???

I ask if they want me to attend to the candle. Half the time the answer is yes.

The other half of the time, I will hear that someone has bought a "special candle" that they feel is the best thing in the world. It usually is junk, but that's their choice.

I promise I'm not trying to be snarky but I'm not sure why it bothers you. After they've paid you, it's their cake. If they want to put candles on it, have at it.

I don't provide candles, at all, and my customers have never had a problem with it. Like Lynne3 said, they often have a "special" candle picked out anyway, so why bother? If it bugs you, then just stop offering candles.

I have to say, whenever I make my kids birthday cakes, they always stick them full of candles...one for each year...isn't that how it's typically done?! 1 candle for each year?! It has never bothered me to see my cakes with candles in them...the candles go in as we are getting ready to sing Happy Birthday, and after we sign we cut the cake, so it doesn't really matter to me. That's just my thought

CarolLee, I can see it being a pet peeve. And it use to really bother me too.
The nicest pictures of a celebration/birthday cake is the moment it brings joy and the candles are blown out. I have many pics of my cakes at just that moment. It's like a mini reward for a cake well done.

And I do offer long thin tapers that go into the cake board, or 7" thin colored candles that go directly into the cake. But I learned that my vision is not always the vision of the client. That's why I ask and let them decide.

Actually I have a different view of the candle thing -- I tell customers they can do what they want (and they do) but the truth is -- as cake decorators we go to extremes to provide food sanitation -- only to set a cake on fire, spit all over it and then serve it to people??? Ah NO! I don't do the candle thing. Nor will I eat cake that's been spit on. I let the customers know that too. Which is why my designs aren't the typical "birthday cake of the past" like what they're remembering.

What ever happened to those classic plastic birthday candle holders, the flower-shaped ones? Why don't the local grocers carry them any more? A Google search uncovers some, and while some of them appear to be NOS, others appear to be new.

Thankfully, I have a large assortment of them around the house, as I don't regard dyed paraffin wax as "Good Eats."

We have a family tradition of using white candles for decades, and colored candles for single years. We haven't yet had a need to reserve a color for a centuries digit. For example, 7 white and 7 blue candles on my dad's 77th birthday cake:

poundcake.small by Tracker-Backer, on Flickr
(and note the white candles in blue holders, and blue candles in white holders)

At any rate, the logical thing to do is to find out what sort of candles the customer wants to put on the cake, and how many, and incorporate that into the design.

I don't offer candles with birthday cakes. If you have ever bought (and most of us have before we were cakers) a cake from a bakery or store, the candles were extra, did not come included with the cake.

I've had a running problem with my daughter who thought it should come automatically. I told her my cakes don't come with candles for her or anybody else. Get over it and buy some. I think I finally got across to her. lol..

My newphes mother in law told me I should buy some from the dollar store and sell them back for $2.00. Good idea but haven't done it yet.

Really? You guys are jamming candles in the customers' cakes? It would never occur to me to do something like that.

No, not jamming. Planning, so they look nice with a great cake. I've attached a picture

Ok, placing, yes. Looks nice, but I was not aware that anyone did that as a regular service. Like was mentioned earlier, seems like some people want to do that themselves.

I never put candles unless requested. They are costly and time consuming. But they do make an event cake look a lot nicer in pictures.

I ask people who have juveniles if they would like me to supply the candles or not... I don't personally place them in the candle though, and like someone else said, wouldn't eat the cake after a kid blows over the cake.

Adults, I don't even ask.

I dont provide candles. thats the customer choice and job.

I make cakes and decorate it but I don't include candles in the package. I do supply party cake candles but it's up to my customers if they will request for it. Actually, I give my customers an option to buy a special sparking birthday candle just like this one. I buy in a three pack and mark it up about double. Great profit builder!

I make cakes and decorate it but I don't include candles in the package. I do supply party cake candles but it's up to my customers if they will request for it. Actually, I give my customers an option to buy a special sparking birthday candle just like this one. I buy in a three pack and mark it up about double. Great profit builder!

I make cakes and decorate it but I don't include candles in the package. I do supply party cake candles but it's up to my customers if they will request for it. Actually, I give my customers an option to buy a special sparking birthday candle just like this one. I buy in a three pack and mark it up about double. Great profit builder!

Once the customer purchases it they can do what they please.  Chances are you've taken your pictures to preserve your work and they have their memories with their special candle.  Be happy that they enjoyed your work and cake. 
 

Yikes Nick, that candle looks huge.  Maybe its just the pic.

@AuntGinn, they are approximately 6" in diameter and 4" high. Not your normal candle! I use them on top of larger cakes, of course.

When you think about it, the cake is going to be cut anyway. Now, that really changes the look.

A

I don't offer candles and when asked I say no but am happy if the customer wants to supply one. Personally, I think it ruins the look of the cake. I recently had one who wanted to put it on the top of a Chanel handbag, I wanted to cry

I am feeling really snarky after reading this thread. You were happy with the cake, they were happy with it, and they paid you. Yet, you are complaining. It is theirs, and they are going to eat it, so let them have their traditional candles and family time. It is none of your business, and I think they would be upset if they knew that you wanted to control what they do in their own home.

I usually add candles to the base board in the fondant. Because I do hate it when they spend so much on a special cake then add a cheap number candle.
I made a superman cake for my cousins birthday (I couldn't make it to the dinner, but gave her the cake earlier that day) I then see a photo on facebook, someone had added in the number candles in the side under the ribbons. She had posted the photo up and told everyone that I had made the cake, which yes I did and I'm happy with how it turned out, but all of her friends saw it with those candles.  
If my customer does have a special candle then they usually tell me they want to use it, and that's fine, but I find that if I put them in then it prevents people from going Oh crap I don't have candles, race to the shops get any candle with in reach and shove it in anywhere, then take and spread photos of my cake with a candle sticking out of it. If I put it in, then I can make sure I can put it in a spot that won't leave wax over the cake that people are going to eat. 

AHi

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I never supply candles unless they ask for them. I'll let them buy it and place it where they want it.

No cake for some of you guys at our family gatherings.  Not only does the birthday person get to blow out the candles but they get lit again and again and again as all the littlies also have a go.  The delight on their faces is well worth the added 'spit on the cake' and generally far less than when they kiss you.