Who Copied My Cake?

VIDEO: You Copied My Cake!

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Comments

Who Copied My Cake? — 48 Comments

  1. I would be flattered to see someone replicate one of my original designs! How exciting is it that someone loved your cake so much?!

  2. Here’s my favorite cake. Airbrushed, drawn & written, & then, crap! I don’t know how to make flames! I’m so proud of this, not just for how it turned out, but for the learning process I went through as I created it for my customer. (I work in a very time-constrained restaurant as the only Cake Lady.)

  3. This is the cake I made after watching your tutorial. Thank you for sharing your amazing designs with us.

  4. Great video. I never copy a cake outright. I change some of the design, colour, etc. But if I did copy, I most certainly would give credit. Just as I did to you when I did my hamburger cake. Used your tutorial, as well as another on YouTube.

  5. I copyed your cake. Though you did put it in a book with amazing instructions ! So thank you! Not too bad for a hobby baker.

  6. I love your work!!!!! While on a motorcycle trip ( I ride my own) we were sightseeing (Lost) we stopped at at a Pizza place for lunch and I saw this guy walking around delivering pizza and thought he was cute. So I patterned this cake after him. I hope to find the Pizza place to show him one day.

  7. Thank you for the pointers and the wonderful videos. I will be teaching my niece cake decorating soon and want her to watch these.

  8. Ann..I just watched your video about copying a cake. About giving credit to the original designer.
    What about the artists that copy established characters
    such as Snoopy from Peanuts, Barbie, Hello Kitty, race car, camera, wine bottle, just to name a few?
    I also have molds and cookie cutters of these. How and When do we give the proper to the original designer or owner. Is any of these illegal to use?

  9. And some people want “the exact same thing as the picture”. I ask them what is it they like and try and make my own twist. It’s nerve wrecking, as I knew someone that got sued by “the mouse”, over a cake…

  10. LOVE your videos! I appreciate your good advice. The “copying” issue has always bothered me. When customers bring in or send photos of cakes they want, I always ask them to pick their favorite features to keep, but work with me to create a cake that’s unique for them. Sometimes, they just want a copy. Darnit! I use watermarking (posting a photo one of my ORIGINAL designs), but what to do if there is no way to credit the original designer? When I post my pictures, should I add “Not an original design” or something similar? What else can be done? THANK YOU!!!!

  11. Always love the information you give us. It is very helpful. I thank you for your professionalism and all your advise.

  12. What about when you search for the theme of a cake and you may find different takes on it so you combine and through in you own ideas should you try to mention however many you combine to the design ?
    Thanks.
    PS, I never sell my cakes I only make them for my family.

  13. What do you do when you search for ideas and combine different ideas and add a little of you own ideas. Should you say something them?

  14. Some designs are just hard not to replicate, like, a ‘crayon box’ cake (I guess you figured out I recently did a crayon box cake). However, I like the idea of crediting the person whose picture you used so I’ll keep that in mind for future “Can you make this cake” orders. 🙂

  15. When I’m asked to recreate a cake I always try to credit the original maker on my Facebook page not on my Website (I just post pics on there) I do think it’s important to do that. It is definitely a sore spot among decorators.

    Great video 🙂

  16. Here is a thought, if I am paying a good amount of money to buy a cake decorating book and I copy one of the cake I think I am entitled as I paid the author, same as taking classes that sometimes runs in the 100s OF dollars. I mean you’re selling a tutorial so obviously you expect people to make the cakes. I do have a problem with people copying and pasting photos without even trying to make the cake.

  17. This was my first time using modeling chocolate I didn’t have a airbrush so I had to smooch chocolate colors together

  18. I made this cake for my son’s birthday, he’s a photographer.
    Thanks for all the info you give

  19. Bah ha ha ha …. funny lady! And I do agree with you on crediting the inspirational artist. I try to do that as often as possible, or I won’t publish the finished cake.

    Oh, and I am NOT in the US.

  20. I saw Duff Goldman speak once at an event that Collette Peters was also at and he told a story about when he wad building his business he put one of Collette’s cakes on his website. (Not a recreated version, but a picture of her cake!) She found out and contacted him and she ended up letting him keep it if I remember correctly.
    Remember: Repitition is a form of flattery.

  21. I think the longer we’re in business the less worried we are about this but you bring up a good point and I need to get better about this. It is important to credit people especially if they have a really unusual style. When people are also teaching their techniques it does become important to get credit for their work.

    We did a fun lots of the rings themed cake last year and the bride was really sweet and thought our work had been credited to someone else, but it turned out to be an employee. So there is a whole other set of rules to consider when you hire people about how you want them to share their pictures of their work!

  22. I totally copied a design of one of your cakes, BUT I contacted you and received permission first. The one place I did post a picture of it, I made sure to give you credit and I continue to give you credit on the design. Sometimes recreating the art work of another person translates to “I hope I am able to recreate this well enough not embarrass the original designer.” 🙂
    Here is my comment on my post about the cake…
    “I made this for my bosses birthday. I was looking for something different and came across Wicked Goodies Koi Fish. She had a wonderful tutorial on her blog about how to make this fish. Thanks for the inspiration Kristen!”

  23. I completely agree with you! I’ve seen it so many times, especially with your optical illusion cake and everyone “oohs” and “aahs”. But they say nothing about their source and it only takes a few seconds to give credit to the artist!On a happy note here’s some cake!

  24. A major cake competition I attended last fall wanted to see pictures of the inspiration for the cakes competitors made. Sometimes it was an object, sometimes it was another cake from which they made their own competition cake. But it was an inspiration and required for that class of the competition.
    People want what others have. They see someone’s cake and decide they want it. Just like clothes, shoes, a purse, whatever it is, they want it to so they can feel special, too. That might be a photo of a cake made half way around the world. Now they want it for their special day. What do you do, say, “No, you have to go to that cake maker and get permission first. Good luck with that. They’ll just go to the next baker until they find one that will make it. Watermark, copyright, label and date your work. That way it can at least be traced back to who made it first.

  25. Funny story… for some reason it is trendy among my family and friends in Egypt to accompany their happy birthday posts to each other with a picture of a random cake. None of these cakes are actually made by any of the posters. But it’s pretty ubiquitous to post these pictures of cakes whenever you’re wishing someone happy birthday on Facebook. Anyway I didn’t think much of it until one day I found that one of my cousins wished happy birthday to another one of my cousins on their timeline accompanied by a picture of one of my cakes! Now the funny thing is this cake wasn’t made for either one of them —I had made this cake for my nanny—but somehow they had seen it and saved to their computer. After that I started watermarking my pictures. I don’t think they even realized it was a cake I had made. Anyway here’s a picture of the cake and yes it is topped by a flower that I learned how to do from your book about modeling chocolate.

    • It’s like that cake traveled all the way ’round the world and landed back in practically the exact same spot from where it started! It’s not a coincidence! Your stuff is THAT good. And you have been awesome about keeping me apprised of your work over the years. It’s wonderful to see you have a website now and I just added a link to it above your Hall of Fame pic for some SEO juice.

  26. I’ll probably get beat up by other posters for saying this but … unless someone copied the cake exactly I don’t think it’s copying. I mean using the same techniques isn’t copying. So you’re saying that since someone made a cake with x number of layers with scrollwork and in certain colors that absolutely no one else can do that? To me that’s absurd. Now if it’s unique enough and the person copies it exactly – and I mean exactly – then yes they should acknowledge who it came from. I would also add that sometimes a client brings a picture and it is not known who the original creator was – like a Pinterest post that’s been shared so may times the origin cannot be determined. So do you tell them sorry I cant make a cake similar to that? Am I the only person who feels that way and does it make me bad? I hope not.

    • GD, I feel the same as you. So we can be bad together. As you mentioned, alot of ideas come from magazines, Pinterest, etc. I have had few clients actually come up with their own design. They may change the color, frosting but they are still after the same look. I never take credit for a design that’s not my own. Most times, I have people who have several ideas from different cakes and want to combine them to make what they want. So, I don’t see a problem. However using an image is a whole different ballgame! Love your videos and blogs!!!

      • Hard not to agree with you both.. I had a client bring me a picture of a cake she wanted. I spent several hours trying to find original baker with no luck grrr (waist of time).. When we post our cakes on our website are we expected to credit original baker on there as well? I have only done it when posting on FB or Instagram

  27. I love watching your videos when I’m on lunch at work
    In Australia not long ago I showed my husbands cousin how to do my version of chocolate decorated cakes
    She then plastered it on her Facebook as Janes kitchen
    I was not happy cause she didn’t give credit to my design
    My husband came up with design name of the
    DONT TELL JANE
    So thanks for doing that video it made me feel better
    Australia needs you to come and teach
    I hope you do come soon .