Would you order a cake?

[ewchoc]

It's DD's 8th birthday in a few weeks and I'm a terrible baker, plus none of the nearby shops currently have eggs or flour. The thought had crossed my mind that I could order a cake from someone locally, but I dismissed the idea because I thought how could I be sure the box etc wasn't infected, even if the cake itself wasn't? I also considered that travelling to pick it up, or them delivering, didn't exactly count as essential travel, and what about the risk to the cake maker during the handover? Overall I decided it would be best to just buy a ready made cake from a supermarket. But then today I've seen someone ask for local cake maker recommendations on Facebook, and lots of replies. So now I wonder if I'm overreacting. And maybe some local bakers are in need of the income. So, what's the Mumsnet consensus?

I would personally in this situation buy one from the shop or buy the box mix and make it yourself. I don't bake and dd and I made cupcakes from the box with icing from the packet as well and they were great. I think fresh food is fine, but only if you can leave it a bit or heat to kill any germs. You obviously would want to eat it fresh. That isn't to say that lots of small businesses don't need the business (they do), but me personally, it's the year I could go with the box cake mix.

Definitely not. Non essential travel is non essential travel.

I believe home bakers are not allowed to trade. We ordered one from Costco several weeks ago before the lockdown. Still planning to go and collect it and tie it in with our shopping day.

Could you make her an ice cream cake? It's basically just ice cream.

Just buy one from the supermarket with your weekly shop?

We’ve taken to buying a dozen Krispy Kreme for birthdays. Much prefer them to a cake.

I would just buy a plain cake from the supermarket and then get your daughter to decorate it. So it becomes an activity, occupies a couple of hours and it's special as its for the birthday-your basically winning!

1- packet mix cake
2 - ice cream cake (as mentioned above) - just soften normal ice cream a bit, stir it well, and put it into a cake tin so that it is cake-shaped. I've done this for the past few years, usually with different types of ice cream in layers, or use food colouring for the same effect. Sometimes we chuck some sweets into the mix as well, or put a crushed biscuit base in.

Didn't you see the thread about someone paying a home baker to make a cake and it was not only amateurish, but in the pic a cigarette in an ashtray lurking behind.
Just get one from the supermarket.

I bought myself some unicorn cupcakes from Tesco for my birthday and my son made me birthday flapjacks, cos he's dunno at cakes.

Not after following the thread a few weeks back with the disastrous friend-of-a-friend baker (oh to go back - it was a simpler time!). I would be happy extremely wary of hygiene after reading that, especially now.

I'd buy one from the shop.

No. Risk of poor hygiene (coughing, sneezing, breathing over cake, touching face, touching cake) is too great. A cake isn't just cooked and put in a box. It has to be iced and handled.

Either buy a machine made pre-packed cake from a supermarket or take this as an opportunity to improve your skills. You probably can source eggs and flour but need to be creative. Ask neighbours or when you leave to shop normally go somewhere smaller - local co-ops corner shop often have stuff that's sold out elsehwere.

Definitely packet cake mix or try to get one in the shops. Alternatively DH suggested we get a load of angel cakes and frost them all together into one big cake. DH and DC birthdays in the next month.

Seriously though don't use a home baker, they are dodgy at the best of times.

I don't think now is the time to be experimented with home bakers, as pp said they can be hit and miss at the best of times. Someone still baking on proper premises I may consider as this would be no different to a takeaway. Though I have to say lots of supermarkets do lovely cakes now - M&S in particular.

You could make a cheese cake with things from supermarket, no eggs /flour or baking required and very simple. Chocolate or fruit etc both very effective and easy to do.

www.bbcgoodfood.com/recipes/collection/cheesecake

When you say Home baker do you mean someone who dabbles with making cakes from home or a legitimate business that is carried out/registered from home as the latter doesn’t necessarily equate to no or low standards. You can still run a legitimate, business with health and hygiene certification etc from home. You can order a cake from someone that has a “professional” little unit but works alone and they still cough over the food, pick their nose and carry on working, not tie their hair back, leave their cakes uncovered to let the fondant set and have a mouse or two pay them a visit. The last person i went to see in a unit was award winning in her area ( I was buying some equipment off her) had the toilet inside the unit, not off the side somewhere but a door next to the ovens and her work top . How this was allowed is beyond me but the Council would have given the go ahead.

That said if anyone asked me to make them a cake now, I would not, mainly because I don’t want to risk passing my CV but some people will not care about this as they just want to make money. You are not overacting, be on the safe side. Either attempt it yourself with a packet mix. I can point you to one of the wholesalers I order from but the also sell to the public and they sell packet mixes as well being able to get every thing you could possibly need to decorate it, or get a shop one but just give the box a good wipe down if you are worried about that as the shop cake box is probably going to have a higher chance of being infected as there are more people around it.

@Pipandmum

@SnoozyLou

What threads this then

Some people are just greedy. I’ve seen some real piss take work, charging £100 for a 10” round and it is wonky, air bubbles and doesn’t even have nice sharp edges.

A make up artist friend had a drip cake made with what was supposed to be fondant lipstick, blusher brush, eyeshadow palette, etc on top. She paid £50 and was something like a 10” and I told her that is exactly why it ended up looking at it did.. you get what you pay for

I bought dd a birthday cake with my online shop from Asda and there was lots of choice. She wanted me to make one but I didn’t have all the ingredients.

Btw it was £8 to serve 16.

My DM is a registered home cake maker and is not allowed to trade at the moment so I wouldn't think you'd be able to.

I see lots of home bakers still trading particularly with cake in a box through the post? Are they not allowed to be trading.

Also Gower brownies are still trading

It’s my sons birthday soon and I’m just going to buy one with the food shop. He will be happy with that and candles.

If you aren't in a high risk group and people in your area are still selling cakes then I'd buy one. It's not that different to buying a supermarket one. Loads of bakeries doing contact free drop offs.

I’m planning to pick one up with my next food shop too. M&S have lots of nicer options and they all taste nice.

Bottom I used Gower Cottage Brownies this week to send some brownies to my elderly parents, really good service & outstanding service. I thoroughly recommend them.