A hobby is supposed to be something you enjoy doing, not something you feel obligated to do.

For one woman, part of the fun of baking was surprising friends with a cake whenever she had the time.

But once people started asking for custom cakes, saying no got harder because someone always wanted to know why they couldn’t have one, too.

So to deter people from asking, she started quoting prices that would make it worth giving up paid engineering work to spend the day making a cake.

Most people dropped it as soon as they heard they’d have to pay, but when her aunt and cousin heard what she wanted for a cake, they both took issue with the price.

Read on to see what she told them.

AITA for pricing my custom cakes so high, just to discourage people from asking me for cakes.

I’m a hobbyist baker, but my full-time job is engineering consulting. There’s more money in the engineering side; when I want to pick up extra hours of work, I’m gonna do engineering work.

But I genuinely like making cakes for friends or for events as a surprise! But I don’t always. Sometimes I’m just too busy to make one. It’s just something I do if I happen to have a free day before a get-together.

I like making them as surprises because if I screw them up, there’s no pressure to bring something.

When people wouldn’t stop asking for cakes, she had to come up with a way to decline helping.

But as of recently, a bunch of people have asked me if I can make cakes for different events. And I started just saying no because I don’t have the time. Plus, I don’t know if I could do designs other people make justice. I really just make whatever I’m feeling and kinda wing it.

But people got so annoyed by that, saying stuff like, “But you made a cake for (other person),” or “I’m not asking for anything hard!”

So I started saying that for special requests, I’m making cakes for commission and that I can send them my pricing structure if they’re still interested.

Most buyers aren’t interested when they see her prices.

My pricing structure is really structured around what it would cost to make it worth it to me to spend a day making a cake instead of spending it on my main job.

So my rates are: Customer pays the cost of ingredients. A base hourly rate of $150 (minimum 3 hours). If the “deadline” is in under 48 hours, my hourly rate is $250.

Soo… After I set my commission rates, most people will be like, “Never mind,” when I mention a commission at all, before I even get into prices. With only two exceptions.

Then, her aunt asked for a cake.

My aunt Jess, who I’m not really close to, came up to me at Christmas and asked me if I could make a cake for her friend’s party.

I said I’m only doing commission work right now, but I could send my pricing breakdown. She said sure, then she got really rude, saying that my cakes were nowhere near that good to charge that much and that she could get better at the bakery.

I said that she should go to the bakery then. They would have something nice!

She got frustrated with me and said she didn’t want a chain store-bought cake, and I said there were some non-chain bakeries in the nearby city. She said I was missing the point and that my prices were absurd and nobody would pay that. I said that was okay. I had enough business through my main job.

Her cousin wasn’t too happy about the prices either.

Next, my cousin asked me if I could make a cake for her kid’s birthday party, and I said that I’m only taking commissions. She said that my prices were horrible, for a kid’s party?

I said that kids would like a grocery store cake just as much. I was sure the party would be great whatever cake she got!

She said she didn’t want a grocery one. She wanted one of my custom designs.

I said that seemed like overkill for a kid’s party. She said that nothing but the price was overkill and that I was taking advantage.

AITA?

Well, if they’re not going to take no for an answer, she might as well give them a better reason to say it.

Let’s check out what the folks over at Reddit think about her strategy here.

Here’s a good way to look at it.

This reader can’t stand freeloaders.

According to this comment, the same thing happened to their sister.

Here are thoughts from someone who also makes cakes.

If you enjoyed this story, check out this post about an incoming college student who does not want to share their grandparents’ monetary gift with a medically complex sibling.

Sounds about right.

It’s actually funny that they think she doesn’t know her prices are high.

Like, that’s the whole point!

The fact is that baking a cake for someone because you feel like it is a lot different than giving up your time because they expect you to.

And if they need a cake that badly, she’s right. There are plenty of bakeries that would love to take their order.