The Grey Area...

Do you remember when you were younger and your parents used to make you do something you thought was just so unfair and you swore that when you had kids of your own you would never do that to them?

I had one of those moments this week where I had to question something I swore I would not do to anyone else.

To help you understand better, let me give you some background. Many years ago when I first started cake decorating, I was trading under a different business name. I had just built the website, printed business cards, registered the business and advertising when I got an official lawyer letter from a large well known business. Without going into too much detail and breaking any legal agreements, the letter basically informed me that I was breaching their trademark by using certain words and even though they were not based in my country, they asked me to cease trading or they can would lay claim to any profits I made while trading with that business name.

Do you know what it felt like as a small player in the industry receiving an officially worded letter from someone like that?

Firstly it was terrifying and secondly it was extremely dejecting. I had just spent all this time working out my business branding only to have someone come along and tell me to change everything or else. I was nothing to them and they specialised in something else completely yet they didn’t want me to have even the tiniest thing similar to them, stating that their customers (although in a whole different country) could get ‘confused’.

I was not the only one they went after, many other small businesses like me were slapped with lawyer letters like mine and I was faced with two choices. Fight them in court and spend thousands of dollars I did not have or to just let it go and change everything. It was at this point that I questioned if I had enough courage to continue in this industry. After all, when you are by yourself, you are really by yourself. I no longer had the walls of a multinational company around me. It was just me.

After that incident passed I swore to myself that if I ever became successful/ recognized for my work, I would NEVER EVER do that to anybody. I would never be petty and chase them down for replicating my designs, style or branding. Maybe I was naive to believe that I could just keep to myself and move upwards and onwards and that I should not spend the time constantly looking behind me. After all, if they are capable of doing the work themselves then why should I stand in their way? Aren’t we all in the same shoes more or less? We are all people running a small business/ hobby trying to make our way in this world. Trying to earn a living and provide for our families - and if we are lucky, have some leftover to enjoy life a little.

Those that know me think I am mad for being so ‘relaxed’ about this. I have had people replicate my work, other teachers teach my exact design to their students, students come to class and announce that they are teaching the same class shortly after and even students who go as far as to contact my students and try to poach them claiming that they can teach the same thing so they don’t need to come to my classes and then secretly contact me asking me where I get my supplies and how I do certain elements on my cake.

When I find out about all this, I am shocked at first of course. But then I pretty much just brush it off and laugh. Oh well, what can I do? If I spend all my time chasing these people down and picking fights, I will have no time left to make cool cakes. So I leave it. Sometimes other people are nice enough to stick up for me and say something, and although it’s not necessary I do appreciate it.

This week, it all changed.

I really don’t want to go into too much detail because I want to move past this. But my good friend Sheryl from Buns inThe Oven Cupcakery and dozen others online bravely stood up for the situation and I believe I owe everyone some sort of explanation. If you want to read about what happened, you can visit this link. I am not going to rehash everything but basically a student came to my class and then offered to teach the exact class back in her country prior to my own class debuting in that country.

I want to point out that things are settled now and I would like to believe the best in that student who may not have realised initially what they were doing. But my initial feeling of disappointment came from the perspective of the students and hosts who were looking forward to the launch of this particular class in their country. And so imagine what it would feel like if someone else knowingly came along and launched your own exact class design before you? Intentional or not, it still hurt.

There is a debate going on as to what is allowed and what is not when you attend a class. Some argue that if I did not want people to copy my design/classes then I should not teach or post my photos online. While others claim that it is an outright breach of copyright. If I did not teach or post photos online, I would not earn a living. 99% of students I meet all do the right thing and it seems unfair that I hold back information or put strict rules in place for the 1%.

And I know that some people will also stand up and say that no idea is original and that we all copy from somewhere. If I am being honest here, I believe in that a little bit too. After all when I first started I copied elements of cake designs because that was how I learned. Through that I tried to develop my own personal style and although my style is not 100% unique (there will always be someone out there that inspired me or that has similar tastes), I was too inexperienced to design my own stuff so I did borrow here and there. Therefore, I do feel somewhat hypocritical standing here on my high horse demanding that people don’t do the same to me.

But at the end of the day my gripe with this incident boils down to the fact that the duplicated class was being taught prior to mine in that particular country. It’s almost like someone reading the Harry Potter books and yelling out ‘Dumbledore dies!’ before you get to that part and get to relish it yourself.

So I’ve decided to take a stand and voice what I think. After this is done no one else can claim they did not know better. After all, when I kept quiet before, how were they supposed to know what I felt right? So here it is - When I teach I want the best for my students. I try and give them the most comprehensive notes and also provide a range of templates and calculations all of which take days to draw up and experiment. I want them to succeed and I truly wish them the best and encourage them to create something from what they have learned in class. What I do not want is for them to teach the exact same thing.

So here and now I am going back on something I swore I’d never do - this is my official stance. I do not want students to teach the exact same design they come to class to learn. If they wish to sell the exact same cake as an order I really don’t have a problem with that. But to teach, that’s a no. Change the animal, change the shape, change the theme. It’s really not that hard to come up with something unique to your own style based on the learning outcomes you have taken from the class. I could not care less if the design in question was a standard design (e.g. A round cake with stripes and a rose) but that is not what I am referring to in this post. I am referring to designs that I have put together myself. Not elements of it (like stripes or dots) but the whole design put together that reflects my style.

Of course, if anyone choses to disregard this and teach the class anyways, there is really nothing I can do about it. The above is not a legal statement but more of a polite request (much like asking for no cheese on your salad). I won’t chase after them but just know that the cake community is a small one and every one eventually knows everything and word spreads fast. So choose to keep or burn your bridges, it’s up to you.

Let me be clear. This is how I earn a living and if that is taken away from me then I have nothing else. And I am also aware that others are in my same shoes so I am not going to stand in the way of them earning a living. At the end of the day I can always go back to a corporate job, but that is another story :)

Disclaimer – I am not claiming that my work is superior or that the person in question is not talented in their own way. A lot of analogies I have given above are just examples to make a point. I always try and consider everything from everyone's point of view, so please extend me the same courtesy :)

And The 2013 Tour Starts...

It's about 16 hours before I leave on my big teaching tour of Europe and Asia. I have finally finished packing (I hope) and as I sit here I'll be honest, it's a little bittersweet.

I am super excited to have the opportunity to head overseas to meet a whole bunch of cakey obsessed people like me but at the same time I am a little sad to leave home for almost 3 months. 3 months being away from home is such a long time and I wonder if I will forget my name by the end of it all. Maybe if any of you see me wondering the streets looking lost, you might want to point me in the direction of Sydney, Australia. :)


If you are still interested in joining some of the classes, I think there might be one or two spots in some cities left. Please contact the hosts but here are the dates and locations:

LONDON - 11th - 17th May - http://www.faircake.co.uk/cakeclasses.php

DUBLIN - 20th - 24th May - http://www.facebook.com/DecobakeSchoolOfCakeDecorating/events

MADRID - 28th May - 2nd June - http://almascupcakes.es/blog.html (ALL fully booked out)

PONTEVEDRA - 6th - 9th June - http://www.facebook.com/pages/Sweet-Kala-Talleres/8557221290?fref=ts

SINGAPORE - 14th - 24th June - http://artistiqsugarcraft.com/

JAKARTA - 5th - 13th July - http://www.facebook.com/heavenly.sweet.7?fref=ts

KL, MALAYSIA - 16th - 23rd July - http://www.facebook.com/BunsInTheOven?fref=ts

I've been keeping pretty low key since I got back from my Craftsy trip. I was trying to reorganise the house and at the same time finish unpacking from our big move. Plus I also just wanted to have some time to rest and catch up on life before this massive trip. So although not much caking has been done, I have worked on a few new projects and shot a few more online tutorials.

Now... just to find the time to write and publish them all... hmmm.

All packed!

So anyways, I wanted to blog and say bye to everyone from Sydney and I will continue to blog as I travel to keep you all up to date :)

And don't forget, my Craftsy class comes out next week and Craftsy is giving you a chance to win a free class!

To enter just head to the below link to enter. If you already have an account you can use your existing login information to be entered. If not, you will have to create a free account which is super quick and easy to do.

If you have trouble seeing the giveaway page, using Firefox should help. One entry per person. Entries close at 9am on the 8th of May SYDNEY, AUSTRALIA time and the winner will be picked at random.

Please also do help me share this with anyone else who you think might be interested :)

http://www.craftsy.com/ext/SharonWee_Giveaway

Sharing More about Myself

Earlier this week I attended a Post Secret event and in the spirit of sharing secrets I thought I'd share some of my own. I supposed some of the below are not really secrets but rather random facts about myself. Some are common questions people ask while others are experiences I have had and the rest are my thoughts to share... Enjoy and please feel free to share your random thoughts about mine listed below or just about something entirely random!

Age: 28

Nationality/ Background: I was born in Singapore and lived in a whole bunch of different places growing up because of my dad's job. We've lived in the US, Guam and Vietnam.

Languages: I pretty much only speak English. I can understand and speak and tiny bit of Mandarin but that is about it. I have 2 accents - a Singaporean one and a generic Australian/American one. I can't help it. I just switch naturally when I am talking to people from that particular country. it's a weird quirk, I know.

Educational Background: I went to high school in Vietnam and moved to Sydney when I was 16 to attend university. I really did not know what I wanted to do but I did know that I did not want to sit at a desk all day. So when I read the description for the media and communications degree in the university handbook I thought it sounded like fun, so why not?

I'll be honest. That degree was a walk in the park. Although I did not graduate with flying colours or anything, I did finish with a major in writing. All we did was watch and discuss movies, current events, made presentations and submitted research papers. I'm sorry if I have offended anyone but I am not saying the degree is worthless, more that it was easy (about 2 contact hours per subject) and therefore a lot of fun too. I think one of the most memorable moments was watching Sex: The Annabel Chong story in our lecture. If you don't know who she is, just google her (maybe when you are not at work).

After I graduated because I was still 'young', my dad suggested I do a post graduate degree before I started working. So I enrolled for my MBA majoring in International Marketing and something else (which for the life of me I can't remember now). I graduated at 21 and although I was educationally prepared, I was so not prepared for the real working world and really struggled that first year. Seriously,  I think universities should run also courses on working life manners, ethics and politics.

Something my parents don't know: I actually quit my job almost 5 months before I told them I did. I really wanted to go out and prove that I would not send myself homeless and really earn some money doing my own thing before I admitted it to them.

Something most people don't know: For a long time I felt very insignificant and unqualified because I didn't attend a pastry school. Customers would ask and I would feel so embarrassed replying that no I am not a qualified pastry chef. I even looked at attending pastry schools, locally as well as overseas and realised that is was as long and as expensive as another degree. And was I willing to give up 2 - 3 years of my life going back to school full time? Not really. So I enrolled in Tafe part time because that seemed  like a good compromise. After the first semester I realised that although I do enjoy baking and cooking, I don't really enjoy it in the commercial environment and that what I learned in the classes had not that much relevance to what I was doing.

I signed up so that I could graduate and officially tell my customers that 'yes I am a pastry chef'. I thought that would make me better in their eyes and that they would respect me more. What a load of crap that was! I have now come to terms with carving out a niche in the market for myself and have realised that as long as the customers like the taste of my cakes and my designs then why does it matter if I have a pastry degree or a degree in fine arts or even a degree in magic and potions?

Best thing a customer can say to me: 'I trust you, you know best so if you think something needs to be moved around or changed, please go ahead and do it'. Oh, I've had a few of these types of customers and they are absolutely a dream to work with.

Worst customer experiences: I have two that stand out... The first one was a lady many years ago who wanted a last minute birthday cake because she 'forgot' to organise one. She called on a Wednesday asking for the cake that Sunday. I will still working full time at that time and so very new and naive so I agreed. She must have called back about 7 times haggling on the price (demanding to know why I was so expensive) and I budged a little but not much. And in the final phone call she said to me 'ok fine, but that had better be the best tasking cake I've ever had'. EXCUSE ME?! I don't respond to threats! I told her she needed to rethink if she really wanted this cake and to call me back when she was really certain. Needless to say I never heard back from her but that was the first time I can remember ever being really mad at someone.

The other one was when I dealt with a young lady for her 21st birthday. She wanted a cake with an iconic figurine on top and kept calling me to ask for specific heights and sizes for each of the cake tiers, each time saying 'wow, that's really small for the amount I am paying you'. So being new and all, I offered to make the cake taller through styrofoam tiers at a minimal cost at which she said 'oh I didn't think styrofoam would be that expensive' (ps. it's not the cost of the styrofoam but the labour and skill it takes to cover it.) And then in one of the last phone calls, she proceeded to tell me 'you know I got many quotes for my cake and you are one of the more expensive ones. I like your figurines, so I chose to go with you and I hope it is worth it'. Wow seriously?

So being one of the bigger cakes I have made at that time I was so nervous. So nervous to make it absolutely perfect that I stayed up till 4 am one night and even as I tried to sleep I couldn't. I don't think I have ever felt that stressed and exhausted for sleep which almost made me feel physically sick.

After the whole situation, I looked back and mentally slapped myself. How could I have ever let something I loved to do stress me out to the point where I felt like I was going to sick? And for a girl's birthday party?! Not to mention that when she picked it up she didnt even smile or say thank you. Wow. That was a big wake up call for me and my newbie attitude!

Most common question I get asked my customers who visit my studio or see me at an expo: Are all those real cakes? (gesturing to all my display cakes).

Quitting my job light bulb moment: I had many moments pushing me to take the plunge prior to this but the real moment, which I never told anyone about, came when I was sitting inside a DisneyLand ride. (I should mention here that I really hate roller coasters and get motion sick pretty easily). Nick and I lined up for a space simulator ride and as we got to the front the guys gave us two options. The easy one (where only the screen moved and the seat shakes a little so you pretend you are going into space) or the hard one (where the ride actually spins like mad so you feel the g-forces). I wanted the easy one but Nick insisted on the hard one because the easy one would be no fun. So we got shuffled along into the hard line and the whole time I was freaking out a little because of all the warning signs they had listed on the walls (Warning: this ride is not suitable for people with weak hearts or who are susceptible to motion sickness...etc).

We got into the tiny capsule and the padded bars clipped down on us. I was freaking out even more because I now could not move but didn't want to look like a scaredy cat running out of the ride at the last minute so I held my breath and stayed in there. It was dark and tight inside and the attendent's voice came over the speakers telling us about the emergency button to press incase we wanted to stop the ride and definitely not to shut our eyes or else we will feel really sick. As the count down to the ride started I really started to panic and I even started to look for that emergency button, but could not find it! So I had to suck it up and stick it out. I told myself repeatedly that it was only a 5 minute ride and made a promise to myself then and there that if I could get through that without having a panic attack that I would be able to get through anything, namely quitting my job.

The thing I love about weddings: The food, desserts and especially the speeches. I love the speeches because when done well they really make the whole event so personal and heartfelt.

The thing I dislike the most about weddings: The bouquet toss. To my friends and everyone else, let me put a disclaimer here by saying I'm sorry if you had one or will have one but this is an unmarried girl's opinion.

Although I know it's tradition, I really dislike it because it makes me feel like there is something wrong with me for being unmarried. So much so that I have to go and 'fight' with other unmarried women for a bouquet that is supposed to symbolise that I will be the next one to tie the knot. And it's not just single people who have to participate, no, it's ALL women who are not married. And it's always awkward when it happens and no one makes the move to participate and the poor brides maids have to run around and gather all the unmarried women in the room and heard them into the middle of the room like cattle. And then it's even WORSE when you are trying to avoid the whole situation and people on your table and on the next table start looking out for you and pointing at you and calling your name. I suppose it's fun for the bride and all and it is her special day but I am a little tired of having the whole room know I am not married. So my tip? I always choose to stand behind the tallest person and at the back and off to the side. Or I decide at that moment I need to go to the bathroom.

My love/ hate relationship with this industry: I secretly thrive on a little bit of jealousy and competition. I know it's bad and some people can be really ruthless and mean when driven by jealousy. But when it's me, I believe a little jealousy is actually good for me. It pushes me to innovate, work harder, design better and strengthen my skills. I wouldn't be where I am today (skills wise) if I had not gotten a little jealous here and there ;)