21 Replies

Personally, I would not do it… but there are sqillions of decorators that would… it will be interesting to see the responses you get.
Maybe I am cautious due to my legal studies and my inability to justify the risk of a huge fine.
Here is a link to an article on copyright and cakes… hope it helps.
http://www.cakeboss.com/Cake-Stuff/Articles/Copyrighted-Cakes

Any Disney cake is risky Sharon as all their images are copyrighted. Of course many, many decorators ignore. Many never get caught. I have 2 pro cake friends who own there own shops, like you. They won’t do a Disney cake. Won’t risk it, cause, if Disney plays dirty, there is the possibility of it affecting your business. They don’t seem to bother the hobby bakers, but the licensed businesses. It’s up to you if your willing to take the risk. They do have people who troll cake sites. Perhaps if you don’t post the picture, you will be ok.

Thank you both for replying. I had a read on various other sites and have come to the conclusion that its too risky. Even though I am not selling this cake by making it with their characters on cake put me at risk. Decided on a more traditional theme instead with my own personal artistic twist!!
Thanks ladies :)

I agree, I’ve just done a frozen cake and made it very clear to the client that I would be making changes and stylising for copyright reasons.,, and also said I would display album for a short period and then remove it… Which I have done on my facebook page. I was also nervous of WT as they are pretty stringent. I have it here on CD though. it’s not too much in the public eye so feel safer. It’s one of those things that you put so much hard work into something to create a magical fun experience for the little ones, but WT doesn’t accept that, not even for charities would your beleive, I know because I investigated it for another cause I’m involved in…. I would say make it, but don’t advertise it on facebook and ask friends and clients to do the same. Or just not do it. Tricky one I have to say

Thanks Cali, I saw that you had made one (gorgeous by the way!) and glad you replied so I know what your thought was on this. I think with everyone having phones and FB accounts there is still the risk that people could upload it and then it could get shared. Decided instead to go for another design this time. I don’t have much time anyway with my house move this weekend so sticking to something I can do in my comfort zone :)

Wise move Alpa. Yes, it’s risky x :)

I avoid character cakes at all cost. But not for the reasons you might think. Telling a customer I’m unable to make a copyrighted cake buys me more time to make wedding cakes. $40 vs $600. You do the math. Some of the character cakes take more time than a wedding cake so I’m happy to let that customer go to a local grocery store to purchase an icing image on a sheet cake. :-)

Very wise Denise, fully understand where you are coming from on that :) . I’ve turned down a few WD and a few other trademarked characters.. … But especially WD ones…. As mine was for a special circumstance, I said yes… Running a business leaves me little hobby time, so utilised this moment to make this special little girl happy… :)
Fully get the caution one needs to take in these things.lts a real shame… After all, it’s cake… It gets eaten …
At any rate, I agree, special occasion cakes do not make as much financially as say wedding cakes, as character modelling is highly time comsuming… It’s trying to find that balance xx

Interesting points and very much agree! It is a tricky one, I came across this a while ago which sheds some light on the subject
http://www.cakeboss.com/Cake-Stuff/Articles/Copyrighted-Cakes
I think you would be very unlucky to be fined for making it for a school fair!
On a different note I did hear the other day that Nintendo have allowed all of their characters to be used for artistic use so that’s one less thing to worry about if you ever get asked for a Mario cake!

I have also worried about this and after reading all your comments i think i will also stop making disney cakes. I just wonder how many other cakes i have made that may be breaking copyright ie Peppa Pig, Hungry caterpillar and Dc mcstuffin to name but a few x

Denise I am completely with you on that one. When I first set up the business I was making so many cakes that were time consuming and making no or very little profit! I enjoy making cakes now mostly for weddings and anniversaries and special birthdays where people are prepared to pay the right amount. I don’t mind baking a plain cake and then telling people to get a print of a character themselves to put on top. People often moan saying the supermarket cakes taste awful so they really don’t mind doing that.

Jen I have read that and it helped me in making my decision not to go ahead with this cake. Not worth the risk after all the hard work I have put in building the business up.

Ellie its a hard one, I generally only make these cakes for family as a gift and don’t put them on my business page or website.

Good for Nintendo is all I can say!! :-D

My daughter has been asking for a Frozen cake for her B day for quite some time for her 5th B day… :(

You can make one for her – we are allowed to make as gifts for our friends and family; we just mustn’t sell them. :-)

Your right about that Julia….as long as no $$$ changes hands…no profit to the decorator….it’s fine. You can rent those Disney themed Wilton cake pans. And if your making for family….it’s not a problem. But you mustn’t post the picture.

This is really helpful thread, I’ve just looked up Nintendo and this what it says on their site- so be careful with that one :-)

While we are grateful for all the requests for permission to use Nintendo properties, we are not able to grant such requests. We receive thousands of requests and we do not have adequate staffing to review them all. Therefore, our general policy is to decline requests for permission for the use of Nintendo properties.

Although we are not able to grant permission, use of Nintendo’s properties without formal permission by Nintendo may still be allowed under the relevant laws of the particular jurisdiction involved. Thus, we encourage you to seek your own legal counsel if you have any questions about whether your particular proposed use is permitted without Nintendo’s authorization. Nintendo cannot provide legal advice.

We appreciate your support.

I do not sell cakes I only bake for my family. As Julia said I had heard that as long as you do not sell the cake you are OK! For those of you with a business I have also heard that you can make the cake and have the client buy character figures and they put them on the cake themselves. Can any of you confirm that that is OK???

yes Ellie that is what I understand :) x

I’m no angel when it comes to copyrighted material, but i generally stray away from character cakes ( I couldn’t agree with you more @DeniseNH). But a few weeks ago I got a request from Icing Smiles to make a dream cake – of Minnie Mouse. I immediately wrote them back and told them I was wary of copyrights. They wrote back that since it was a charitable donation their legal team had found that it was OK. I don’t know if that’s exactly right or not, but I printed that e-mail out and made sure it went in the file with the other cake info.

Reading this makes me worried, there are so many people asking for cakes like this, as you can see I have many on my profile. Nearly 85% of my cakes are Disney Characters. I am trying to do more Wedding Cakes, so I don’t need to make this kind of cakes… what is strange most of people do them…