Yeah.... I won't share to random people, only my daughter and my husband know my secret ingredients. I want some things just for my family. There's so much on social media, so some things can be sacred and just family. Now I'm not at the point yet where someone wants to buy it out or even have a bunch of employees... That's a given. Well.... To me. ☺️🥰
There is no right or wrong answer. It's all a matter of individual opinion only! Each person should be able to say no, no matter what situation, without being made to feel guilty. I'm not one to share, but it's according to the situation... And that's OK. Why do people feel they are entitled to have it?
Here’s my view: 1. I’m in the UK. People often find making Yorkshire puddings difficult. Temp, recipe, method and so on. I have a perfect recipe (in my opinion!). I’m more than happy- and have- shared mine many times. 2. Business. I decided I wanted to have a go at making cookies. I like the artistry element! I’m on many cookie pages on Facebook and the question frequently arose regarding sharing the existing cookiers’ recipe(s). All, aside from those that had moved to content creating/ tutoring would not share when asked. The reason given is that it took them a long time to experiment and find a recipe that suited them. I therefore never asked and started with some ‘basic’ recipes from a few online people. Some crashed and burned; they didn’t work for me. Some I didn’t like the final taste, etc. So I started experimenting myself. I learned a few things: 1. I learnt more about the science of the recipe for a cookie; vanilla, choc, lemon, etc. 2. I created a recipe that I was proud of, and that I genuinely believed tasted great. 3. I realised that it does take time to create a winning recipe and that time costs money and is therefore valuable. I can understand now that when people were asking on Facebook, cookiers were reticent not out of ‘meanness’, but because they were in business and also didn’t want any negative publicity from someone else using their recipe and finding it didn’t work because they’d done something different, etc. I have given my special cake recipes to the odd trusted friend/ family member when they’ve asked but I wouldn’t give recipes associated with my business/ reputation to the general public. I’m undecided about competitors. Part of me says that if a competitor is asking, they possibly won’t be competition for long, because they don’t have the ability to create their own recipes, so ok. Another part of me says no because this IS my business, my time, my reputation, etc. My partner wouldn’t give away his business management/ strategies/ how he’s successful to HIS competitors in the removals trade. But, there’s a lot more sharing goes on in cake world. Maybe I’d give them to cake friends if genuinely got to know and respected; genuine cake friends where help and support is reciprocal. I don’t, and don’t plan to make cakes for specific dietary needs as part of my business, so I can’t comment on that save to say if I had an eg vegan recipe, BECAUSE it’s for a dietary need, I’d very likely share it. Long reply but I hope you get some good market research from it! 🤣🤣 xx
