/u/bez_lightyear on My coworker found out I bake and now expects free custom cakes for every office occasion

Wait 5 sec.

It's a slippery slope and you have to shut that down asap. There was a colleague at my workplace who did exactly what you did, just baked the occasional cake to celebrate an office birthday or anniversary. Their cakes were always outstanding in flavour, consistency and design. One colleague asked for a birthday cake for their kid in the shape of Peppa Pig - which was perfectly executed (and they were charged for ingredients only). Within a week all the parents who attended that kid's birthday party were demanding cakes for their kid's parties, really intricate stuff like Spiderman flying through New York and All of Minecraft. This colleague basically spent every evening baking and decorating cakes for friends of friends of friends of this colleague - all charged for ingredients only. One person supplied a photo of a wedding cake they wanted. I reverse image searched it and found it was from a pro cake company who were charging £1500 for this work of art. The colleague made it for £75, spent weeks making sugar icing flowers to decorate this 3 tier cake in their free evenings. Things came to a head when COVID hit and lockdown started and panic buying meant eggs & flour disappeared off the shelves. These same entitled people were still demanding cheap cakes for parties they weren't legally allowed to be having. Colleague eventually gave up baking, blaming a faulty oven and a kitchen remodel gone wrong.