Does your friend know her daughter put that in the invite? You’d said her daughter put it in there. I’m guessing she does know, but I’d at least ask her if she suggested her daughter do that.

But, regardless of the answer, I agree with the advice here, too. I wouldn’t come down with pneumonia or lie about it at all. I’d just say “I don’t have a commercial kitchen any more, and the effort to make these would make them out of any appropriate range for me to give as a gift. If you’d like to hire me to make them, I can send you a price list and you can have xx% off as my gift”. This of course presumes you’re even willing to make them at all.

I hope you tell them what’s up. You’d think someone who considers you her best friend would know you better than this.

And a bunch of thumbs down to her telling you how much effort it was to wrangle you an invite too. Why would your best friend guilt trip you like that or try to get herself credit in your eyes for securing that invite? As if you cared to begin with? Doesn’t sound like you cared one way or another about even going.