One of my favorite blogs is Cake Wrecks, whose subtitle is "When professional cakes go horribly, hilariously wrong." My favorite part is when they show you a photo of how the cake was "supposed" to look, then a photo of the actual cake (wreck). So let me tell you about this wedding cake.
It was ordered months ago by a bride who wanted a cake decorated like one on our website titled "Chocolate Swirls." This is the photo from the website of how the cake was supposed to look. The cake ordered was to be larger, with fresh flowers, but that was the only change noted on the signed contract.
The wedding was out of town, about 65 miles along a winding 2-lane road through the country, but Emily has GPS on her phone so were not really worried (she entered the address and voila! directions!). The main concern for a road trip like this is if we need to repair the cake on-site. What if we have to come to a sudden stop and the cake slides in the car. Or someone puts a finger in it, or worse... We always bring a bucket full of repair tools, like extra buttercream, piping bags, tips, toothpicks, skewers, spatulas, you-name-it. Like the old saying goes, "it's better to have it and not need it, than to need it and not have it." And it is not like we can just drive back to the shop if we forget something.
The bride had been in the shop a few times in the weeks before the wedding, with various questions, and all the fluttering around the cake order made me even more cautious. After making and base-coating the cake, we called the bride the day before the wedding to double check the design. Yes she said, it was the "chocolate swirl cake" on the website.
Even so, we brought the cake un-decorated -- three plain white iced squares. Just in case something goes terribly wrong in the car, dark chocolate ganache decorations would be difficult to repair. Better to leave extra time to decorate the cake on-site. An hour and fifteen minutes later, we arrive at the bride's house. The house and yard have been beautifully decorated for the wedding and there are lots of friends and family members buzzing about, getting ready for the big event.
One more time, "We're doing the chocolate swirls, right?" "Yep" says the bride's mother, so we go to work stacking and decorating the cake. When we are done, I find the mother again and ask about the flowers. She finds them for us and comments on how beautiful the cake is, it almost doesn't need flowers. We put a few Gerber daisies and sunflowers on the cake, double check one more time that everyone is happy, and take our leave for the long drive home.
So imagine my surprise when I get back to the shop on Monday morning and find the cake stands have already been returned. The morning manager, Miss Pat, had just opened the shop when the mother of the bride brought the cake stands back. Best I can tell, the conversation went something like this.
Pat: "How was everything?"
MOB: "Beautiful. Do you keep a record of cakes ordered."
Pat: "Sure, why?"
MOB: "Well, what does it say for our cake?"
Pat (looking for the contract): "Chocolate swirls" (at this point Pat brings the website up on the computer and shows the picture of the chocolate swirl cake to the MOB).
MOB: "Well, that's not the cake we ordered."
Pat had not decorated the cake, nor had she gone on the road trip, so she was unprepared and probably gave the MOB a blank look, which prompted the MOB to point to another photo of a cake on the website. This one.
MOB: "This is the cake we wanted. The one you did was beautiful and all, but it was not the cake we ordered."
Other than being the same shape and size, the two cakes could not have been more different. They are not even on the same page on the web site. For the record, this one is called "Ivory Squares" and it has a monogram on the middle tier.
Miss Pat did the only thing she could have done in this situation. She apologized profusely. And she said she would tell me as soon as I came in.
I'm at a complete loss. For the first time since I opened the shop two-and-a-half years ago, I have no idea how to respond to this lady. The general consensus among family and friends was that no response was necessary. What could you possibly say? That was two weeks ago. If anyone has suggestions, I am all ears.
Our DJ saw our cake lady trying to repair holes in our dropped cake and they denied it and wed not even give us a dime back even after we showed her pictures;( The wholes were fist size, I might add and the cake was crooked!!
As far as ur cake...lesson learned...pull up the website & show the pictures at the consultations from now on. Easy fix;) Offer a small compensation (free cake for anniversary?) Customer is always right and a happy customer is a repeat customer:-D
Posted by: Dena | May 06, 2012 at 05:09 PM
It may be difficult to hear feedback, but that's exactly what you should try to get every time, just to be certain that everyone believes your cakes are as good as you know they are. In this case, it really just sounds like a misunderstanding. And it may just be the MOB like Elizabeth suggests. Keep doing great work!
Posted by: Jeanne | October 29, 2008 at 06:17 PM
Hi! Wow do I understand what you are going through! I just did a cake about a month ago for a bride. It turned out beautiful, exactly like the sketch we did together and I was so thrilled with it. The sugar flowers on top were some of my most perfect ever. The sugar "broach" decorating the dress like layers was so pretty. I was tickled pink! Then the mother of the bride called me a day or two later. She basically said, we hated it. It was nothing like it was supposed to be. We hated the taste (the exact same cake they tasted in their cake tasting and oohed and ahhed over). It was horrible and no one liked it (she said) and we told everyone it was your work. I WAS HEART BROKEN! I felt like quitting the business. I need people to LOVE their once in a life time cake that they paid for. I didn't know what to do. I of course tasted some of the left over cake (tasted heavenly - so couldn't have been that). I sent the bride this forlorn email saying - I don't understand what you didn't like, it was just like the sketch we did together, etc. She wrote back the next day (probably on her honeymoon!) I'm so sorry for what my mom said. We loved our cake. It was perfect for me - just what I ordered. My mom's sister didn't like it and chirped in my mom's ear about it all day long. I'm so sorry my mom upset you, thank you for our wonderful cake, etc. WHAT A RELIEF! Here's a link to the cake on my flikr photostream http://www.flickr.com/photos/30559561@N07/2913005938/
Hope you can recover from your frustration. Wish these things never happened! But, they do - oh well! God bless you in your business!
Posted by: Elizabeth | October 26, 2008 at 06:33 PM