Character Cakes

We get these calls all the time... 

Do you do Dora? Do you do Strawberry Shortcake? Do you do Sponge Bob?

We don't do character cakes.  And we don't buy plastic decorations OF ANY KIND!!

If asked, we WILL decorate a cake around YOUR purchased decorations. And we will do the best we can with what we are given.

So a customer asked us to do a cake around the theme of the Backyardigans. I'll admit I had never heard of them and I gave her my standard line about plastic and character cakes.

She insisted. In fact, she went out to Wal-Mart and purchased a Backyardigan cake "kit" (which their bakery will sell, minus the cake). She also brought in a napkin she was planning to use and we created this cake around her stuff.

We added the gum paste stars and the cookie-on-a-stick (posing as a tree). The colors, while not my first choice, matched her napkins and decorations.

Her husband picked up the cake and I thought we were done.

But no.

This afternoon, after closing at 6pm, the phone rings.

The person on the other line says she had been to a party a couple of weeks ago where the cake had come from our bakery. She said it was the worst cake she had ever seen. With ugly plastic stuff. And she could not believe I would let a cake like that out of the bakery.

First of all, the party was OVER TWO WEEKS AGO!!

Secondly, the person calling had absolutely no connection to the customer or the cake other than having attended the party.

Yet somehow she picked a random Thursday afternoon after 6pm to call us and complain about a cake she had not even ordered.

So I had to explain that YES, I did know the cake she was complaining about. And YES, it did have plastic decorations on it. But the reason those particular decorations were on the cake were because the customer who ordered the cake had bought them herself, specifically for us to place on the cake.

"Oh" was all she could muster.

And then I was glad she called so I could explain, but wondering how many others like her were out there that didn't have the gumption to call us.

And THIS is exactly why we don't like doing character cakes.

Comments

[Marys Cakes]

I can only imagine the conversation between the caller and the customer...
Caller: Wow is that what you ordered?
Customer: Ummmm...

[Healthy Foods Blog]

I understand your part. Actually it's not your fault the cake turned out like that. It was a customized cake decided by the customer. The main problem was that sarcastic caller. If she didn't like the cake, she should have talked to the customer.

[Suzanne Gray]

Ah, but I'll bet it tasted gooooood!