This ended up a little longer than I planned.

Ok, so my niece's Quincenera was a couple weeks ago. During the planning stages, I had hoped my SIL would ask me to do the cake. They love to come over whenever I make one, and are usually pretty impressed with whatever I come up with. Plus she knows I'm working towards (hopefully) doing this as a business someday. So when the topic comes up, she says she has some other lady doing it, I was a little hurt, but not crying or starting any family feuds over it. I know I've got lots more practicing to do, and this was a pretty important cake.

She starts telling me about the cake, it's a monster, enough to feed 500 people, a custom RI carriage, fountain, staircases (where's the barfy emoticon? No offence to those who like that stuff, I just don't ), all for.... $600! That figure made me more upset than anything! When I start doing this I'm hoping to be charging $2+ a serving, and this woman is doing it for around $1! Eeek!

Flash-foward to the Quince... You know that saying "You get what you pay for"? Yeah, SIL got it alright. It wasn't horribly bad, but my 6 y/o could have done it better. I'm guessing the border was supposed to be a shell, but it was more like "let me just wiggle my hand around haphazardly and see what happens" with the occasional shell thrown in so she could claim it was a shell border. There was a sort of monogram on the top tier, and it was circled by a circle-y, half-moon-y, badge-y shaped line of piped stars, that was just plain awful! Inconsistent size, with some stars touching, while others had huge, noticible gaps in between them. I know that piping is something I really need to work on, but I know I could have pulled that off much nicer.

Then there was the custom made RI carriage. When SIL told me about it, it inspired me to do the one for my DD's 3rd bday cake in my pics. To toot my own horn here for a mo, I was already pretty proud of that carriage, but when I saw the one on the cake, my confidence level shot way up. It looked like she covered a plastic carriage with piped stars, which in of itself is a pretty cool idea, but it was soooooo sloppily done! There were so many gaps, some were really fat, some were really skinny, and most had these long peaks from not stopping the pressure before pulling away, and they pointed in every direction, making the carriage look more like a spikey ball than anything.

To cap the whole thing off, the cake was still frozen when it was served at around 10:30-11 that night!

Just had to share with those who would understand, and feel my cattiness.

OK, first of all I understand how you feel. You get what you pay for and maybe your SIL learned that so you'll just have to be content with that.

Also, I just took a look at your gallery and OMG your cakes are gorgeous!!!! Great RI carriage and I LOVE your kimono cake too, among others.

All you can hope for is that she realizes that she should have asked you in the first place. If not, her loss. After seeing your pics, you would have done such a beautiful job.

Did you get a picture of the cake at the party??? Now I am curious to see this monstrosity....

I SO want to see the icky cake, too! I had to see your RI carriage- SUPER NEATO!!! And I LOVE the pearl dust on the snow on the trees! SO neat!

As for being catty about that other person's cake- you can be as catty as you want- you do GREAT work, we'd all love to see the other cake so we can tell you how much better yours would have been.

You know she was probably kicking herself for not asking you to do it, when she saw the cake. Oh well, her loss!

That is some serious karma I bat you were laughing your hiny off!! I know I would be. God only knows how bad your sil felt after she saw that cake. She must have been sooooo embaressed. Not only that but, i'm pretty sure next time she needs a cake she will be going to see you. Was the cake ordered from a bakery? and if not, what pictures was she looking at? I am also wishing I could see a pic. My cakes aren't perfect but I know I have seen some monstrosities at parties.

Haha, she did get what she paid for I'm sure! your cakes are great and you have a lot of neat ideas!

to keep your balloon from deflating you can make your RI carriage on the back of the ball pans too.

You lightly grease them so they release nicely and they have a little more support from the pan so you can leave them to dry.

then you attach both halfs with royal.

Keep up the great job, you will be able to charge your 2 dollars and more pretty soon!

actually right now

Thanks guys! I knew you all would understand, and see it as funny as I did. And Thank You for all the nice comments on my cakes. It's a heck of a confidence booster to get comments like that from such talented decorators as you all. awolf, I'm glad you liked the Kimono Cake, that is one of my personal favorites.

The cake was not from a bakery, but a home baker.

I didn't get pictures of the whole cake. I wish I had. DH had the camera, and since our DD was the Lucky Charm* he pretty much only got pictures of her all dressed up. Plus I didn't want to look all snotty examining and photographing the cake. However, he did get one of the carriage, cause he told me how SIL should have come to me. If you're wondering, the cake is iced with the whipped cream icing.



*During the Quincenera, to symbolize her "becoming a woman" and leaving her childhood behind, the girl will give the Lucky Charm, a younger family member, a doll.

Ok, you are sooooooooo right about your observations on this cake.

The only thing I can think of is that your SIL's daughter wanted this particular cake or she was being mean spirited

or she didn't want to overwhelm you with too much work.

(I'm just being nice here, lol)

You sooooooooooo could have made that look a whole lot better!!!!!!!!!! Wow words can't even begin to describe how your sil must feel. Man I would so find an excuse to make one and just show it to her and say i got the idea from the quinceanero and I decided to give it a twist.She would probably cry but I would feel better. But your not me and i'm proud of you for not rubbing it in her face and handling it the way you did. I'm pretty sure she learned her lesson.

Oh dear me, that is pretty bad! Still, you really do get what you pay for!

I wonder if she'll come to you, tail between her legs, and ask you to do the cake for the next big event? If she did, I personally would be fully booked, but then you seem much nicer than me (I can be a bee-otch when slighted!).

First of all, you have to be proud of your self, because you do lovely cakes. I just looked at your photos. OMG, they are amazing.

I really do know how you feel, especialy when a family member do a thing like that.

And your SIL got what she paid for. So you have to be content about it. I'm sure she has realized now what she has done.

I saw the photo, and its BAD! If she had given it to you, you could have a lot more better cake.

I wonder whether she will come to you asking you to make a cake, after what she's done.

When we were discussing the cake, SIL said she had this woman do it because she wanted/liked her pistachio filling. Plus she actually might have worried about it being such a big order for me, seeing as I have 3 kiddos (6, 3, 18 mos.). I really hope she wasn't being spiteful, but I guess you never really know.

In any case, I will get the final act of cattiness: months before this Quince, DH, my other SIL (#2), and I were discussing the upcoming Quince for SIL #2's DD (in December), and the costs involved (right up there with wedding, seriously). SIL was fretting about the $$, and since this niece is also DH's goddaughter, I offered the cake as a gift. So I'm gonna bust my as to hopefully produce an awsome cake, and secretly say "neener-neener-neerner"

P.S. I'm usually not this nice. Recent turmoil with others in DH's family have thrown him for a loop, and right now his sisters are all he really has, and I don't want to upset that even further with something as minor (in the grand scheme of things) as who made the cake for the Quince. Doesn't mean I cannot come on here and talk about it with you all though!

HAHAHAHAHA!! I am sorry to laugh.. but that cake is sad. You could have done a ton better. I'll be secretly neener neener neener-ing with you okay?

Hehehe, sounds good to me!

I think it's admirable that you handled it the way you did. Being rude or mean about it would only make you look bad. Unless your sil said different maybe she was very pleased with what she got. There are plenty of people out there with much different ideas of beautiful than mine, and thank goodness none of them have come to me for a cake, yet. I'd get more satisfaction out of seeing a lesser quality cake and keeping quiet than if I commented to someone about it. You and I know you could have done lots better. If the niece was happy it turned out great, right?

So she really paid $600 for it? 500 servings and that's all they charged? Wow!
I'm not familiar with these Quince celebrations, but 500 is bigger than most weddings I've gone to.

I understand the family issue. It can be silly sometimes but it at least you have the opportunity to do the next one. Also, don't focus too much on the cake. You are very talented and you don't have to break your head to make it beautiful. My crazy a** always goes nuts trying to make it the best and when I stop thinking about it the simplist design comes to mind and when it's done, it looks gorgeous.