This is long, but so cathartic. Thank you, Cake Central, for this forum filled with other decorators who can commiserate. I feel a newfound solidarity with those who have gone before me in this forum and shared their own personal tales of woe. Sisters, I am with you. 
The Cake from Hell
I haven't had too many cake disasters, but this one was definitely a disaster: financially, physically, and emotionally.
I took an order for a cake based on one I did for my niece, pictured here, except rather than a butterfly theme, I was to incorporate a fairy theme. This cake was for a little girl's third birthday party, and I was provided with a scan of a cake plate on which to base the fairies' appearance/colors. The parents ordered enough fairies so that all of their little guests could have one to eat. Not wanting to serve the children hardened fondant fairies (and thinking that hand-modeling a dozen little fondant fairy bodies would take forever), I decided to do decorated cookies for the wings and figurepipe the fairy bodies in royal icing.
Now, I am not a fan of decorated cookies. In fact, I hate decorating cookies. With a passion.
However, visions of adorable cookie fairies being enjoyed by adorable little children gave me the inspiration to dig out my sugar cookie recipe and butterfly cutter.
I made the dough, chilled the dough, rolled the dough, and stamped the dough. I do this directly on parchment paper so that rather than transfer the cut cookies to a baking sheet, I only have to remove the excess dough, transfer the parchment paper to the baking sheet, and pop it in the oven. Needing a tapered spatula to remove some of the harder-to-remove dough between the cookies, I reached into the drawer and received a nasty, rather deep laceration in my palm by, of all things, an offset spatula. Yes, an offset spatula! Talk about a freak accident. It sure wasn't one of the wooden spoons, and I would never dream of putting my Henckels knives in a drawer. The culprit was definitely that sharp-edged offset spatula.
Okay, now I'm bandaged and baking. Out comes pan #1, which I set on the counter and turn to grab pan #2. SZZZZZZZZZ! That's the sound of the back of my hand baking on the 375 degree baking pan that I just removed from the oven. This, too, is a freak accident for me, because it's probably been 3 years or more since I've suffered a kitchen burn. Damn. Within 2 minutes, it was a lovely, inch-long blister.
I manage to complete the cookie baking without further harming myself. As they cool, I make royal icing in 5 different colors and bag it all. I also make some thinned icing for flowing in the cookies. The second half of the double-batch of royal icing I make into 5 other different colors for the fairy bodies, which I've decided to pipe by hand. I bag all that up.
Twelve hours later, I get up from the dining room table and survey my progress: cookies iced, fairy bodies piped. I take a nap and return to the kitchen for the baking of the cakes (6" and 10") and the making, coloring, and bagging of buttercream icing. The cakes are baked, cooled, levelled, torted, filled, iced, stacked, and decorated. I realize I needed to pipe fairy wands and a drop flower for each fairy to hold, as well as add super-delicate curly fairy antennas to the girls...after all, what's a fairy without antennas? I clock in another 12 hours for all of this work. I take another nap. I come back, assemble the fairies, their accessories, and their wings, and attach each one to a sucker stick with Candy Melts. Exhausted, I decide to take a break while the Candy Melts harden...the visions of happy children eating adorable cookie fairies is long gone, and I am hating myself for being incredibly stupid about time mismanagement and charging only $55 for this cake. That's right...$55. I FORGOT TO ADD THE COST OF THE FAIRIES TO THE PRICE QUOTE. Cha-ching! Let's see...$5 per fairy times 12 fairies equals making a $60 price mistake on this cake...which I did not realize until I got the order form out to review what message needed to be piped on the cake. Sure enough, a quick check of the emailed price quote confirms I did not include the fairies. 
Oh, yeah, I forgot to mention that earlier that day, on the way back from the grocery store run I had to make in order to buy the ingredients for this cake, my car slammed into a huge hunk of broken concrete that came out of nowhere, and I managed to destroy the transmission pan under my car. Yep, I hit the debris, the car started smoking, the kids started panicking, and I limped the car to a gas station to wait 2 hours for a $40 tow-truck ride to my house, which was oh, about 10 minutes from the gas station. Add the cost of the damage to my car (new transmission pan, gasket, filter, & transmission fluid, and LABOR) plus the tow-truck ride, plus the missed $60 charge....and I'm already out more than 200 bucks for this cake. Now I'm looking at more than 24 hours labor (and ladies, this isn't for sitting on the couch waiting for the cakes to cool....this was sitting and working intently for very long periods of time). Ooops, I almost forgot the $10 to buy a styrofoam ice chest and ice at the gas station to save my eggs, butter, and milk. I'm in Houston...and it was about 85 degrees outside waiting for the wrecker.
Back to Sunday...finally, the fairies are assembled...when I discover they are way too heavy (and too numerous, obviously) to stick in a 10" cake. Oh crap! I find a 10" round, 4" high cake dummy, cover it with embossed silver foil, and swirl several feet of white tulle in a beautiful cloud-like display around the fairies, which I stuck in this display. How precious is that! It looked great, and I was happy to get the camera and take my final pics before loading it all up to deliver it to our pre-designated half-way meeting point. Happy, happy, joy, joy, the cake was about to be behind me. I arrive at the meeting spot, 4 minutes early, and discover that the cake slid on the cake board, destroying the bottom border. It was all I could do not to cry. I centered the cake back on the board and realized my repair kit was at home. The cake itself was okay, but the bottom border was toast. I instruct the birthday girl's daddy (who arrived while I was trying to maneuver the cake back into position) to get some tropical Skittles, and to use the lilac ones as the bottom border. He was okay with the cake having no bottom border, but you all know what I was most concerned about: Mom. Thankfully, I later learned the birthday girl's mom didn't care about the bottom border, and I received a glowing report about what a hit the cake and the "fairy pops" were with the kids. Yessssssssss! As long as a little girl is happy, I'm happy too. She won't remember the cake, but it makes for a great Kodak moment. Unfortunately, after the glowing report, I learned that ants crawled on the display piece that I made for the fairies, so they chunked it. Ants! Not rats, roaches, or vermin...ants. 
Toss the foil, wash the tulle, and it would have been as good as new, but it went into the trash. For this, let me add another $10 to the cost of this cake, subtract the $55 payment I received, add in the tollbooth fees and the cost of the ingredients/materials for the cake, (I won't EVEN try to calculate the cost of my 24+ hours of labor), and this adorable cake ended up costing me an estimated grand total of $300.
*Sigh* Talk about blood, sweat, and tears!
Here are the pics:
Fairies
Cake
WOW I felt like it was happening to me just reading this.. it's so, so dramatic and OMG.. I don't think I would have made it through the cut and burns..Fairies and cake are just amazing!!! Just Beautiful! Gorgeous!!!!!
Sigh! That is HARD to take.
For what it's worth, those are the cutest, sweetest fairies I've ever seen. Wow! Did you ever do a great job. AND I love that cake. You are an ARTIST!!!
Give yourself a HUG from all of us at Cake Central, and several pats on the back.
Let me just say that the fairies are absolutely adorable!!! For not liking decorating cookies, you did a superb job... The cake is also stunning....
It is too bad you had to go thru so much and come out short paid...
Oh, well, you may want to make notes of an exact pricing and time involved on this cake just in case you get another order 
But I just have to say again that your fairies are delightful... I am making a copy of this cake for inspiration for my own cakes...
The cake is beautiful! And the fairies are ADORABLE! It is easy to see how much work you put into just the cookies themselves - so much detail! 
I live in Houston too, and know ALL about ice chests and ice just to get the groceries home!
Hang in there, we feel your pain - we've all at one time or other had a border that didn't make it (at the very least)!
OMG!!! I am feeling your pain!! During the reading of this post, I found myself yelling, "No way!", many times. I am sorry for all of the blood, sweat, and tear you went through.
However, the completed job is outstanding!!!
We can all relate to that feeling of delivering a cake and something has shifted, fallen, etc. I get a little nervous everytime I open the box. I say a little prayer, and hope the customer is not standing too close----just in case 
.
Wow! The butterfly cake is gorgeous! No way ! would've let a 1yr old get anywhere near it. 
Sorry you had such rotten luck with the fairy cake, but it made for one heck of a story. Thanks for sharing.
Wow..what a story! Sorry you had to go through all that. Time for a long hot bath or some TLC For what it is worth..you inspire me!! The cake is beautiful!!! Your fairies are beautiful and your technique and design is great! I'm just getting into selling a few cakes to friends and friends of friends and the whole issue of price for labor involved is one I am grappling with. Just did cake that took 10 hours and charged $40, but really should have been $75..but am also working on technique and precision.
I also have to do cake with cookies next week and your post helped with some details I was thinking about..so thank you.
QUESTION: I've made cookies on a stick before and just put the stick in the dough and cooked them that way. Is there an advantage to attaching stick with candy melts?
Thank you -
Thalia
What a story! Your cake turned out so pretty.... for someone who hates cookies, those are pretty great!
BOTH OF THE CAKES WERE ABSOLUTELY GORGEOUS!!!! YOU DID A FANTASTIC JOB AND IT SHOWS. I AM SORRY ABOUT ALL THE "ACCIDENTS" THAT HAPPENED ALONG THE WAY. IN THE END CUSTOMER WAS HAPPY AND THAT IS WHAT COUNTS. YOU SHOULD BE VERY PROUD OF YOURSELF. KEEP UP THE GOOD WORK AND I HOPE YOUR LUCK IMPROVES!
BUT, you did an AWESOME job on those cookies, they are SOOO cute! glad it's over and you survived, a few war wounds to prove it too!
Oh my! Bless your heart!
I, like many of us, feel for you. I've been there...where it seems like it is never-ending and somuch more trouble than it's worth. The end result is satisfying but you can still kick yourself for not charging what you should have charged. Lessons learned.
The fairies are absolutely ADORABLE! You really did put a lot of time and detail into them. Did you freehand them all? The cake is awesome too...they couldn't have given you anything less than a glowing report.
You poor thing! Your cookies, like everyone has said, are gorgeous! So much detail and so professionally done - and coming fm someone who dosen't like to do them! wow! From the photo of the fairy cookies, you can certainly charge whatever you want. Coz if it's too expensive for them it's ok for you since you don't like making them 
and if they want it, make sure you're compensated for the wonderful decoration!
Wow!!! Sounds like one of "those" cakes! I must say, however, after all your blood, sweat and tears (literally!), it turned out beatufiully!! I love the bottom border of the cake--gonna have to steal that one!
Hope your hand is feeling better. I can just imagine how it must have felt decorating with a burnt and lacerated hand. Ouch!
Lisa
Hello all. Cakepro posted a link to this site from another hobby forum we both vist. Had I not seen this post, I would have had no idea how much went into the cake and cookies. Yes, I am the person who was lucky enough to have purchased this cake for my daughters 3rd birthday.
Let me tell you that the portion of the cake that was messed up by sliding in the car was barely noticeable at best. Obviously, due to all her hard work, the perfection was far more imortant to Sherri than it was to us - it still looked outstanding. And as good as it looked, it tasted even better!
We tend to go a little overboard for our kids birthday parties so buying gourmet cakes is nothing new, but this was by far the best looking and tasting we have had.
I am sorry that you undercharged and I have to say, I was a bit surprised that the cost was so low, but I'm not in the habbit of getting people to up the cost on my purchases. Don't take that the wrong way, I know Sherri was not that concerned about the financial end of this as she even offered the cake free of charge after the misshap. After reading this thread, I am especially glad I refused her generous, if not ridiculous offer.
I'm sorry about the foil covered cake thingy - I told you I could set it outside and let the ants migrate out and you said not to worry since it had "livestock" on it. If I'd known this was an added expense to an already loosing endevour, I would have made more of an effort to salvage the item. What can I say...I'm a guy.
Back to the positive - the cake was a big hit and no doubt you will be getting some referal (and repeat) business from our party. The true hit, however, was the cookies. I couldn't believe the reactions. The adults were in awe and the kids couldn't wait to get their hands on them. It's a shame you hate doing cookies, because you clearly have a gift for it.
Anyway, I'm sure you wouldn't have told me any of this directly as it's just part of doing business, but I'm glad I found out so I could tell you once again just how much we, and most importantly my daughter and her guests, enjoyed the cake and cookies.
Make sure you charge the right price next time, because there will definately be a next time. 
OK...I am amazed at this! LOL, of course when we are venting we don't mean to do it actually TO the customer! But it is great that you had one who truly listened and knows what we put into this stuff and understands and wants you to do more jobs ( for what you are worth, hehe) The truth sets ya free!
Wow. I know the feeling of undercharging. I'm just not good at that fee bill thingy, but your fairies are precious, great work! 
First off, your cake and fairies are just BEAUTIFUl, and isn't it something what we go through for the love of decorating
Hey that was absolutely Wonderful of Sean for putting his imput in...Expecially with him being the customer!!!!! I know that had to make the decorator feel so much better. I know I just beam when I get positive feedback on my cakes. Congratulations for an Awesome sucsess...i know I spelled that wrong.
the fairies are so cute and the cake wonderful. You made one little girl (parents) happy. sorry that so many things happen to you. you are great for going all the way. and that what makes you a professional. Good luck and happy baking decorating and selling.
Poor baby, but look at your screen name. CAKE PRO! Which is exactly what you showed you were during the making of this cake from hell. lol
If it's any consolation, you can take all your reciepts from that day add them all together and have your accountant make the appropriate deductions. Cost of doing business..lol
You...actually donated that cake. Use that fact..lol. Take pictures of the cake and use it for advert, then you can deduct most of the costs that you had that day! Why not?
Sometimes..when I had my shop, I would take a "LOSS" on a cake that I had never done before just so I could have the experience of making that particular cake.
Now you know how much time and effort it took you to make this particular cake and now you can adjust your prices accordingly.
One piece of advice is to make sure that you tell the mom that you didn't charge her for the fairies, because she may recommend you to someone that may want the same cake or similar and expect to pay the same $55.00 dollars.
A very sweet way to let her know is to send her a "copy" of the cake picture with a note thanking her for her business, and the opportunity to make her daughter's birthday a success with your GIFT of the fairies..lol
Thank you so much for all of the kind words, support, and encouragement, and thanks PastryDiva for the creative accounting suggestions. I had so many positive reviews about the cookies that I have decided to give decorated cookies another chance.
Plus it sure felt good to bite the head off of one of the extra fairy cookies when it was all said and done.
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