Okay, I am so mad at myself right now. I was delivering a cake to a wedding I had today and some jerk cut me off, so I had to slam on my brakes, well when I did that the cake fell over and fell into the grooms cake. My heart sank to the floor. I rushed home, make a quick dummy cake as close as I could to the brides cake and tried to fix the grooms cake. I cant believe this happened. Luckily my husband runs the country club where the wedding was at, so he was able to help me. The cake is still servable my husband said they will just cut it in the back and serve it when it is time. This is like my worst fear coming true. I hope this never happens again. I am going to give them a full refund, I couldnt live with myself if I didnt.
Sorry to hear this happened to you. I feel your pain! I had a cake disaster today too (another car slammed into me from behind) and I'm still licking my wounds. Luckily I was able to redo the bottom tier that crumbled so no cake was lost in fact they had extra cake. It just breaks your heart when it happens but I suppose we have to move on.
OH my gosh, I am SOOO sorry this happened to you.
I do want to caution you though against a full refund. It sounds as if they still got a pretty (and close to their design) cake for pictures and plenty of cake for serving in the flavors they wanted, so maybe just a partial refund or % off anniversary cake instead. If the cake had not been servable at all, I'd be more willing to give full refund.
I feel ya!! Had my first slider in March because I had to slam on my brakes. The cake didn't topple, but the top layer of the bottom tier slid across the bottom layer ... about 1-2" worth. No way to save it. It was still servable ... but not displayable.
The couple had a 3 tier cake instead of a 4 tier cake on display. We served the bottom tier from the kitchen and I still deducted $200 (the value of the bottom tier) from her balance. (But they were sweethearts and tipped my crew $200 for the great job they did!)
Ok. An update on my sticky situation. My husband saved my butt. He said that the couple never even knew that the cake was a dummy. They never knew anything happend. They still got to eat their cake and were happy. I couldnt believe that he didnt even tell him. I asked him how he went about getting throught the cake cutting ceremony with out cutting the cake. He told me that he talked to the photographer and had them mock the cake cutting and he already had 2 pieces behind the cake so they could feed it to each other. When it was time to carry the cake to the kitchen so it could be cut, him and another employee picked up the cake and acted like it was really heavy and carried it to the kitchen. Once in the back, they cut and served the original cake. I was so relieved. It was funny because he said he was trying to get the bride drunk so she wouldnt know that it wasnt the cake she ordered. He also wanted to wait until everyone was drunk and come out of the kitchen holding the dummy cake in one hand and freak all the drunk people out, but he didnt. I don't know how he did it but he saved me this time.
That's awesome, what a great save! Better give that hubby a big hug, or um, well, something else! 
My husband has proven to be invaluable in times of cake crisis, glad yours was too!
What a DH!!! You were double blessed by this, the Bride never knew and your DH was able to be your hero! I'm glad that all is well! 
Give that man a huge kiss 
I am so glad it turned out well for you.
lucky! my disaster cake would have been a disaster cake!
glad it work out so well for you!!!
darn other drivers when we are trying to deliver a wedding cake!
melody
I second that your DH is AWsome. You need to give him some major love for this...thank goodness he was there! Wow
I always put the sticker I got on CC that says "Caution Wedding Cake On Board" when I drive cakes, and I drive like a granny, but I'm always afraid some idiot will still cause an accident.
Wonder if we could send these idiot drivers the bill for the ruined cakes, when they cause wedding disasters on the road?
Well, I have decided that I will never transport a stacked cake again, as long as I live. It is just not that important to me as getting the cake there in one piece. Yeah, my husband is a total lifesaver.
I think it is great that your husband saved you, but I do not agree with deceiving the couple. They need to know what happened. You should contact the couple and let them know what happened. Tell them you are sorry to just now be telling them, but that you didn't want to put a damper on their day with the cake disaster. Not telling them is not good business practice.
I hope people I deal with have a more ethical view of business.
How I handle my business has nothing to do with how you think I should do business. How in the world do you know if I am ethical or not. I have taken care of my issues concerning this problem, it does not concern you at all. You shouldnt criticize people on how you think they should be. I posted my story so hopefully people can learn from my mistakes. Be carefeul of how you treat your fellow members.
My mother always told me that honesty is the best policy. If it were you would you have wanted to know? If it were me I say, "Yes".
Of course no one can tell you how to run your business. To me, you would get accolades for being upfront and honest. And who knows, it may come out. Would it not look better for you to be the one telling???
I would not have told at the wedding, but after the honeymoon I would have fessed up and offered a future discount just because.
But, I guess to you all is fair in love and cake.
cakeymom
I am going to clear a few things up. I talked to bride days ago. I called her. She didnt have a problem with it, I offered to give her a refund, but she wouldnt take it. She loved everything about the cakes. Flavor and look. She totally understood about everything. I am an ethical person, for people to insinuate otherwise without even knowing is childish.
When you placed a topic out on, "How do I?" It is a question.
Others gave input on how THEY would handle the situation. It was not an attack on you or how your run your business. You said that you would give a FULL refund. Others said that they would not tell, give a partial refund, or give a discount on a future order.
Some of the responses were not aimed at you, they were aimed at others that responded, since this is an exchange of ideas.
So, at the end of the day the bride was happy because she did not know, and there was no need in ruining her day. Later you rectified the problem by telling her. Fine.
The bride was happy and you did what any responsible business owner would do and it worked out
Cakeymom, exactly! I would not have ruined their wedding, but would have told them after everything was said and done.
I'm not telling anyone how to run their business and I didn't think I was treating anyone on here badly. I just know that lying and deceit is unethical in my book. I understand everyone's ethics are different. I had issued with my wedding cake that were told to me AFTER the wedding and I was so thankful for the honesty.
I wasnt aware that I posted in the "How Do I" section, I am still trying to learn how to do everything on this site!!!!!
Btw, rvercher23, my comment made earlier today was not aimed at you. I am sorry it offended you.
Thanks for clearing that up.......Ever since this weekend, I have been so stressed!!!!
Wow...what a story. Glad it worked out in the end. I'm amazed that you were able to have the accident and have time to do a dummy cake for presentation. Your hubby helped tremendously, but you sure have "think on your feet" wit, too. You both worked well together.
You know, with the whole idea of telling what happened...that issue can obviously be so varied by opinion. Let's think...we are cake decorators. A lot of what we do is covering mistakes, which is the cool part of honing your skills and seeing how really good you are!
How many times has anyone had a crack/dent/or any kind of mess-up that you were able to camoflauge/cover?
Would you tell the customer..."well this flower is right here because I accidently poked a hole in the cake with my finger" or "did you know I had to bake this cake 2 times and still cut off brown edges to present it to you"?
Honestly, not everything NEEDS to be told, but it just depends on the case and the person. If our customers knew half of the stuff we went through just to give them a nice looking, tasty cake!...A lot of our business would be spent making disclaimers.
If rvercher23 would've said she didn't tell the bride, I wouldn't have thought anything of it...but the fact that she did is cool too. 
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