Through word-of-mouth, I have started to make cakes for people I don't know. Up until this incident, after the cake recipient has eaten the cake, I hear back from them/our mutual friend that they raved about both the taste and how it looked. I have plenty of repeat customers so I'm guessing everything is OK.

My latest cake was a 2 tiered farm themed cake for a 2 year olds birthday. When I went to set up the cake and put on the border, I realized I forgot my grass tip! The only other thing I had was a bag and a spatula! I did my best with the border, but it ended up looking like sod, not grass!!
I explained the situation and apologized to her. While I was touching up the cake, she said 'I know that bothers you, but it looks fine to us'.

I got home and the next day my careless mistake still was bothering me. I sent her a very short e-mail saying 'I hope they had a wonderful party....sorry about the border....10% off your next order....thanks'

Luckily, this is the first time this has happened to me. What do you do in this situation? It has been 2 days and she has not responded to my e-mail. The cake and figures are in my photos--I charged her $85 for that cake, a matching cupcake w/a fondant pig on it and delivery (not very far).

I think you jumped the gun and are too critical of your own work.

She outright said, " I know it bothers you, but it's fine"
Paraphrasing there.

She was fine with it. Let it go.

Thanks, I'll let my husband know he can say 'I told you so!'. He always says I'm much more critical then the people receiving the cakes.

My husband says the same thing.
I wouldn't worry about the response yet....if the customer is like a lot of people then she may not have even seen the email yet.

I wouldn't worry about it.

Mike

Thanks again everyone! Off to make 2 more cakes this week!

NEVER EVER EVER point out your mistakes to the customer... EVER!! And definitely do not volunteer a discount when they haven't even complained. Nothing you can do about it this time, but you live and you learn.

What do I do in that situton? Nothing. Absolutely nothing. Problem happened and you fixed it on the fly. Done.

Sometimes you just have to move on. I've been there recently.

I actually had a customer tell me that he didn't like my decorated sugar cookies. I use the NFSC recipe and in my 2 years of baking them, this was the first time someone has told me thay didn't like it.

I offered to make him another dozen free and if he didn't like the second batch then oh well, he just doesn't have the same taste buds as others.

Don't let it worry you. There will be plenty more mistakes and unhappy customers. It's part of the business!

When you have a certain picture in your head of how you think your cake should look, it's always a little disappointing when the real thing doesn't fit the image. However, the customer doesn't necessarily have a pre-conceived idea about how it's supposed to look (particularly for details like borders). Go easy on yourself!

I agree with Pinkziab.......Do not ever point out your mistakes or offer a discount if a complaint is not made....It makes you look incompetent! The custmer loved it and really...most people have no idea it is a mistake or even what to look for in a mistake so chin up!!!

I think that we see our mistakes but the customer doesnt, sometimes my cakes dont turn out like i want them to but the customer loves them,

I just had to respond to this one. I just opened my business in July so a lot of my orders are still just from people that I know so I get really excited when someone I don't know orders a cake from me. I had a woman order a cake from through my website and she sent me a picture that she wanted on the cake. I made the cake and it was the most horrifying cake I had ever made. I was embarrased to even give it to her and I didn't even take a picture because I thought it was so ugly. I didn't say anything to her about it though and a couple of days later I got an e-mail from her. I was terrified to open it because I just knew she was complaining about how ugly the cake was. The e-mail said everyone loved the cake, it was beautiful, and it tasted great. She said they will be ordering all of their cakes from me now. So my long story is really just to say never point out your flaws because your customers have no idea and they will love it anyways.