I was just chatting with my hubby about our wedding cake...for the millionth time (the wedding was 8 months ago) and were discussing that the cake lady's preference was PB and mine is DH. We asked her if she would switch for our cake and she quickly said yes. As soon as we cut the cake at our reception, I knew it was PB. This was on top of her using hundreds of yellow flowers (our colors were black, white and red) and she used cinnamon oil instead of ground cinnamon for filling which left the whole cake tasting like red hots....

Sorry, my question is turning into a rant...anyways, if someone had a preference for one brand over another would you comply with their request?

Thanks for your input [/i]

Definitely! If a customer specifically asks for something, you need to do it! She probably just forgot to write it down or mixed up her notes.

A similar situation occurred with our wedding cake. It was a 4 tier, round, white wedding cake. Supposed to be decorated with all white polka dots (so white on white). Instead, I got the top tier polka dots, 2nd tier stars, 3rd stars, and the 4th tier polka dots. I wanted to CRY, DIE, STAMP MY FEET, and ROLL AROUND ON THE GROUND! But I didn't do anything. It's been 3 years and I still get angry when I think about it!

I guess I need to add why I mentioned the note thing. When my cake decorator was asking me what I wanted on there, she suggested stars of polka dots and then talked about mixing them up. I specifically said only polka dots, but she did have stars and polka dots written down. I asked her to mark the stars off...and apparantely she didn't! Just my thoughts anyway!

I had the same thing happen to me, our wedding was almost 10 years ago and all I asked was that none of the 4 tiers be carrot cake .... he agreed, and I got all four tiers of carrot cake. I was so angry and I didn't even have a piece of my own cake, just a dab of frosting.

I'm glad to know that I'm not the only one made crazy by someone not following requests. I'm a bit of a nut and typed out all of my requests along with a sketch of the cake AFTER our consultation to re-confirm every detail. I wanted to do the cake myself but I did everything else so there just wasn't time.

Man that cinnamon was terrible...I am dreading the anniversary cake. Hubby wants me to make a cake for us instead. Maybe...

I would do what the customer asked me to do. If that wasn't possible I would let them know up front and explain why. And if I ever start a 'real' cake business EVERYTHING will be in writing, signed and dated by the customer and myself! That way I won't forget anything and the customer can't come back and say I did something wrong.

Melissa

I agree, if you dont do what the customer asks And that you agreed to,how are you going to get any repeat business?

I don't like to work with PB, especially for tiered cakes. I know you asked for DH, but my point is, if I didn't think it would be a good idea I would tell the customer why I would rather not use one brand over the other, but I sure wouldn't say ok and then just not do it. Maybe she did just forget, but where I'm at DH is about twice as much as PB.

I feel you should always do what the customer requests.

Did you complain and what was done on her part to make the situation right?

I did memtion the yellow flowers and the cinnamon red-hots flavor but didn't think at the time to mention the mix. In my eyes, the wedding was over and I saw no use in dishing out some bridezilla nonsense. I knew I would never patron her again but on the other side, she only charged me $1.50 a slice.

While the cake didn't match and wasn't edible in my opinion, the day was over. HA! Yet hubby and I are still talking about it ! Oh, well....I was just interested if brand loyalty trumps customer request.

Paulstonia, I COMPLETELY agree the PB is not a good choice for stacked cakes. It's DH all the way in our house and I have learned so much since then (mostly from this site ) about baking, decorating, and customer service. Thanks ladies!

PinkZiab,
I agree with you. By my saying you should always do what the customer requests, I wasn't referring to bending over backwards to the "zilla" customers that are going to nit-pick and complain about EVERY possible thing there is to complain about. It just annoyed me that a baker would agree to use a certain brand of mix and in the end do what she wanted to anyway ~ just no way to treat a customer in my book especially if you want repeat business.

I agree with all of you! No way should she have bent over backwards...especially for me! hahaha...

Even though I was not happy with her service, I sent a thank you note promptly and when we spoke in person, we discussed the discrepancies from the contract. While she was apologetic over the "misunderstandings" I didn't feel the need to request a partial refund or a new anniversary cake. I just thought we were on the same page...after all, there were colored illustrations along with detailed descriptions. I think she was just on another planet.

As far as the zilla, I honestly don't think I could have been a nicer bride to any of my vendors. I was never looking for "the perfect day" just a lovely one The wedding was Saturday and my wedding party and vendors had their thank you notes by Tuesday.

Just curious why you wouldn't use PB for stacked cakes?

I didn't want PB based on preference. IMHO, it's too fluffy for stacking. I prefer the durable DH recipe for such jobs and it is dense and moist.

hehehehe...I knew that was coming

I wrote my thank you notes out before the wedding (vendors and wedding party only) so I could enjoy my weekend away with my new hubby. We didn't have a honeymoon, just that weekend, (I'm a teacher and had to be back at school.)

In the end, the day was over...who wants to turn a WONDERFUL day into an argument with the cake lady. She had been highly recommended from other weddings so I never imagined it would be a problem. As much as I am enjoying the discussion, my story was only to provide background for my question.

I'll tell ya though, if I had had some stationary with me, I would have rewritten the thank you note to be less...kind. Oh, well. And the cake was the only thing that wasn't what I expected. Everything else was lovely. We truly had the most amazing October day!

Yeah, ok - good planning on your part. But I would have maybe not mailed the card..?!

Anyway, glad to hear that everything else was perfect!

my friend had to have a cake from her reception hall, they wouldnt let her bring one in. so she bought a couple hundred little pink daisys and asked them to put them on for her. they put them on and the cake looked ok nice and simple but when they cut into the cake it tasted and had the texture of corn bread!!!!!! yuck!!!!! we were all very disappointed, but what was made the situtation worse was because she had to move the date of her wedding up her show was a week after her wedding and i made the cake and everybody was talking about how nice this cake is and it doesnt even taste like corn bread!!! i felt so bad. so i think it happens to everyone with at least one vendor.