Hi cc group,
: , I had a friend from our church just got married this last weekend and my worst nightmare happen to me. Let me explain my bride wanted to have a 16", 14", 10" 8" round alson wanted 6 pumpkin shape cake 6 different cakes, one of the pumpkins was used as the topper, about 5#'s oc cake. I fond on cakecentral the best buttercream frosting. Thank you, 1 week before the wedding she wanted to cut down on the sweet taste and add cream cheese to frosting, never ever again. I was not able to get a good base coat or final coat on the cakes, the moe I tried the worst it got because the frosting just round off the cakes once there was warm. After setting up the cakes and waiting to cut the cake the frosting was coming off, and the cakes started to leaned. She called today and told me the 16" an 14" round was raw in the center. I now have been doing cakes for 4yrs. and my husband is a cook and has been for 30 yrs. He bakes my cakes for me. They were happy with everthing at the wedding. Because we go to the same church I only charged her $400.00, and that did not include any extras so now I do not know what to do.

Sounds like you gave her a real bargain for 240 servings at less than $2/serving PLUS the pumpkins... quite a bargain. Did you even cover your costs?

She changed the frosting at the last minute and made the whole situation harder for you. If your DH has baked cakes of this size before and is experienced about when a cake is "done" then that'd be his call. I'd be very reluctant to refund any money without seeing that "raw" cake for myself.

Good call--she needs to supply you with a piece of the cake she says is raw.

Sorry you had such a hard time with the cream cheese icing.

Oh dear that is a disaster! Very sorry to hear that! I agree with the others, I would want to see the 'raw' cake, especially if you put it all together and didn't see any problems with it. I would point out what a deal she got in the first place and that changing the icing last minute to something unfamiliar can change the outcome to unexpected results. Sounds kinda fishy to me, perhaps some of the more experienced cakers here can provide more advice than I!

I also agree something sounds fishy, I think she wants some of her money back.
Same church, she thinks you don't want it known and you will give her money back just my first thought.

I wouldn't do anything until she brings back the "raw" tiers.

Good luck!

this is crazy, this same thing happened to me.....the bride went to a different church but we had mutual friends and a lot of mutual aquaintances so I really wanted her cake to be perfect. She contacting a week after her wedding telling me that half the cakes were raw and the rest were burned. I apologized profusely and spent the whole weekend (memorial day weekend) camping and crying about how I ruined this poor girl's wedding day. We determined to figure out a refund to remedy the situation after I was back from the holiday weekend. Well, after listening to the woman screaming in the background while her hubby berated me verbally over the phone, I was just sick at the whole situation. My DH said to me, didn't you put filling in those cakes? I said, why yes, I did...they were torted and filled. Then he says "wouldn't you have noticed raw cake?" DUH of course I would and I NEVER would have let raw cake be served!! So I started to question the validity of the complain and started to wonder why they waited a week when she had me on speed dial (called me constantly the 5 days leading up to the wedding) was late paying on the cake (9 days late, which according to my contract she should have owed an additional $25/day that she was late)
Long story Short (well kinda lol), I asked some of the mutual friends that were at the wedding "hey, it's Tina...you were at so and so's wedding 2 weekends ago right? Did you have cake? Did you notice if it was raw or overcooked or anything? Guess what they said? "No, it was delicious...best cake we've ever had...you should have seen the bride and groom, they were so proud...they must have given your number out to 50 people, the people that ate the cake couldn't get enough...most people had 2 or 3 slices!!!"

Yep, they lied to me! The bride even wrote me a note and left it in my front door saying "you should tell people you're not legal to run a business and the cake was so aweful we couldnt' even choke down the bite we fed eachother, it was so disgusting we had to spit it out into napkins and I just about died from embarassment"
Yeah, they even threatened to sue me in small claims court! I let them know the facts about how contractually they still owed me $225 and I was being gracious not charging them that amount! That pretty much ended it



Moral of this looooooooonnnnnngggggggggg story (sorry) is, you know the people who were in attendance, ask around! If the cake truly was raw then I would offer to refund what you charged for those 2 tiers of cake! That's more than fair and remember to keep this whole thing businesslike, as hard as that may be! Don't take anything personal and don't say anything personal to the bride, remind her that this is a business transaction if she tries to make it personal. REmind her the only thing that was personal was the HUGE discount you gave her in the first place!

good luck, I know exactlly what you're going through! Make sure you ask around though, and make sure you ask people that would tell you the truth even if the truth hurts!!

mrsjah, I know it's hard to hear things like that. Don't take it too badly, I once had a bride call and leave a message and say that everyone hated the wedding cake, and when I called her back, she said it was only like 10 people that didn't like it. I was so mad at her for calling me and making a stink about it. But, I realized, then, that I will probably have someone at all times, that won't like my cakes. lol

Wow Khaldstead- Good thing that couple were church people. If they weren't they wqould have just robbed you at gunpoint. Can't believe the nerve of some people.

Mrsjah- I agree with some of the other ladies. Look into it. Get proof.

I want to thank you all for your support. I feel better when there is someone else to share my problems to, and get the feed back. By the way she has not returned the rounds she claimed to be raw.

AGAIN EVERYONE FOR THE HELP AND SUPPORT

Personally, I never let them talk me into using something that is not tried and true (tested).

Sorry this happened to you...

Jen

Man, that doesn't even make sense to me. I would think a raw cake would have a sunk in center... especially at 14 inches. Even if you didn't torte them, you would have possibly known when you put the dowels is ( I insert, remove, cut and re-insert). But beyond that... how would you test a baked cake for done-ness (is that a word?) and not see batter? I would think a raw center cake would have been extremely hard to handle while stacking the layers.... should have split in the center.
Yeah, just not buying it. No refund.
So how did the returned "raw" cake look to you?

to tell you the truth Ruth, they are exactlly the type of people that NEED to be in church.


I think the worst part was that because she kept talking about how she was a Christian I kept ignoring all the red flags all over the place thinking, surely if she's going to proclaim the name of Jesus all the time she's got to be honest right??
WRONG! Falls under the category of people that will be saying "Lord, Lord" during judgement to which Jesus will answer "Depart from me, I never knew you"

I actually feel bad for them for feeling that they needed to try to be dishonest and RUDE on top of that to me when I did what I was contracted to do.

Ya live and learn!

I work in a church, so I know the feeling. LOL