I Was Enraged By A Cake Decorator!
Decorating By MandaBrizown Updated 21 Mar 2010 , 6:12pm by cownsj
Ok time to vent.
As cake decorators, we take pride in our work. I know that I always am welcoming to beginners and usually won't mention my level of decorating. I don't want to make them feel bad. However, I was ready to scream at this cake decorator on Sat.
Here is a little back story. My mother and myself manage an event center. We rent the facility for weddings, parties, etc. We had a wedding for this past Sat. The family had came in and set up the reception and worked very hard to make sure everything was in its place. I was supposed to let the cake decorator know where to set the cake up. The reception was scheduled to begin at 3 pm.
The cake decorator shows up at 2 and I greet her. I show her where the cake is supposed to go and I offered to help get the tiers out of her car. She agreed. I should have been tipped off when I saw the first tier. Anyway she comes in and starts setting the cake up. I didn't want to hover or bother her so I stay far back and pretended to be doing something else. I seen that she had all the tiers on cardboard circles. Ok.
However it seems like she is using a tier set to set the cake up. First I think she cant put pillars with plain cake boards. There is no stability. Anyway I leave her and tell my mom to go and pry to see how much she charged for the cake. After she leaves my mother says "you will never believe how much she charged that lady for that cake." After a few seconds of guessing she says, "85 dollars per tier."
This is the point, when my jaw is on the floor. I go look at the cake and was immediatley engulfed in anger!
Let me explain what this cake looked like. She had made single layer tiers. Then did not level the cakes. She took them straight out of the pan and set them right side up with baking "humps" still in tact. She then procceded to ice them and leave tons of spatula marks all over them. The icing didnt even go all the way to the bottom of the cake. Lets see then when it came to the assembly it was even worse. I dont know if she was trying to stack the cakes or tier them. I am assuming that she was attempting to stack them.
The bottom tier had a Wilton scalloped edge board. The other tiers had plain cardboard circles that hadn't been trimmed. She used 10 in cake circles for 8 and 6 inch cakes. Then there was a 1 inch gap between the tiers. Why, because she didn't make the straws flush with the cakes. She had cut the straws uneven and with points. Some parts of the tiers were being held by a POINT! Then she placed black and deep red plastic roses all over the cake!
I was livid when I found out she got paid 255.00 for this! I told my mother I have got to fix this cake before the bride gets here. She will be crushed if she sees this cake. I was so mad to think that this woman thought that this cake was up to par.
So i waited for some of the family members to arrive and told them that I could fix it. I had some icing with me and some of my tools and that I could try and make it better. The minute the mother of bride arrived she was very unhappy. She said please fix this cake for my daughter. So I took it and did the best I could with the time and supplies that I had.
Luckily, the bride never knew what the original cake looked like. So I was happy that I was there and just happened to be a cake decorator! I still cant believe it. AAHHH! And, she was so proud of her cake and was taking pictures of it. My mom said she had asked her if she did this for a living and she said yes! OMG!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
Anyway thanks for listening!
For some reason I ca not upload pics on my forum posts. So Iam gonna post the picture in my photos. I will label it befoer and I will post the one of the after.
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What a shame............I know I see pics of some wedding cakes and cannpt believe they have the gaul to sell them they look horrible, and I can't believe they are in business. Thank heaven you were there.
omg what a wonderful job at a 'save'!
Even if someone has never made a wedding cake in their life, there is no way they can look at that and think, "Yeah! Good job!"
I can't believe she can pay the overhead of a shop if this is the quality of work that she does.
Wow, the original cake was pathetic but your redo looked pretty good considering what you had to work with. Did you level and flip the cakes? If someone wanted to hurt and/or embarrass a bride on her wedding day a cake like that would be a good way to go about it. And getting 250 bucks for it would really be the bonus. It almost looks like an intentional botch job.
It was a blessing you were there and prepared to make repairs. I assume that's why you had icing and tools on hand. Hm?
Nice save! 
I would definitely try to get that other cake decorator on a list of people you will not allow in the event center. I'm with CarolAnn.. it does look like an intentional botch job. Did the bride not see the decorators previous work? Maybe this was her 1st wedding cake and she was flying by the seat of her pants. But my gosh.. stacking and leveling is a key essential part of decorating!! 
I think this would outrage any cake decorator! That lady has no idea how to decorate cakes. I just can't understand how people get away with things like this. You did a great job at saving the cake. Does this "decorator" have a business? home baker?
You did a beautiful job!! Did it taste ok???
MandaBrizown, you did a great rescue job!! What a blessing for that bride. You saved her years of crying each time she looked at her wedding photos!
I agree with the others, if you can blacklist this person from the facility you will be doing a service to future brides!
May the good you've done be repaid to you a hundredfold!
Kathi
I think it looks intentional too. That's the only way I can wrap my mind around it.
Normally I wouldn't recomment touching another caker's wedding cake, but I make an exception in this case. Thank God you got the MOB to see the before and after...and thought to take pictures. This bride will be grateful to you forever for that.
I hope she seeks a full refund too. Unreal!
looking at the before and after, i cant believe the orginal decorater thought that they cake was acceptable :O I mean its really baffeling me as to how she could possibly think it was up to standard, Your did a wonderful job on the save, you saved that poor bride alot of grief, the nerve of some people is beyond me
WOW...just WOW! That before cake was unreal! I hope that decorator got a call from the bride's mom about that. I can't ever wrap my mind around her charging for that. It isn't even remotely passable as a stacked cake and her finishing skills...well...no comment. I'm by no means that great myself but I can honestly say that cake is disappointing.
They were VERY lucky that you were there!! The after cake is lovely! You really fixed it up nice!
I only do cakes for fun now and then and I know that one is a mess. You did a great job of saving it. That cake could had made for a very disappointing day. I can't believe anyone would pay for somthing like that.
I commented on the cake pic. and I stand by it. You are SUCH a wonderful gal doing this for this bride AND the bride should ask for some kind of refund and pass it on to you as a tip for saving her cake!! I can't believe what you did to that cake!!
This has got to be one of the BEST all time saves of a wedding cake!
Only a passionate cake decorator would happen to have extra icing, piping tools, and spatula on hand in case of emergency 
I wouldn't go so far as to blacklist the original decorator...her quality of work (or lack thereof) will eventually catch up to her on its own. I hope she takes some classes or reads some cake books to help her correct her mistaken ideas of leveling, icing, stacking, etc. Anyway... GREAT save... your scroll work is really pretty!
Melanie Mc.
OMG!
She actually left the cake boards like that???? I can't believe that!
I hope you showed the brides the before and after pics.... she should get her money back! 
a child could have done better ast that
Thank God you were there... what you did for that bride is priceless... truly
THank you for your kindness... 
I know most of us cake artists would die if something like that came to our attention, we can't help but want to make it better....
I wouldn't go so far as to blacklist the original decorator...her quality of work (or lack thereof) will eventually catch up to her on its own.
If I were just a decorator, I might say the same thing. But if I owned a venue, I would feel a responsibility to my brides to refer them to GOOD vendors. I would want their experience at my facilty to be a good one. Even tho' I didn't make the cake, their experience would be impacted. I wouldn't be able to live with myself if one of my venue brides told me she was using this cake person and I just sat back and said to myself, "oh well! she'll learn her mistake on her wedding day!"
And the way it "catches up to her" is by not being permitted inside reputable facilities because of her lack of quality and talent.
GO DEBI!! GO DEBI!! lol
You are right though, I think if I had control over what vendors were allowed to provide services inside MY facility, this decorator wouldn't be one of them! Besides, I wouldn't want pics of HORRIBLE cakes with the backdrop being MY facility floating all over the net either. Especially if people hear "the lady that runs the place decorates cakes too" they might think YOU made that cake!!
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