I made my first fire truck cake and I am not happy with it at all. Well I shouldn't say at all...it's really just the cab part of the truck. It is a bit lopsided and lumpy looking. The rest came out pretty cute, but the cab is one of the focal points of the cake (you can't hide it). I was going to charge $85 for the cake, but I don't feel like it's fair. The girl I made it for is an old high school friend and her family is very well known in the area. They own a few restaurants. I'm actually embarrased to give it to her. What should I do? I don't want to just give the cake away b/c I did work my butt off on it. Should I knock some off and explain to her why and aplogize perfusely? All the cakes I've done have mainly been tiered cakes, not 3-d. I definitely learned a lot from this cake. aaaaahhhh!!!! Please help!

I don't do many 3D cakes and I am always unhappy with the ones I do. The customer never sees all the errors I see though. Can you post a picture?

I made a baby blocks cake once, and I was embarrased at how bumpy it all was. Everybody that saw it was so impressed though, they were amazed at the details and the figures. When I look at pix of it I still see the wavy fondant. I agree, post a pic or have an honest friend come for an emergency check on it. Most likely they will think its fine, but if not, hopefully you can get some advice on a price cut. I did not have to figure that part out with my wavy cake because it was a gift for my sis.

We are always our own worst critics! Most people will not see the imperfections that we do.

It's very hard for us not to see every little mark or lump because we spend hours working on our cakes! I'm sure no one will even notice (especially if they can't do half the things you can do with cake!). If they love the cake and have no complaints, I would say charge the price you set (since you did work so hard on it!). If they're very unhappy (which I doubt they will be), offer a discount or give them a small percentage back.

Can you post a picture? Are you sure it's really that bad? Chances are she will not even notice the things that YOU find wrong with the cake. I hate doing 3D cakes. I did two for my neice's class for Dr. Seuss Day this year. Everyone raved about them but I wasn't pleased with them. I'm just not good at 3D cakes...not my calling. If you could post a picture maybe someone could help you fix the things you don't like about your cake. Good luck.

this has happened to me before as well. I think it is probably best not to say that you arent happy with it. She might be super impressed, who knows?!? But if you don't feel like your work warrants $85, just give her a discount, but don't tell her it is because you don'tthink it's good enough. Just tell her it's because you are old friends or something. That way you feel better about taking less but you don't have to admit it isn't up to your standards. The last cake I did this for I was going to charge $120 for it. When I was done, I looked at it and thought "this doesnt look like a $120 cake" So I just charged them $100 and they thought I just gave them a discount for no reason. The wrote me an email later really raving about the cake. I guess I could have kept the 120, but I felt better just taking $100.

I know the feeling. I had a disaster with a cake for a friend of a friend, and I always do a practice cake for anything 3D now.

I agree that the friend will probably be delighted even though you are a bit disappointed....