I have a minor problem....lady wanted to get a poker table cake for a groom's cake for rehearsal dinner. Sent a check in the mail for deposit (haven't got it yet, probably tomorrow.)

Told me 40 servings, which is perfect for the 12" hexagon cake (matching a photo she sent me.) Then wrote me later to tell me suddenly the guest count is down to 30 due to people who cannot come.

Well the next size down is 9" hex which serves only 18. So then I told her I could make a SINGLE layer 15" hex to serve around 30. OR we could do a 9" round to serve 30 or a 9" square to serve 40.

She doesn't like the idea of a single layer. She doesn't like the idea of another shape. She wants a hexagon. She wants a double layer hexagon. She doesn't want leftover cake. She says if we can't work anything out maybe I should just send her deposit money back.

She's not been mean or rude but its like she had something in her head and she's not willing to change any of it (except the serving amount) now that her guest list has changed.

I suppose I could bake round cakes and chop them into a hex but that's a pain in the butt to get perfectly even, and I"d have to charge her extra for that anyway so I don't know why she doesn't just actually get the cake she's paying for???? I mean I could just bake her the 12" cake, chop some off, charge extra, and then tell her it serves 30????

I need to write her back today...well I already did but I need to give her a few final choices, or just decide to send her money back I guess. She's just going to go find a baker who will do what she wants, so I really would like to figure out how to do what she wants.

Thanks!

So sorry. I agree the 15" hex would make life perfect. but if you really want to do the cake, I would suggest the square and cut the shape out.

If you have a lot of orders and not a lot of time, I would send the deposit back with a nice note, of course.

YOu could also tell her that if you have to "create" a specific serving size it now becomes a specialty cake and costs more, to make it worth your time.

I went ahead and emailed her giving her again the serving sizes, reminding her that the circle or the square would work too...and then telling her I can bake the 12" hex and then cut it down to 30 serving size. But I had to add an extra fee for that since it does take time to carefully cut the cake so its still even.

I feel bad that she may feel I'm being difficult...I think too she is frustrated that a third of her guests backed out so I'm trying not to take it personally. Its three months down the road from now so I can definitely take the order if she wants to work it out.

She was fine to work with until 1/3 of her guests backed out. I think maybe she is annoyed with them and getting frustrated with me as a result.

I'm sorry but to me it's a no brainer for the customer. She either wants a smaller cake so she can end up not feeding everyone there, or she gets a larger cake with some cake leftover for breakfast! HEre's your choices ..... pick one!

"Hello, grocery store? I need a loaf of bread but I dont' need 16 slices. Can you take some out and sell me 10 slices? Oh and I don't expect to pay you for the extra time it takes to take those slices out and I'm not paying for the slices you throw away. Because I only NEED 10 slices."

Yeah ....THAT'LL work!