Ok heres the situation: Yesterday I totally forgot I had a cake. Well actually I didn't forget it completely, I for some reason was thinking it was Saturday. I had almost everything done, but still wouldn't have had the time to make the cake and get it to her before the party. My fault I know. I'm just overwhelmed right now with some personal issues. I apologized to the lady, but she's already told people I what I've done. I sent an email and apologize again, and told her if she still wanted the cake I would make it for her at no cost. I've yet to her from her. Is the free cake enough? I don't want this to cause trouble with any future cake orders.

I've heard satistics with this sort of thing and they reckon that the customer should walk away from you happy. Within the first five minutes they should feel they have won the battle and that the situation has gone in their favor. Personnally I apologise no end. Then always have a cake in the freezer to offer and tell them they can have this one for free and please trust me again with your next cake, I will do that one free of charge also. They reckon, do something good and only one person will hear about it. Do something bad and 10 people will hear about it. They have to walk away happy!

Well it sounds like you have done all you can do. Just call it a loss and move on. Everyone makes mistakes now and again, just consider it a lesson learned

Everyone is human and makes mistakes. Aside from the apology and a free cake there's really nothing you can do but take a deep breath and move on and hope she doesn't do too much word of mouth damage. That being said, if I were the CUSTOMER I would not do business again with someone who did this. Accepting the possibility of this as the consequence of your error and figuring out a way to make sure it doesn't happen again is part of moving on from it.

I certainly wouldn't contact her anymore, chances are you've lost her as a customer ,just move on and learn from this. I do understand "personal issues" believe me I understand I have to agree with Elcee though..I would not do business again with someone who did this. I know "we all make mistakes" but I would have given her an undecorated cake if she had to stand there while I iced it. Like fishabel said the customer needs to "walk away from you happy".

I wouldn't contact her again, either. You've apologized, told her the reason, and offered a free cake. There's really not anything else you can do.

Personally, I have about three calendars (literally) with my cake orders on them because I have nightmares about missing one.
You might want to give some thought to a better tracking system that'd work for you, and consider if you need to pass on taking any more cake orders until your personal issues are resolved. Sometimes you hit the limit on how many "balls in the air" you can handle. I know I have, anyway.

Try not to agonize endlessly about this. Everyone makes mistakes, and you just can't always fix it. Good luck!