If you are delivering a wedding cake and say, you have an accident, and the cake is completely smashed (for sake of argument, beyond repair - worst case scenario). Obviously, yes, you could give the bride a refund...however, this leaves her without a cake at her wedding. So I'm just curious if any of you have a backup plan. I don't have a business yet; just a hobbyist for now, but I'm trying to get all of my ducks in a row. This is something I worry about

If you were a business, you'd be able to accommodate for this in a couple of ways. If it's truly not possible to scrape everything off and repair on the spot due to cracked or crumbled cake...

1. Travel back to your store, pull cakes out of the freezer (hopefully, in the flavors requested), and redo the cake within a matter or an hour or two (or very similar, depending on the complication of the design).

or,

2. Travel back to your store to pick up a display cake dummy that you already have onhand which most closely resembles the design or color choices (so the photographer can at least get a photo of a tiered wedding cake), and bring sheet cakes to be served from the kitchen.

I have a very small business and I make all my cakes to order. I have NO frozen cakes that I could pull out as replacements. In other words, I'd pretty much be screwed. Even if I had them, there's no way I could thaw, make filling and icing, fill, ice and decorate in the hour or two before they were to be served.

I do have numerous dummy cakes, and I think it's a brilliant suggestion that you could offer one for use at least for pictures.

I guess it'd be a Costco run at my expense. Ugh.

Yes to both those options. In fact I posted a story about this very thing.

I have numerous dummy cakes and I tell the couples that if there's a non-recoverable accident involving their cake, then they get a dummy, and grocery store cake. And a full refund of course.

As a home baker, I make my cakes to order also. I have never considered this before....interested to hear the responses

I'm with Leah-- of course I say this as I'm knocking on every wood surface in my lobby!

Thanks for all the responses!! Dummy cakes + store bought cakes + refund....good idea! (As I don't intend to have any cakes in the freezer...)