Hi everyone, I mostly have lovely customers but every now and again get a tricky one. I made a Christening Cake on the weekend, quite a simple cross, vanilla with SMBC.  She told me the cake was to serve 25-30 people so I showed her sizes and she kept going up and up in size till we had a cross that was going to serve about 60 people, the length was 34cm and I showed her the tin that would be the right length.  I told her it would serve many more than she needed and would therefore cost more than she might have been expecting to pay.  Her husband was also there and he said to her "Order whatever you want" so 34cm it was.  When her husband came to pick up the cake he said it was beautifully made but his wife was expecting it to be longer "about 2 feet long".  I said I had showed them the tin size and they had approved that so I didn't understand why they would think it would be longer.  And then he said that the cake was too small and wouldn't serve 200 people.  I had a second of scrambled brain trying to make that sentence make sense and then said his wife had told me the cake was to serve 25-30 people.  He said I didn't understand how his wife thought, and what her family was like..... feel free to insert any comment you like in here, believe me over the last couple of days I've come up with a few! I said the cake would not serve 200 people because they did not order a cake to serve 200 people, I asked him why his wife had said 25-30 people when they were expecting 200 as that is quite a large discrepancy.  He again said you don't know how my wife thinks.  We continued to discuss this for a few minutes and he said several times you don't know how my wife thinks, believe me I know what I think, but I didn't think I should say it.

I wasn't going to be back until today so I told him his wife was welcome to come back and discuss this with me and we arranged that she would call me today.  I haven't heard anything, so either she will call tomorrow or I won't hear anything and she will leave, an unhappy customer.  I'm not worrying about this as I know I made the cake I was paid to make and everything is written down clearly and approved by her, I just wanted to share unrealistic expectations or just plain weird experience.

Very strange situation but beautiful cake!

Always get an email string going.  The spoken word proves nothing.  Too bad for them but this is not your fault.

Everything is written down in a contract, that's why I was so confused about the size and number of people.

ABizarre! Maybe she was only getting cake for the close family while he had invited most of the church and she wasn't happy about it. Sounds like there is some kind of other business going on with them if you ask me.

I thought there was something else going on I just can't figure out what, I was hoping somebody here might be able to figure it out.

Hi 810WhiteChoc, you're cake design is beautiful...! I wouldn't worry too much about that lady.  I see this happening a lot with wedding cake orders since the recession hit.  The couple order a wedding cake for 120 people but actually have 200 guests attending in the hope that not everybody will eat cake (in the UK wedding cake is normally served later in the evening at about 10-11pm with finger food and some guests are too busy holding up the bar to go looking for wedding cake, but at the same time some guests love cake and have more than one portion). It's when you turn up to deliver and set up the wedding cake that you see the seating for 200 people....

AHe was right, you DON'T know how his wife thinks, and he failed at his job of interpreter. :D

Thanks, I needed a good lol.

I think you are right about inviting 200 people but not wanting to pay for a cake that large.

As a PS to this story I had a customer come in today who saw the photo and loved it and has ordered the cake for her child's christening - this cake is going to haunt me.