AAdebee I always do the same thing as chezzabelle. My buttercream is usually 1:2 butter and icing sugar plus stuff (flavourings, milk etc). I keep seeing lots of other recipes on this board I think from Americans who use crisco. Is that some sort of shortening? And other things that aren't plain old butter. I've always wondered if I'm missing a trick because my buttercream seems to be different to the bulk of the Americans on this forum and indeed other places.

I was hoping you guys could help me with something. I had a cake that was picked up on Saturday. It is my second order from this lady and after the first cake she messaged me on how much she loved the design and the taste. This morning she messaged me saying she was really disappointed with the cake inside but that the decoration was great. I immediately messaged her back thanking her for her feedback and asking what the problem was. My exact message was, 'I'm very sorry to hear this. Can you tell me what the problem was so I can make sure it doesn't happen again. Your feedback is very important and I will do my best to make sure that whatever problems there were won't be repeated.'

I am so gutted! I've only started my business up quite recently and this is the first negative response I've had. I take a lot of pride in the baking of my cakes as well as the decorating and I'm trying to think about what could have been wrong and I just have no idea. The only thing that was weird was that one of the layers was a little smaller than normal and one of the layers was a little bigger than normal, I thought it would be okay. It was a really light, fudgy chocolate cake. Everyone always compliments my chocoalte cake and the family loved the scraps off of this particular cake. I'm now thinking that maybe the weight of the fondant pressed down on it and made it more dense? I rolled the fondant out a little thicker than I normally do. I was in the kitchen while (yummy) biryani was being made and it got very steamy and humid in there for some reason so the fondant was very difficult to manipulate so I rolled it out thicker than normal. Then there was another layer of fondant just along the top of the cake too.

I've realised I've started rambling. I think all I wanted to initially ask was, 'Should I give her a discount?' She had earlier inquired after a third cake when she picked up this one. Do I give her a discount for that? Or suggest it? She hasn't gotten back to me about what the problem actually was.

AI'd post a picture of it if I knew how to.

A

Well I don't own a business yet but I think your response sounded professional and you should wait for her reply as to what the problem was before mentioning discounts etc... to be honest she can't have been too disappointed as she has probably eaten the cake or I am sure she would have said in the message that she wasn't able to eat it (if that makes sense), hopefully one of the other cakers with a business will pop on and give you some better advice

AThank you chezzabelle! I have no idea what the problem could be. The scraps were delicious! I still haven't figured out how to post a photo! *is dim*

AOh no smysha that's awful!! is there any way you can get her to give you back the leftovers so you can truly see for yourself? is there any way it was overbaked and a bit dry maybe? that's my biggest fear with chocolate cake.....

I personally would offer her a discount on her next cake but do keep in mind there are a few people about who have a go at complaining about cakes being dry after eating them all to try and get them for free...

If it's really stressing you out you could try recreating the cake for yourself baked the same way just to be sure you're happy with it? I know I would feel totally sick to my stomach and have to do something so that would help me...

Really hope you're doing ok,

Gray

AMorning cakers!

Steer clear of stork or marge as the water content in marge is probably what is killing your buttercream.

Cheap butter at supermarkets, you know the own brand is cheaper than stork and produces a much better taste and texture! As the girls have said a 1:2 ratio of butter to icing sugar is the best way. Add your flavouring and if it's still too stiff add a teaspoon at a time of milk until you get the consistancy you want! Use gel colouring instead of that naff liquid stuff too :)

Another good tip is to beat the loving daylight about of the butter until it becomes white instead of yellow which will produce a better colour of your tinting.

Hope this was helpful for you? :)

Sock monkey, don't flap!! It will be fine! You have us lot to drag you through it if it becomes a slog :)

ASmysha it's happened to me before and my heart literally sank into my boots!

Chalk it up as experience and you will have it in the back of your mind always to check. I bake a little cuppie for the hubby to quality check for me everytime haha! Perfect response by the way, very professional!

AHi Gray! Can I just say I love your cakes! I've had a look at some of them and they are great.

It really wasn't dry at ALL. I remember thinking when I was layering it how soft and fudgy and moist it was. I was happy with its bake. I wonder if the weight of the fondant had an affect on it though. I'm doing better now. When I read the message my face fell and I ran to a friend for a hug. Now I've just accepted it. Should I ask her if I can try it for myself? I don't mind travelling to see her after work. She hasn't replied to me yet. Will it come across as a bit forward if I ask?

A

Thanks kuuushi. I will definitely be doing this in the future.

I think I need to close this tab and get back to work now!

Welcome Adebee - I never use Stork for buttercream - always use butter - not least because it is firmer and also because of taste.  You will probably find your buttercream will be more stable if you use butter.

Smysha - I also think you replied in a professional manner.  I don't sell at the moment but I think that there is a veiled request for a discount.  If it were me, and this is just my opinion, I would not offer anything and see where it goes.  If you are confident in your recipe and there was no problem previously, then fine.  If not, then your customer might have a point.  I think you need to look at how regular a customer this will be.

To post a photo: you need to look for the little image in the tool bar which shows a mountain with a sun above it!  Then upload a photo from your files.

Kathy

A

Shucks - thanks :)

I think it's someone who expected a flavourless fluffy cake like thos shop bought mixes but got a propper fudgy dense one, I've had people comment on denser cakes that they thought they were under-done so maybe that's all it was.... Kuushi's advice is probably the best :)

Maybe don't bug her for a sample until you get her email, she might be happy enough to leave it as it is :)

A[@]Sock Monkey[/@] I think it's 500g for a 6 inch cake (someone please correct me if I am wrong) I am not sure how much you will need for a board as well though

I just did a round cake - covered it in fondant - and Bob's your uncle!  Of course, my cake was fruit and marzipanned - yours isn't, is it?  I personally don't think there's a set rule to the look of cutting cakes - all I know is that if your clienbts mess you about you are going to worry yourself sick that you are providing enough.  I have never known a wedding cake all to go.  People either forget to pick some up or they just don't want it.  The only luxury of a cutting cake is to keep within your design parameters and stick with the original quote (because don't forget, there will be a bit of an impact also on the cake stand too I expect).  Tell them that everyone is doing it!  Guests are unlikely to tell that it didn't come from the original cake unless (as happened to me once - and you need to be aware) they decided not to cut the blinking thing and handed round the cutting cake!!  I heard that there were some odd comments.  I would like to know what they did with all that cake!

Smysha - agree with Gray - let her reply and take it from there.

Kathy

Edited to say - sorry, my quote thingy didn't work - I was obviously trying to quote Sock Monkey!  Lol

Hi all,

Sockmonkey, here are the amounts based on the ganacherator. The amounts below are based on dark or milk choc (not white).

For round cakes
 

6= 335g  chocolate, 168ml cream

8 = 447g choc, 223 ml cream

10 = 558g choc, 279 ml cream

For square:

6 = 405g choc, 203ml cream

8 = 540 g choc, 270 ml cream

10 = 675g choc, 338ml cream

Smysha, wait and see what the customer's response is, and give her a discount based on her response. If it sounds serious - big discount, if it seems a little petty/ nitpicking (say she says the layers were different sizes) then give a smaller discount. Either way, give a discount on next order plus apologies.

*runs off to finish making MFF*

AOh Goodness what have I done.......... I just took a deposit for the globe cake!!!!! eek! I'm making a full sphere with edible pins for all the countries the birthday has visited! Exciting!!!!!!!

ooh I just remembered someone asked about pleats a few pages back; I tried a few methods; I didn't like the method which was cutting out triangles of SP and folding them in half- it seemed uneven and pretty thick.... the way that worked in the end was to score light lines on the ganached cake to show equal sized segments and then to lay triangles of thins SP on the cake with a slight overlap at one side, I think they looked well! I found that you have to cut triangles tho because if you just use strips a big bulge of SP builds up in the centre of the cake with all the overlaps.

Also don't use too much water; i got two little pools of goo where the water channeled between srips and collected at the base of the cake! not good!!

I'm back second coat of paint done, can't do the other wall until tomorrow as not enough room to move the furniture without bashing the wall I've just done and visitited my Nan.

Tiddy Love the elsa doll cake how did you do her cape its lovely, love the teddy topper to.

Siany lovely gingerbread house.

Jo lovely cakes I can't see anything wrong with them they look great.

Maisie love the ninja cupcake the colours are gorgeous. Love the shirt you've done a fab job bet your stepson loved it.

Nanny love the cd cake and the pearlised sheen on it really makes a difference, I also think it looked grey not green. Lovely xmas cakes to 

Suzanne glad you got your lights sort.

Gray that cake is stunning, glad you got it there in one piece the second time I bet the bride was thrilled.

Hi Adebee welcome to the thread, I do the same as everyone else with my buttercream and have never had any problems.

Chezza I don't think I've seen a pic of your brothers wedding cake did you post one?

Smysha sorry you had a complaint from you customer I'm sure it will all turn out fine. I agree with the others to wait until you hear back from her.

Sock monkey hope your feeling better about the wedding cake now.

Right I think I have finally caught up, sorry if I have missed anyone.

AJust wanted to say hi. Im new to cake central but im so glad I found a uk thread, im not too great with all the American terminology. Also wanted to see if anyone could recommend good cake size for a christmas caketo be decorated for a gift for my daughters teacher, she has a few! thanks claire:)

Hi Claire welcome to the thread, sorry can't help with the cake as I've not made christmas cake yet. Are you thinking of doing a cake for each teacher?

AThat was me, thanks gray! While you're here I'm going to be cheeky and ask another question :-) You said a while ago about using cheesecake mix to flavour a bc - any chance you could let me know what you do please as I'm debating whether to do a normal cream cheese filling out smbc with the flavour :-)

I'm very sad today. I think I mentioned my youngest was mad for stickers when he was little (I came back from a trip to town when he was about 4 only to find I'd spent two hours wondering around on my own with a line of about a dozen smiley faces on the arse of my jeans). Well today I had to remove the small glittery blue penguin that he stuck on our bin when he was 3. It was one of those little things that made me smile (so much so that I moved it to the new bin when we changed it last year) but it is now headless and wingless so it had to go :-(

I've also lost the little smiley face that the little bugger drew on our stairs a few years ago. I should have been fuming with him for that one but it made me smile every time I looked at it. Boo :-(

A

Hello :-)

I used to do cakes for teachers, usually 8" just so I had more space for decorating, but then I also did carved ones which might be smaller or enormous depending on the design.

I don't think you can go wrong whatever you decide - if it's smaller they have a lovely personal present to keep for themselves, if it's larger they have a lovely personal present to share with colleagues/their class!

AYes I was thinking of doing individual ones for about 4 of them for their christmas prezzies from her.

AThanks lizzybug78, I think you are right they should be well received which ever I go for, but 8" seems like a decent enough size. Just need to decide whether to go for fruit cakeor a plain sponge now:-) Claire

Awww Lizzy it's horrible when you have to lose something the kids did when they were younger isn't it.

Sorry Claire when you said christmas cakes I thought you meant fruit, I haven't made fruit cake as we don't like it. 8" is a nice size to fit decorations on like Lizzy said 

I am going to travel to Birkenhead in a minute to visit my sister and the kids to take their xmas stuff over to them. There is a nice cake shop on the corner of her street so hoping I get a chance for a quick nosey while I'm there.

Oh Kathy I forgot to say my onlay and mould arrived over the weekend, the onlay is a little smaller than expected but can't complain for the price. Did your alligator one turn up?

A

Quote:

Originally Posted by Lizzybug78 

That was me, thanks gray! While you're here I'm going to be cheeky and ask another question You said a while ago about using cheesecake mix to flavour a bc - any chance you could let me know what you do please as I'm debating whether to do a normal cream cheese filling out smbc with the flavour

I'm very sad today. I think I mentioned my youngest was mad for stickers when he was little (I came back from a trip to town when he was about 4 only to find I'd spent two hours wondering around on my own with a line of about a dozen smiley faces on the arse of my jeans). Well today I had to remove the small glittery blue penguin that he stuck on our bin when he was 3. It was one of those little things that made me smile (so much so that I moved it to the new bin when we changed it last year) but it is now headless and wingless so it had to go

I've also lost the little smiley face that the little bugger drew on our stairs a few years ago. I should have been fuming with him for that one but it made me smile every time I looked at it. Boo

Boo Lizzy I get totally attatched to little emotional things like that too!

The cheesecake mix, yes I make BC 1:1.5 butter sugar, I then get a cheap cheesecake mix, pop the buscuit crumb base mix in the back of the cupboard* and add the white powdery cheesecake part to my BC, it makes it really creamy and lovely, I add extra vanilla too.

I'm sure you could do the same by adding cream cheese and milk powder and suger etc but its so cheap and easy using the mix :)

*anyone any suggestions on how to use up 7 packets of crushed dugestive biscuits??? banoffee pie?! ...it would be cheaper just to throw them out maybe! lol

They would be getting dunked in a cuppa tea at my house Gray I love them

Thanks again Gray, you are a star! I will be toddling off to Tesco for a pack to try this out later. Lol @ costing you more to make something than throw them away, I do that all the time with old bananas and banana bread. Bananas - 50p Making banana bread - a couple of quid plus my time plus electricity. 

The globe cake sounds awesome btw - when's it for?