Hi guys

I am so depressed righ now as I have gone through the worst situation. I made a beautiful cake for a wedding and was on way to deliver the cake. Five minutes away from the destination I met with an accident and as a result, the cake fell in the boot. I was traumatised and so upset. I took the cake to the venue and tried to fix it to the best of my ability and it looked fine from the front but very lopsided from the back/side. No one was there to see the cake so I contacted the bride and let her know about the unfortunate event. The bride was not happy at all and said she was very upset. I have offered her a full refund but she still is very angry.

This is so upsetting and has totally put me of cake decorating. It makes me feel so low and I feel like I am getting in to depression.

Has anyone else been in  a situation like this?

AWhite sort of boot (trunk, in the US) was it in? Like a small, dark, cramped one in a car? Or like, just the back of an SUV?

That really stinks, but accidents do happen. If it was still edible, that accounts for much. At least there was cake!

The same thing happened to me last year. I had a 4 tier fall over when some jackwagon pulled out in front of me. It was me, or the cake, and I chose life! It was really hard to deliver another cake after that, especially a 4 tier! The next one I did had 3 dowels in it, and was mostly frozen! I bet the servers thought I was nuts! But I am more confident again.

Incidentally, do you have a contract that outlines what you will do in a situation like this? If not, you should get one, ASAP! Mine basically says, I will do what I can to make it right with them, but I can't be sued. More or less.

AOk I've never been in this situation,but I feel so bad for you! I don't think ANY cake is worth getting into depression over,the bride should have been more concerned about you rather than the cake! But then I guess customers can be selfish that way- don't feel put off there will be lots of situations that will arise but you just have to feel confident enough to deal with them. Give it a couple of days and take some rest, also explain to the bride that this was not your fault you had an ACCIDENT!! I hope you feel better soon xx

Thank you for you're replies. I know I shouldn't get depressed over it but it actually feels like a nightmare! The boot was of a small car but spacious enough for the cake to fit in. It was because of the accident the cake fell. annabakescakes, I will definatley look in to making a contract like the one you mentioned. But at the moment I feel like I don't want to do this anymore  , I put so much hardwork and effort in to the cake and it was all for nothing. What upsets me most is that no one would care how much effort you have put in to something, all they see is the end result and there is nothing you can do about it..

AOh I am so very sorry that the accident happened, thank goodness you are alright. The cake must of not been to bad if people were still able to eat it and you said that it looked ok from the front. Did you take pictures of the cake after you set it up? If it looked ok than if the bride decides to sue you can at least show that the cs ke looked ok when you left it. Lets hope it doesn't go that far. Give the bride a full refund and maybe even offer a small cake if she would like, but no more than that. When it comes to delivering your next cake just make sure its doweled well and remember that it was a accident you didn't mean for it to happen. If you feel like you simply can't deliver another cake because you are afraid that something is gonna happen to it , you can buy a cake safe they are very very expensive but it might be worth it for the peace of mind. Definitely put in your contract that you are not responsible for acts of god or unforseen accidents. Take care of you :)

ADont think of it as " all for nothing " you're building your confidence in making cakes and every situation will make you a stronger person, people think that cake decorators are ' magicians ' so don't feel bad- they're not really in touch with reality lol.

So sorry that this happened to you :-(.  Give the bride a couple of days to calm day.  Her reaction was probably born more out of nerves on her big day. Once she's had some time to look back and realise that it really wasn't the end of the world and that her day was awesome anyway - she'll be more understanding.  It's impossible to provide an absolute 100% guarantee that a cake will be delivered without mishap.  All you can do is plan for the delivery best you can and prepare yourself for the "what ifs".  Please don't let this put you off - accidents like this do happen but they are few and far between.

A

Yeah its a hard pill ti swallow, people who don't do cakes have absolutely No idea how much work goes into a cake . People just think oh alittle baking and decorating and there it is a wonderful cake creation. You have to accept that people won't ever realize how much work goes into caking only another cake person understands all the blood, sweat and tears and you put into your creations. Dust yourself off hold your head high you did nothing wrong and take pictures and post pictures here of your wondeful creations so that we can tell you how beautiful they truly are.

Did you get the insurance details of the other car?  If so, then shouldn't you be able to enter a claim for the damages done not only to your car but to the cake?
 

 Sobering but true statement that we can't 100% guarantee that our cake will arrive in pristine condition.
I need to add that to my contract.

Going off topic here...
"some jackwagon pulled out in front of me"

You my dear have a way with words.
 
Sorry this happened to you, glad you were not injured, and a cake with one good 'side' is better than no cake at all or a truly hideous one that even a filter on the camera can't hide its flaws.

mommachris
 

AI feel your pain because the same thing happened to me with a topsy turvey cake in 108 degree temperature. Only there w no way to fix mine at all. I called the father of the bride who was the one that had wanted me to do his daughter's wedding cake and told him about the mess but only after I had found a replacement cake from a bakery here on town. It was not the cake the bride had envisioned, but it worked in a pinch. I was able to put the roses I had made on it. I was devastated but luckily they were ok with it. I returned their money of course and swore off wedding cakes. Hang in and don't give up. We learn from our mistakes--especially the costly ones.

;)

I feel you did the right thing, there just things that are so far out of our control.  These moments are our best teaching moment, I learned very quickly that what has happened to you can happen to anyone at anytime.  For the Bride to very angry at you is probably the only way she deals to deal with her anger in that present moment.  I would like to think after the wedding and things have calmed she will realize you are not in control of how others drive, you didn't cause the accident by driving recklessly, and of all things I have learned in my life is if you don't think something can't happen to you, it will. What I mean by that is prehaps one day an unfortunate incident may happen to this bride in which she would like compassion, and a person will treat as the same; she may realize how horrible you felt in your moment.  This was my teaching moment too.  I had made this 5 tier Ruched wedding cake, with sugar roses and sunflowers, this was my 1st wedding cake. I am all ready to deliver it and set it up, as I am setting it up I am noticing it is leaning. I thought Why is it leaning, everything is level.....suddenly the guest start coming in an hour earlier than expected. I had to hurry and run, so on my drive home all I thought about was this leaning cake, I had this horrible sick feeling. I just pull into my home and before I enter my house the phone rings.....the cake FELL OVER! It was caught before it fell to the floor, so it was edible, once I got inside I saw what I didn't do AND IT WAS THE ONE THING I SET ASIDE SO I WOULDN'T FORGET.....I left the cardboard rounds in, instead of replacing them with plastic plates. Mortified, horrified, swore i would NEVER do another cake, well that didn't last long. I refunded their money, but the bride only took $200 back because she said everyone ate it and loved it. The Bride said to me "I would like for someone to be understanding and compassionate to me if something that was my passion had fallen all apart,. It was upsetting to me, but devastating to you.Who is to say someday something like this wouldn't happen to me, i would want someone to be caring to me as well. Its not like you planned for this to happen" She gave me hugged and said "This didn't ruin my wedding, it made it memorable, the thing i would feel terrible for is you to beat yourself up,please don't"  That said it all to me, so shortly after that I got swamped with orders and still am. Don't get depressed over this, yes its unfortunate, but no one died, no one lost a limb, its upsetting but don't give it power. Your good at what you do, so learn from it, maybe there is a way to learn how to create a "safe box" for delivery.....who knows you could make something that will make millions from an unfortunate incident. By next week you will be fine! and one day you WILL laugh, we all do

Warrior Mom said it so well. I too had an incident in December. I was mortified when I had a cake fall on the way to the delivery. I was only a few blocks away. I worked on the cake for two whole days non-stop. When I got there the back of the cake was damaged and front was shaken up a bit. I was able to fix it in some ways but my confidence was what was terribly damaged. I swore off cakes. I didn't want to show my face anywhere. I couldn't even talk about that cake. Somehow you bounce back. You learn from the lesson and you find a way to move on. Before you know it, the ego bruises fade and you're back to doing what you love....only the next time you'll be a little wiser and STRONGER from the experience.

I teared up a little bit after reading Warrior Mom's post. That bride is the reason we all are in this business. I'm so thankful that all of my brides thus far have been more laid back and less bridezilla. I had a gum paste number topper fall apart right as the customer was picking it up. I was almost shaking when I was putting it back together. The 18 year old and her dad were completely understanding and I showed them how to fix it in case it happened again since they were driving with it over a large grade. Things happen and I've learned that it's all how you respond to the situation. It shows your customers that yes, a mistake (or accident in this case) happened and here is how I rectified the situation in a professional manner. OP Don't give up! :D

This post is heartbreaking. We all have our bad cake days and what happened was beyond your control. Pick up the spatula and your rolling pin and get back up again! Don't let your God-given talents go to waste because of one bad day. I'm rooting for you and I am sure that others on the forum are too.

Let me ask you this...if this had happened to a friend of yours...or your own kid...would you encourage them to hang it all up and quit because something happened that was beyond your control? 

I gave up the idea of doing wedding cakes after my fiasco but not any other kind of cake!  And I eventually did a small wedding cake so that fear is gone. 

Feel bad about it, complain about it, get mad about it, but get over it!   Learn from it and go back to doing what you love.  It's only 'all for nothing' if you never try again. 

AWise words carmijok I share your sentiments

I so sympathize with you -- hasn't happened to me yet, but I certainly dread the thought. You absolutely did the right thing, however. Even if your own personal Bridezilla was ticked off because you didn't kill yourself so that her single day in time was flawless, she's SO not worth you leaving your dream! If you know you were driving responsibly, just let it go:  it wasn't your fault and these things can happen to ANYONE.

Meanwhile, however, for you and for others on this forum (I'm very new here), would you please explain why you prefer to deliver multi-tiered wedding cakes already assembled? Since you're going to the site personally (as opposed to handing the job over to a delivery person), why not take the cake with each tier packaged separately and assemble on site? Isn't that likely to be less catastrophic should a fender-bender happen?

Chin up! Give yourself a week to grieve and then move past it.

Oh my dear, don't worry!  It happens to the best of us!  Even the Ace of Cakes himself, Duff Goldman!

I delivered a fancy cake last summer to a venue, and everything seemed great!

However, when I took the cake in boxes out of the car and headed inside, I noticed that my pretty icing had SLID almost OFF THE CAKE!!!

It was supposed to have a smoothly iced base, with a wide ribbon around the base of each tier.

I ended up smoothing the icing up and doing "C" scrolls where it was supposed to be smooth. 

NIGHTMARE!!

I later explained to the bride what had happened, and luckily for me, she had been a repeat customer twice over and knew my cakes tasted great, so she wasn't too upset on the last minute design change!

I however was mortified!

All you can do is offer either a full refund or (and this is obviously if it is NOT a wedding cake) offer the next cake for free.

I have done a refund before when the red icing on a white cake bled all over the place.

It was supposed to be a baseball.....

Best wishes on future cakes, and just chock it up to a learned experience and DON'T let it hold you back!!

AI think everyone has a couple fail cakes but I truly believe we learned from mistakes. I had a 3 tier square wedding cake and when i was driving a dowel slipped and it was lopsided but nothing i could do i was so upset and still think about it 3 yrs later but i know when they look bak at their wedding they wont think of a lopsided cake bc even grocery store sheet cakes look beautiful to people, we cant be such a critic of our own work because to the average eye they wont even notice or remember. Hope this helps keep up the good work :)