sick feeling in the pit of your stomach??? You know you've made a mistake with a customer's order, but thought that maybe they would'nt notice. Well, that is what just happened to me.. :0( 
I had a woman from work order a "rubber duckie" cake like the one in my photos. She wanted it a little bit bigger so it fed 45-50 people. No problem it's an easy cake. Well, the cake in the photos was 8x12 and feeds a good 35 people. Well the next sized pan I had was a 11x15??(not sure exactly) but it's the wilton pan and it's NOT squared on the edges, it's rounded and takes about 3cake mixes so I'm assuming it would feed a good 72people. Well the week started out horribly.... I got really sick in the beginning of the week (i have endometrosis (sp?) so I was truly not feeling well!! Then My BEST friend and I got in a huge, huge argument for a whole day (over something dumb!!) then we have had the most horrible weather.. We got ATON of rain (luckily i wasn't in a flood zone) and so the weather is one minute shining and the next thundering and lightening. So your whole dispositon is off. The customer was worried that I would bake her cakes too early and not be good so I started baking Thursday night (sat party). The first cake I made was in the wilton pan and it came out horrible. Even when I cut it in half to make it square it still didn't look right, didn't taste right NOTHING. I figured ok, we'll rebake (now it's 10:00 Thursday nite and I'm at wal-mart picking up a few things). I wanted to use the 8x12 pan because even though people order cakes for x-amount of people those people never show.. Since I was sooooo tired I'd bake Friday nite.. Well these cakes were 100% better in quality and texture and completely squared... I knew in the back of my mind that It was'nt big enough, but for some STUPID reason I thought it was ok.... It took me 8hrs to bake, cool, crumb coat, harden and decorate the big cake and a little 4inch smash cake.
The price I had given her previously was $50.00 for a cake to feed 50, plus the smash cake and then I delivered the cake 35min away at 8:30sat morning.
When I got there you could tell she was disappointed in the size, she said so and I could see it on her face. I told her she didn't have to pay me the full 50dollars due to it not being big enough. She was like no, no.. you worked really hard and it looks so pretty, she's like I just thought it was much bigger. She's like what size was Tracy's cake (the previous duck one) and I'm like oh it was a little bit smaller than this one (1st lie )
So i offered to go to the store and buy her one and she's like no, I'll just pick one up she said that 50 people were NOT coming but her family really likes cake so she wanted to be sure they had extra. So then I told her that the next cake she ordered from me would be free and she's like stop it... it's beautiful just not as big as I wanted. All in all she was happy with the quality NOT quantity.
So why do I still feel like throwing up???? I know I screwed up and I hate that feeling...it's not her fault that I made the mistakes..
Do you think that I should go and get like a gift certificate or something and send it to her??? (she's on vacation this week) I don't really do this for the money I enjoy making cakes for people, but this time around I feel like crap. I want to be able to sleep tonight, so what about a $20.00Gift certificate from like friendly's or something? I have to work with this woman everyday and she's such a nice lady that I don't want her to feel obligated to be happy when she's clearly not.
what do you think??? Have any of you done this before??
sorry soooo long
b
You feel aweful because you lied and you know how wrong it is to do that. Hats off to you for admitting it and having a proper heart to recognize it and feel bad about it. I'm so happy to hear you want to make it right with this lady... How about when she gets back from vacation , bring an I'm SORRY cake. No really... a cake that says sorry on it. Then maybe a small discount on her next cake? I don't know...So sorry you have to go through this! -rhondie .........
1st: glad to see you survived the flood of water ok (as one who lived in Mt. Vision, outside Oneonta, for a while, I've been real concerned about ya'll up there)
2nd: now as to the flood of emotions. Ok, you goofed up. You want to apologize. Quantity is the issue...
so how about a "and a little bit more" cake. could have it ready for day she get's home from vacation, present it as a welcome home/here's dessert, thanks for your understanding cake.
for fun... make it look like a sheet cake w/ some slices missing ==> hey, what gives...you didn't eat it all ...now finish your dessert!
I can't believe I screwed up so badly... I've never!!! done that before.. I don't lie.. so I truly don't like this emotion!!! Especially since she was sooo nice about it!! I don't know how people do it!! I knew you'd all understand.. I thought about another cake, but unfortunately she's by herself and older and another cake would'nt do her any good. Do you think if I sent her $20.00 in a card that it would be offensive? I'd write an apology note in there and tell her since she had to go and buy another cake and had been inconvienced I hope that this would cover the cost. I tried to give her money back at the house and she wouldn't accept it. I told her that the next cake I made for her would be FREE.... I thought of a GC for someplace, but frankly, since she paid in cash it would only be fair to give the same back right??!! OMG i'm totally NEVER going to forget this day. I hope none of you think badly of me as this is NOT something I do.....
older and by herself???
well, girl's night out, you're treat! doesn't have to be fancy, just fun for the both of you.
companionship can often mean far more than any material thing.
--------------
now, please stop beating yourself up.
we understand and forgive, allow yourself to forgive you too.
Doug...as for the flooding..... IT got REALLY BAD up here... I have friends who are from Oneonta, but I've actually never been there. Alot of the counties up here are still under the "state of emergency".I Live between Syracuse and Utica. Places like Hamilton, Madison, Doldgeville (bad!!) Ilion all up there were POUNDED on. A friend who lives in Ilion said that the creek next to their house rose 3ft and collapsed some of the roadway. Her house luckily sits on a hill, but she said the people on the other side of the road had watering LITERILLY pouring in the basement. I think she said they ended up with about 2ft of water in the basement. I drove by one house on the way to work here where I live and they JUST put a 4ft pool up and the water level was even with the pool (on the outside of the pool!!) In Doldgeville they literally show a restaurant collapse and go down river!!!! It was horrible!!!! Luckily everything is working out.. We have some more rain in the forecast so pray for all of those people.
b
1st of all I want to thank everyone for their kind words and support. I had to make a hard decision on what to do to rectify the situtation and know that I still had a future customer. 
This is what I came up with.
I bought a beautiful blank card and wrote the following with a $20.00 bill inside:
Dear Sally(not real name)
I want to sincerely apologize for any inconvience I may have caused you and your family on such a special day. I know I totally screwed up and I hope that you will forgive me. My actions were unprofessional and uncalled for.
Please....accept this money for the cost of any cake that you may have had to purchase due to MY error!! and know that this behavior is NOT something I normally practice.
I also wanted to thank you for being so gracious to me (even though I made a mistake).
Thank you
Brenda
-Obviously I don't have the greatest grammer, but I was truly trying to sound sincere.
thanks again everyone for ALL of your help!!!
b
Ooooh, I hate to tell you this - but since it is the lie that bothers you so much, that is what you have to fix. You will have to fess up to lying to her or you might not ever fully get over it. It won't be easy, and it won't be fun but you will have a clean conscience. I'm real sorry you got scared and did this to yourself, but it can be righted. 
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