Ya'll, I about had a dying duck fit yesterday. First off, I had a huge week with orders. HUGE. My DH and I stayed up all night long working on the two wedding cakes that I had going out yesterday. The first...covered in fondant...which scares me as much as the devil himself...turned out amazing! The bride actually squealed she was so pleased. The next...nightmare city!!! I hadn't gotten 3 miles from my home when I turned around to check on the cakes, and there it was...the Grand Canyon in the side of my 12" heart cake!!! HUGE crack!!! I panicked...to put it mildly. Then, I looked at the others...shouldn't have done that. The 8" was collapsing in on itself!!! Note: It was HUMID and in the upper 80s yesterday. Not to mention, the wedding reception was OUTDOORS...by a pool. The cake was suppposed to be separated by pillars, but after patching on site, there was no way that I was going to stack them, and have them collapse again. NO way. The lady that owns the catering facility (where the reception was held) went out of her way to tell me how "freaking ugly" my cakes were and how horrendous SHE thought they were. Being a Christian, I bit my tongue , asked God to help me just finish and get the heck out of Dodge. Then, once the cakes were set up, the beotch tells me that I have set them up on the wrong table and that the presentation is "completely and utterly a mess." I take a lot of time and pride in EVERY cake that I do. EVERY one of them. She almost had me in tears , but I wasn't going to give her the satisfaction. My assistant tells her (after the 7th time of telling me...loudly...how bad it looked...that "we are aware that it doesn't look great at this point." I was proud of her for stopping at that. She can have a temper just like me. I gave the bride's sister a check for $200 back. (Her wedding cake was that price. I refunded the full amount for the cake right there.) I felt that that was the least that I could do at that point. She DIDN'T get what she paid for, and I want to be fair and honest. So, I'm going to upload the photo. It's the one with hot pink and orange. The rose petals are all over the cakes to "hide" additional cracks from the heat. God help me, I was ready to put all of my pans and everything else on e-bay as soon as I got home. Now, I feel a bit better and proud that I did the right thing. Glad it's over and done, too. Live, learn and move on, right? Just wanted to share my awful experience.

Amy

What a bi..... She must have been a sad person. Having looked at the picture I cant see how bad it really is.

Maybe she just overreaged. Sad for you she dident keep her mouth shut.

All you other cake look amesing...

I know it's disappointing for you because you know how it was "supposed" to look like but I think it looks great with the set up there...It looks like a dessert table and the cookies matched great so I think she should have been pleased especially since you gave her a full refund...Don't be so hard on yourself...She obviously WAS a sad person who obviously forgot about the times that things didn't go her way - And if she says she's never has a disappointment - then she's lying!! You handled yourself with dignity and respect and you should be commended for that. I am a hot head and I WOULDN'T have kept my mouth shut...lol

they werent too bad. i would be more worried about the fountain splashing all over the cakes and cookies.
you were nice to give a refund. i can understand the feeling of not your best work. been there done that. i think the bride was ok with things.
take care.

cake decorating can be stressful cant it?

So sorry you had to go through that! Looks like you did a great job fixing it, though!

I feel sooo sorry for you ! Every decorator's nightmare, and you had to live it ! It was a GREAT save, though.... your set up looks GREAT !

It's amazing to me, how many so-called professional caterers seem to want to be snide and snippy and put down the cake decorator's work. Is this because they didn't get the job of making the cake, or just because they don't feel we do enough to warrant the respect of our peers? That makes me a bit nervous, to tell the truth!

I'm so sorry this happened to you, Amy. What a rotten way to end a very busy day.

Wow what a B**** you done so well not to hit her. Bet she has had some bad days too, and just wanted to cry.
Your cake still looks great not what you or the bride had planned but you did the best in a bad situation. Bet the bride still liked it and the cake still tasted great.

Big hugs.

Now that you've gotten your one cake disaster for the year out of the way,
you can look forward to making amazing and delicious cakes the rest of the season. I applaud your professionalism AND your sense of accountability. You went above and beyond, and that's what a good business person always does.
Yup, the NC humidity is a bleepity-bleep-bleep sometimes.

I have to say even though YOU say they looked bad... they looked very nice

Also I would've had to tell that b**** to go somewhere lol I would've politely told her to leave the area in which I was in and to keep her mouth shut about stuff she isn't involved in. I mean really only a cake decorator can say "It's ugly" or "You need to do this you need to do that" she had no room and no right to say the things she said to you.

Now I have to ask.... did the Bride or her sister contact you afterwards reguarding the money? Did the sister say anything when you handed her the check? lol sorry I like to hear how things END lol

Wow bravo to you for being so diplomatic about everything! Me, I would have told that caterer off in the most sinde and deaming way possible but I am a big jerk like that

I know it wasn't what you planned it would be but I think it still turned out lovely, and you really handled the whole thing quite well. The bride must have been ok with it, you returned her money and still gave her a beautiful dessert table.

I for one am very proud of you and think you should walk away from the whole expereience feeling good about your self

"Being BOTH a professional caterer and baker, it amazes me, too. I am so glad you said "so-called professional". I sure hope indydebi sees this post-I can't wait to read her comments! Twisted Evil She's very articulate and this is a subject that burns me up...people like this beotch obviously give caterers a terrible name Sad "

I know... professionals don't demean each other's work... they allow the customer to make their own conclusions and THEY can use word of mouth to let it be known how a particular vendor did. I did craft shows for years, and have dealt with this kind of thing there. Grrrrr... it's not just cakes.

I love it when indydeb gets all 'het up' about that kind of thing... and I can assume that neither she nor you would ever act like this!

I wanted to cry for you for having to go through that. But you did have a fantastic response from your first bride and you and your assistant handled the second situation as the professionals you obviously are.

My brother gave me a really good tip that has always stuck with me for how to deal with passing on news that customers were not going to like. Which has also been really handy for dealing with other awkard situations.
He says you have to think of it like this....

"Okay, the next 5 minutes (hopefully no longer!) are probably going to be horrible / painful / nasty and make me squirm / make me wish the ground would open up and be totally uncomfortable - but I will just take it, and deal with it calmly and professionally and remain in control, and be polite, because it is only 5 minutes out of the whole of the rest of my life."

this little nugget of advice has always stuck with me and prevented me on many an occasion just planting one on somebody!!

And now just to add the obvious... how you handle a bad situation will either go towards smoothing/appeasing the customer, prevent a situation escalating out of control, and can even be instrumental in helping you snatch victory from the jaws of defeat, as the saying goes.

I think the cakes look fine, I am sorry you had to go through that. You did a very professional thing refunding the money, I hope the bride was appreciative. We all have bad experiences, your cakes are beautifu. NO Ebay selling for you

You are such a patient woman! You handled that very well. I must say-I checked the cake in your gallery and it looks great! I know you "hid" things, but there are a lot of small flaws that have been hidden in cakes that no one but the decorator knows about! As long as you can't see it - it doesn't really matter! It's going to be cut and eaten in a short while! I know it wasn't stacked and that is frustrating when that was the plan, but stuff happens and at least the exception - not the rule!! We are here for you!

You handled the situtation wonderfully. I believe everything works to our good so take a deep breath, and look at what nugget of wisdom you can get from this experience. I looked at the picture and must say that things looked very nice--some one posted that it looked like a nice dessert table. If your customer was satisfied (even though this was unplanned!) then that's all that matters

wow, you recovered very well, I agree, this cake looks great! Personally, if I were the bride I would not have let you give me the entire refund.........it still turned out really elegant, and everyone still had cake, not to mention cookies to eat- but that's just my opinion.