Does it say Savior Dave or David or what? I worked for the second busiest Wal-Mart Bakery in the world at the time. We never put out anything this bad, we did have a woman who's writing looked alot like this though.

Needless to say we started doing the writing on her cakes!

I also put alot of time into my cakes and when customers came in they asked for me to do their cakes.

It looked like a quarter sheet to me but I'd have to look at it again to be sure..

I'll go look!

Does it say Savior Dave or David or what? I worked for the second busiest Wal-Mart Bakery in the world at the time. We never put out anything this bad, we did have a woman who's writing looked alot like this though.

Needless to say we started doing the writing on her cakes!

I also put alot of time into my cakes and when customers came in they asked for me to do their cakes.

It looked like a quarter sheet to me but I'd have to look at it again to be sure..

I'll go look!

Everytime I shop at WalMart or Sam's, I go to the bakery to look at the cakes. I have NEVER seen anything as dreadful as that construction cake. Usually they are very nice, if a bit unremarkable. Smooth icing, big borders, nice writing generally. Strange colors sometimes.

Actually when I was at Sam's on Sunday, a woman ahead of me in the checkout had a quite lovely cake, with what appeared to be a gumpaste flower on top. It probably was a silk flower, considering where we were, but I didn't feel comfortable taking the plastic top off and fondling the flower to make sure, if you know what I mean. She prolly would have smacked me! Security! Security! Cake Molester! Checkout Lane 6!

I would amost be willing to bet cousin did it herself and then claimed it was from WalMart. And I agree, it does look as if it's been dropped.

It says "Savior Deuce"... yes, that's REALLY their son's name and it is a 1/4 sheet... they did buy it from the bakery because her husband works right next to it in the deli and that's why they won't complain about it.

OMG, that is horrible, but then again some of the hiring practices of some walmarts would explain that in an instant.
Real cake decorators are hard to find. They just don't apply for some reason. So what some stores do, because they can't find anyone experienced, is to put someone in there who doesn't know a shell border from a halfsheet. And basically just throw them to the dogs as it were. That could be one reason why it looked that way or here's the other explanation......
The person who made that cake could have been someone from the deli to someone that packages the bread. That has happened, because the regular decorator had already gone home for the day.
That is what I am thinking happened.
Sometimes when there isn't anyone in the bakery they'll get someone from off the floor (especially if she, the customer, just walked in the door and wanted a cake done right then and there. which happens all the time), and have them decorate the cake.
So, here's what I am saying then, perchance the regular decorator had gone home when the sis in question showed up wanting a cake. So she puts in the order, someone has to make it because as a walmart bakery you can't turn anyone down. She goes puttering around the store while it's made and comes back 10-20 minutes later to pick up her cake. Hence if it's someone who doesn't do the cakes all the time then that could very well be why it looks like a huge pile of blue trimmed dog doo.
I too started out as a walmart decorator, actually I was the dept lead. I too, specialized my cakes for every customer (the lady with the violin is a "gasp" walmart cake). I too had customers request that I do their cakes. Now that I have pretty much gone on my own, I have people who followed me, get this, even walmart deli associates.

Actually the wal mart and sams that we shop at puts out such horrific stuff that it's always a stop we make - just for the sake of entertainment. Our Albertsons is the same. Obviously none of them have a decent decorator. And people still buy the stuff because it's cheap...

All I can say is that looks disgusting and I am no professional baker,
even I can do better than that.
Whoever did that should hang their head in shame!!

Wow! That is embarrassing!

Why wouldn't anyone tell her that she isn't that good?! that's what I would be wondering...someone should say something cause...that's not good!

Wow, it looks like it got really hot and started to melt a bit. I'm not a huge fan of grocery store cakes either, but they usually look pretty good. Nothing too exciting, but they don't have a lot of room for creativity, so that's the biggest issue. I think our Wal-marts/Sams here put out pretty decent looking cakes. Wow - I would have been embarassed to give that out!

Actually Wal-Mart hires people all the time with no proir decorating experience. I was training girls to decorate all the time and if I didn't think they had any knack for it they would be given another position in the bakery

I was fortunate enough to have 3 other wildly talented decorator's in my time there. Of course none of them stayed longer than 1 year beacause they were wildly talented!

So funny and So true about the sometimes strange colors in the Sam's and Wal-Mart case! It's the end of the day bags I'm sure.

My experience with people asking for cakes after the decorator had gone home was that the baker would take a pre-existing cake out of the case and attempt to make it look like the kit cake photo.

The baker also had the option to either write on the cake with parchment bags that we had left or place a plastic Happy Birthday thingy on it.

That is truly terrible-- and I can believe that it came from a store. My mother got a cake from Wal-Mart for her open house (she lives in WA state, or else I would have done it but I live in New England). She'd got one previously from them and they had a very talented decorator- they did a nice job and it looked more expensive than it really was. That being said, the second cake she got, this past year, was TERRIBLE. Kind of like someone mentioned, it look like a 6 year old threw it together.

My mom was in tears because she has to scrape as much together each month as she can and somehow get by, and she saved (yes, even a Walmart cake severely stretched her budget) so she could get what she thought would be a decent cake to share with her students and their families. I felt so terrible so next year I'm flying out to make her all of her food and her cake for free.

What I'm getting at though is that I think it comes down to the Walmart and the decorator's who are working there at the time. Some I'm sure have fanstastic and talented people while others have newbies or people without talent just to fill up spaces.

As with all things, it's buyer beware.. hopefully she learned her lesson though to always check around about someone/something before settling on spending money on a cake!

I just applied at Walmart today to be a decorator and the women behind the counter looked so happy that I was applying. As I stood there I was watching a young girl trying to smooth icing. poor thing was so slow. Hopefully I'll start soon . I too want to use my time at walmart to help build a reputation since I just moved here. I definitely have never seen a cake look that bad no matter where it was from.

Yeah, tastee, I agree for the most part, but then you still have those peeps out there who seem to think,"O heck, how hard can it be anyway?" And make a mad stab at it to write on or decorate a cake. And it does turn out like crap. And the customer isn't happy (some will take the cake home, eat it and then..... bring back the receipt and say it was horrible and get their money back).
the manager isn't happy and then the dept. lead gets an earful about the cake in the end.

K nutz, when you go in for your interview make sure to take some of your pics for your cakes and remind them how many years experience you have and you just might be able to get more money per hour instead of the starting wage for decorators.
Soooo, good luck hun!!!!

I have no trouble believing it came from Wal-Mart. First of all, it's sitting on the bottom half of the protective cake carriers they put their cakes in. Secondly, I've had people try to wait on me in the fabric dept who weren't sure what a yard was-- or how to CUT the fabric. I'm begining to think if you can put your arms through a vest, you're hired.

..please.. this is in no way a reflection on the many good folk that work there, it just seems that the number of them is dwindling all the time.

When I first saw the picture, it looked so familiar, then I realized it was the cake we had for my son's second birthday which was three years ago, before I started making cakes. This one looks sooooo different that it's hard to believe it's supposed to be the same cake. Here is a pic so you guys can compare:

There is a major difference between those two cakes.

I like the comparison. Yes that cake is much better. But even so there are so many differences that would make me think that it didn't come from a bakery. I know there are people out there who make such messes but good grief.

I know her cousin has to work next to her but if someone doesn't say something then how will they know that that quality product came out of their store. They have got to be told. Not that I want to help Wal Mart (family of firm Walmart, sears, Dell Boycotters). But geeze, I think it would be kind to let them know.

cCc

I completely agree with everyone!!! Like I said earlier, I will be starting a cake decorating job in October and I will be the ONLY decorator so everything will be on me to make it work. I'm not experienced with decorating "quickly" so we'll see how that goes... they aren't going to be the best cakes but I now know what good and bad is and NOTHING like that would ever get past me!

I'm not putting Wal-Mart down or anything, I know they are capable of making good cakes (depending on the decorator that day) but this was just terrible... I can't even believe someone ran it through the checkout. Like I said, I'm going to carry a picture of it around and when people mention that they're going to Wal-Mart to get a cake, I'll whip it out and hopefully change their mind to come to my store instead

I only have 1 1/2 years of decorating under my belt but I went into the store and put my price on the table. I'll be making about $4 MORE than anyone first starting out would... the owner even said I'll be making more than the bakery manager It was all because of my book. Once I pulled my book of cakes out, they were blown away... granted those cakes took a LONG time to make, I think they still got the jist of it that I can definetely do a good job.

I just wanted to post this pic on here to see what real cake decorators thought My dad saw it and could not believe they sold something like this either so even the "common folk" seem to know better.

OMG! That second cake is totally different! It DOES look like someone that isn't normally decorating threw together the first one! So sorry you have something to compare it to now!

You know, if I were the decorator I would have felt really badly that the cake was that terrible! I mean, come on, it's for a kid's birthday, people are paying me to do a professional job (albeit a quick and cheap one) and I would just hate to have a cake like that show up in the precious pictures of a child's birthday party to be remembered forever.

Several years ago before I started decorating, I was on the way to the hospital to visit a friend who had just had her first baby. I stopped off at Fiesta to pick up a small cake to take with me and had a conversation with the very sweet lady in the bakery. I picked a cake out of the case that looked simple and cute and pink as she told me all about how long she'd been decorating and how much she loved babies, etc. All she had to do was write, "Welcome, Suzie" on the cake. I had low expectations. It looked like she had written it with a vibrating pen. It was horrible and embarrassing. I didn't know what to do. She looked at me, all beaming, handed me the cake smiling, I guess not realizing (I don't know how) that it looked awful. Even my husband commented about it as soon as we walked away. I didn't know what to do- I couldn't be rude and I didn't want to get her in trouble, but I wasn't going to pay for that cake! I still feel awful for doing what I did, but I just put it down in another part of the store and left. I hope the employees got to eat cake that night, because I know they couldn't sell it. I should have asked to see a manager and told him what happened and showed him the cake, but I didn't want to get her in trouble.

Still, though, that Wal-Mart cake is crap.

That's what they get for buying a cake from a departrment/grocery store. They taste awful.

I think what bothers me the most about this is that it was for a first birthday. They ALSO rented one of those HUGE bounce houses for $150 for the day! Now it's not like a one year old is going to get much use out of that! Originally she wanted me to do the cake but then decided that it would be "cheaper" to get it from Wal-Mart... well, obviously!

I'm pretty sure the person who did that cake thought it was pretty good. Not being a decorator, ha!

Just like the lady who wrote on the cake not appearing to notice the handwriting was bad. They just don't see it with the same eyes as we do.

At least, I hope. Benefit of the doubt and all.