I am aghast. I sucked all the air out of the room.

All I can say is, praying for you, CakeBuddy! Wow.

You know, some people really stink. My thoughts are with you. Just remember what they say, "What goes around, comes around." Her ill will will come back to her. You just be the better person. Insist on meeting her ASAP with witnesses and see where it goes. Good luck!

I did just talk to the bride again. She is too busy to bring the cake until Monday. She keeps changing what she said and changed her story to the reception hall. When I catch her on a contradiction, she says she didn't say that. She keeps talking in circles. She practically yelled at me for 15 minutes about how she spent more on the cake than her dress. I feel like throwing a couple hundred dollars at her just to never see her again. Happy Crappy Weekend to me!

When she brings it in on MOnday and points out how dry it is, be sure to respond, "Of course it is! It's a cut cake that sat around for 2 days before you brought it here!"

stick to your guns, throwing money at her so as to never she her again is just what she wants. Sounds like buyer remorse to me, don't give in.

Yes, complaining that she spent more on the cake than her dress is a big red flag of buyer's remorse to me. Please don't reward her for lying.

I'm just shaking my head, thinking to myself "why on earth would any professional baker (or home baker for that matter!) even go to the trouble to even waste frosting on a burnt cake for themselves let alone a customer!" it just doesn't make sense, follows no logic and is so ridiculous I can't stop shaking my head in utter disbelief.

Are we going to have to start video taping ourselves baking, filling, stacking, frosting and decorating each cake just to cover our butts when some stupid bimbo makes claims like this? Oh, and don't forget to save scraps of each cake, filling and frosting for DNA evidence to prove the &*(^% cake isn't even yours!!! Kinda takes all the fun out of doing what we love to do.

I'm so sorry that you have to deal with this. I hate liars.

Kathy, I'm cracking up over your post! The sad thing is we may have to actually resort to that someday!

Here's the word I've been trying to think of--this gut wrenching word--

pre-meditated oh my oh my

<throw up smilie face>

DO NOT....DO NOT....DO NOT....DO NOT give her a dime until you are satisfied it is YOUR CAKE!!!


Will she stain her dress and return it TOO???

How hard is it to BURN a cake? You have to walk away for like....HALF A DAY! Otherwise...it just gets dry.

Make her bring it TODAY> Too bad she is too busy. Even if my cake WAS burned on my wedding day....I'd have had NO time to complain about it!!!

This is sad!!!!
My parents own a Trucking company and they had a case where they delivered a car, and the proces is you come look at the car write down every little sratch and flaw down(so no one is gonna say you did this to my car) so when they delivered the car the lady made them show everything on the car to the tiniest scrape and said everything is fine(she had a copy that was sent to her at pick up, the person who we picked it up had a copy and the driver had a copy) then 8 hours later she calls our company keeps telling us that we did this damage, threatns us to put a bad rating and tells us that she called our insurance and the dispatch company that gave this car to us to deliver and if we don't pay her she will sue us and get us in trouble and drown our company. I sat there laughing at the whole thing(my mom put the phone on loud speaker) in the end my mother said First you called us in 8 hourse when in our policy it says any claim within 2 hourse of check and delivery is dismissed and second you have no proof that we did it abn no one knows what you did with the car during the 8 hours.
I am not a profesional in this but from my point you did your job you assembled it and come on why would any one make a cake that is badand think they can get away with it, she must think your stupid or some thing to waste so much time on a burned cake.

Oh...I'm sure on CSI they've got one of those little "5 minute" testers for cake DNA - and since human DNA only seems to take 5 minutes, maybe they could do cake in 3 or so (on a rush of course!!!) And...I think they'd be able to tell you if it's DH, BC, Pills, or scratch !!!!!

All kidding aside - it's just sad that we even have this kind of stuff to talk about. Our "entitled" and "sue happy" society has brought us to this, instead of swapping recipes and decorating tips we have to talk about how to cover our butts from crack pots like this.

I agree with everyone else here, that you NOT give a refund on this cake, or a discount on any future ones.

I'd also not call her until she calls you. Then when she does, tell her you want her complaint in writing, and any of the leftover cake. Make an appointment ASAP to meet at the reception hall, where the manager and the server will be present. In front of them read the complaint out loud and stand back to watch her face turn red and her spine to go wimpy.

It's cake poker, and you have the upper hand. She's throwing a tantrum.

I really think you should drive to her. Say make time today, because I don't have time for you on Monday. This is a complaint about my business, my integrity, and I will solve it.

I know it's tempting, but do NOT throw a few HUNDRED dollars at her to shut her up. It's not worth it!!! When you get to the cake, take pictures of it. Get people from the hall to write and sign statements asap (while the memory is fresh) so if she wants to do court later, you have everything in writing and taken care of.

By the way, what flavor cake was it that she is saying is burned?

Wow
Sounds like she is looking for $$$ back to pay for her wedding!
I can't even belive she had the nerve to say the cake cost more then my dress... Guess she should have spent more on her dress

IF it was burnt at all, she should have had someone take pics of it AT the reception and called you immediately (or had the venue manager or her house party do so). If there aren't any pics of it AT the reception showing the burn, forgettaboutit. I know if I am somewhere and the food is inedible, I get the manager over immediately and see what the dealyobob is and had it been something like an all-important wedding cake, I'd have had the provider on the line tout-de-suite. She's sooooo lying.

And if the bottom tier was so 'burnnnnned' as to leave it inedible...it would NOT have supported the rest of the cake - and the cake would have fallen apart prior to serving had it survived the road trip. Am I right?

She is spoofing you and you should flat out tell her something along the lines of "Ma'am, there is no way I would provide anyone a burned cake. I genuinely think you are lying to me for your budget's sake and I don't appreciate you threatening my reputation or taking up my time. I provided the cake you wanted, that served what you agreed upon and that is that. If this farce is that important to you, you will meet me at the venue with the allegedly burnt cake in X hours, or you will cease and desist harrassing me."

There really are such scum out there that will perpetrate this scam because their dreams were waaaay too big for their budget (and I'm just talking from my day job that isn't at all cake related).

Hugs and let us know how it's going...and hopefully she will realize just what a mule's patootie she's making of herself.
Wendl

As for the CSI measures - c'mon the show is 'drama' and not real-time, I love it (well, Grissom...and Stokes), but for real forensics I watch Cold Case Files (the real show, not the CBS drama) and Forensics Files.

I agree, I used to spend a lot of time testifying in court and you have to have your evidence, pictures and signed statements, if you want to prevail. It's worth it to you to go directly to her immediately and get pictures and a sample of the cake and tell her that you're getting signed statements from the venue staff as well. If it's not your cake (and how could it be?), I'd tell her that she will need to be prepared to go to small claims court because you don't reward scam artists who spent too much on their wedding and are broke. The fact that she mentioned the cost compared to the dress is proof that money is her primary motive. Fact is, I wouldn't even speak to her again without a tape recorder. If she's talking in circles, let her own voice tell her BS story to the court. Write down everything she's said to you so you won't have to try to remember later too and take a witness with you or have her meet you at the venue so the staff there can be your witnesses. How ridiculous. Think I'll change my contract to say that they must report any quality issues within six hours of the event and provide identifiable samples of the product to substantiate their claim within twenty-four hours. That means icing on it. That way, if they try to do something to it, the icing will show it. Hard to blow torch something without melting the icing...

The bride must be insane. It is obvious by all of the details of the story that she is not only insane but also very likely a liar as well. Burned cake? Are you kidding me? Even someone who knows nothing about baking can tell if they have burned a cake. She would have been better off with lying to you and saying that the cake was raw! There is NO WAY the cake could have been burned and you didn't notice. Puuuuulease! You have already spoken with the people who referred you and they know nothing about the situation, so I would say you are in the clear. I would not even give the bride the satisfaction of entertaining her bogus lies. If she calls, I would just tell her that you have a strict "no return" policy on all of your baked goods. If she has a smart reply for your, then tell her to take that 1/2 cake and the groom's cake and stick it where the sun doesn't shine! Ha! I'm not trying to make "light" of your situation, but this could be the most ridiculous thing I've ever heard. It is evident that she ordered way too much cake and is now feeling like an idiot for blowing the extra cash... No worries, some people are just crazy...

stick to your guns......no refund til you see it!

All I have to say is she's a NUT JOB, Sounds whacky to me all around. I went to look at your gallery and website and all I can say is by looking at your work that if you did such things as she's accusing you of you wouldn't have the business that you have. Your work is Gorgeous and I'm sure by the amount of cakes on your website they taste as good as they look or people wouldn't be buying them. Stand your ground, CALL HER BLUFF!!!!

I can't help but feel sorry for the poor groom. Wonder if he knows what he's gotten himself into??? She's probably trying to scrape up all the extra money she spent because it was supposed to be for the honeymoon.

I would not give her a penny. If she can't meet with you at a time that you designate then "tuff" .

I had a similar thing happen to me last week! The bride emailed and said that the bottom tier was really dry, and that nobody ate it. It was a torted cake with three layers of fillings and soaking syrup on each layer, so I knew it wasn't dry. I called the reception site and they didn't see any problem with the cake. When I checked the contract, I saw that she had ordered substantially more cake than she had guests, so she was going to have a lot left over. I had told her that she was ordering too much, but she wanted offset squares, so she had to order larger tiers than she needed in order to turn the squares. I emailed her back and said that the cake was fine when I put it together, and I never heard back from her.

I hope that you got a chance to get to this wench today, since it's obvious that she's trying to put one over on you. It sounds like the reception site is on your side, so don't give her an inch! I'd even find out who her other vendors were and call to warn them, too!

Stories like this make me never want to get good enough to do this as a business. When listing prices for wedding cakes, I would want my description to include x number of dollars for my future psychiatry bills!!

I'm just posting to make sure I find out how this cake war turns out (sounds like a TV show....Cake War!). Having worked in a prison before, I know how devious, manipulative, and conniving people can be. And these were men! Women can be sooooo much worse. I hope you win the war SweetArt! I'm cheering for you!

so, the bride is the only one who said "this cake is burnt!" sounds like she planned that out at the last minute. her story keeps changing.
now, I would not give her a dime back.
BUT
word of mouth is a killer on a business. I would ask her to meet with you and with the reception site manager. then she can be busted on her lies right then and their. tell her that this is your business we are talking about so it is a very serious issue.
after you catch her in a few lies.....let her tell her story first, then let her know the truth of the matter and also let her know that if word gets around that your wedding cakes are burnt that would ruin your business and you would have no choice but to take her to court and sue.

good luck!