I'm so irritated right now. My friend's employer wanted a cake for her daughter's birthday (St. Patty's Day, but the cake was today). My friend just dropped it off at the party (Abigail's Cake, in my photos).

There was a zillion emails back and forth about this cake. She said she liked the green cake (also in my photos) with the bow and scrolls, but wanted it more girly with some pink flowers or something. She also said she liked my 'My Little Pony Cake'.

NEVER did she say she wanted the cake to be green. So immediately I get a text from her that says Cake looks nice. Thx - but I thought u would include some green?" and then another one that said something about she thought I would do it green since she was a St. Patty's Day baby.

Well, maybe you should have said you wanted a green cake?? She told me to just 'run with it', so I took that to mean I had creative freedom. Even if I delivered a total cake-wreck, shouldn't she be enjoying her daughter's 2nd birthday instead of texting me? I think I will be busy the next time this lady needs a cake.

I'm sorry that confusion happened to you. Maybe next time you should do a quick sketch for your clients, or at least a summary description? If only to make it easier to "see" what she's asked for and what you understood. It would benefit you too really.

Now, I didn't read your emails back and forth and have only a very limited understanding of what she asked for....but from this line in your post, I'd have expected to be getting a green cake with some addition girly pink details too...


She said she liked the green cake (also in my photos) with the bow and scrolls, but wanted it more girly with some pink flowers or something.

this is why I always sketch out the cake and have them sign off on it. That way if they come back on a blue cake and say they didn't want blue I can bring out both the contract and the sketch that shows a blue cake. CYA is a big part of dealing with clients sad to say.

After all of the emails back and forth, do you send a "final" email that summarizes what the order is? Something along the lines of:

"the cake will be a 2-tier, 6" white flavor and 10" chocolate flavor. Iced in green BC with pink floral accents. Large pink bow will be on front of cake. Wording on side of 10" cake to be "Happy Birthday Sally Sue."

Much easier to have a summary all in one paragraph than to flip back thru 7 or 8 emails to say "you said blah blah in this email and we agreed to blippity blop on that email."

green or not.. i just wanted to say that the cake is beautiful.

I do sketches, and a summary attached to contract just for this purpose and I have a place for them to initial on each page so that they cant say..I didnt see that page...

I would have expected a green cake with pink flowers on it.

From what you said, it seemed to me like she liked the green cake's concept, but wanted it more girly with some pink accents. I think I might have expected a cake with pink accents on it. Regardless, the cake is absolutely stunning. You should be proud of it.

Thanks for the replies. Can't please 'em all right? I practically GAVE that cake away, so I won't be too upset if she wasn't happy.

Your cake is great as are all of them in the photos; however, just based on what you have stated (and I realize they were not verbatim quotes) I, too, would have expected accents of green and pink. The cake you posted looks much like a Christening cake. I think as I read it, I expected to find in your gallery a white cake with a green bow and pink accents for Abigail and that the customer was being nit-picky...

edited for typo

it's obvious she was expecting green on the cake somewhere and with pink flowers. Although the cake is your best work yet and is absolutely gorgeous-it's all White with the slightest hint of pastel pink. She was expecting color like in the My Little Pony cake.

Actually, it wasn't white, it was pink. (Hard to see in the picture). If she was expecting a green cake she should have said, "I want a green cake" with clashing pink flowers. BUT, she said to 'run with it'. She said she liked two cakes from my photos and I was supposed to assume she wanted a green cake? I took the bow from the green cake and the flowers from the other one. I'm not a mind reader, she should have said she wanted green.

Don't take it so hard. No the colors are not what she wanted or said she liked about your other cakes. But... It is an absolutely lovely cake and your bow seriously rocks!!!! And you can put this behind you as learning experience.

Wow.... you're a little defensive. Pink and green don't 'clash' -- they complement each other. I would definitely have expected a green cake with pink flowers/accents. When someone tells me to 'run with it', I wouldn't ever change the color completely from what they had showed me. I would maybe incorporate the pink flowers and/or other oink accents, but I wouldn't change it.

The cake is really pretty,ut I agree with the others about your original quote-she wanted a st.patty's day cake, like the grren one she'd seen but with pink, girly and my little pony. I was totally not expecting a white cake, no pink, no green, nothing st.pats at all. Pretty cake, not what she asked for.

I would have expected green with pink accents. But your cake is gorgeous.

Good advice. I will for sure do that next time.

Well, she did say I like your green cake BUT with SOME pink details. So yeah, green with pink.

She seemed nice enough about it. It's always best to sketch something out to make sure everyone knows what to expect.

Yeah, and she also said she liked my little pony cake. She should have been more specific if she wanted something specific. I like your green cake does not equal I want my cake green.

For some people it does. I made my cousin's daughter's birthday cake and we spent a lot of time looking at stuff and when she wanted something she said... I like that bow, I like that pink and green cake, I like those flowers, I like those pink ladybugs if you can do it. So I took all of her likes and made sure to incorporate those specific things on the cake design. Some people just don't put things straight up, " I want..." I actually find that refreshing and less demanding. There are lots of different people and everyone communicates differently. If you haven't heard, "I want this and that...", then pay attention to what they say they like, because that is what they want.

Without looking at your photos, I assumed she wanted a green cake with pink flowers. But, I just looked at your cakes and I don't even see a GREEN cake. I see a green bow and green scrolls. I would have assumed she meant make me a bow or scrolls like the green one and add pink colored flowers like the ones on the My Lil Pony cake. Not that the cake was supposed to be green...although I can see how she would assume you would make the icing green perhaps since she told you the baby was born on St. Patty's Day. That was her fault for not being specific if she really had her own idea for the colors!

If I were the client, I wouldn't care that it wasn't green because that cake is gorgeous!!! I would just chalk it up as a lesson learned and sketch something next time and email it to the client to make sure you are on the same page. What is obvious to one person(especially in writing) may not be to another. Again, great job on the cake!

Very pretty cake, but totally not what I expected to see. Your interpretation reminds me of a christening or baptism cake.

Like others have said I would have been expecting something like the green bow and maybe some of the quilled scrolls, but with some pink flowers incorporated. Not everyone's vision is the same and communication is always the key. You aren't going to please everyone all the time.