My first real horrible cake delivery. When do you refund a bride?? and has anyone heard of it being the cake decorators job to bring cake boxes for left over cake?? First bride wanted a up-side-down cake, which was a huge success.. except the top tier( which was the biggest) totally melted!! Ugh don't know how this happened the car was cool and the room was just a little warm.. All said and done the top tier had a few ripples in the fondant that I couldn't cover completely. I felt like it was the best I could do without making it worse. The thing that really put the cherry on the night, was the owner of the reception center yelled at me because I didn't bring cake boxes. I was not told this, nor did my bride at the consultation ever mention such a thing. I have been decorating cakes for 5 year and have never heard of this being customary. Is it?? Help!! Thanks

Well, here in NY, it is customary for the baker to provide the box for the top tier, if it isn't being cut and served, to be reserved for the 1st Anniversary. Otherwise, caterer/venue wouldn't have cake boxes so would have to wrap it with plastic wrap and it would ruin the design.

But the refund question is different. If the largest tier "totally melted", then it seems the bride is due a refund for at least that portion of cake.

I guess I'm not understanding how a tier can "totally" melt. Pictures? Details? From what you've said so far I think the bride is due a refund if the largest portion of the cake is ruined.

Boxes? Yep the top box is all I provide. Not your problem if they don't use all the cake they ordered.

Thanks for replying. Here is a pic of the cake.. You can see that the top tier had some imperfections.

up-side-down cake

sorry guys I'm new to posting. Did the pic show up??

Is this the cake?
http://media.cakecentral.com/gallery/138423/normal_1287338766.jpg
It's in your Photo album, I linked it from there
(It's too big for the post to use [img][/img] tags)

yep that's the cake..

Ok.. your post here says the top "totally melted".. when you post the picture in the gallery you say: "Other then a few imperfections on that top tier. The cake was a success.."

I'm going to ask again.. where is the totally melted come in?? Did the cake arrive in different shape than your picture shows??

Yeah probably using the word "totally" didn't explain it well enough. The sides of the fondant started to droop down with the butter cream, like the frosting got too hot under the fondant (or I used too much frosting) and pulled it all down the sides.(looked like it melted) As you can see I fix the mess the best I could, except the few imperfections you see on that top tier. I would just like to know from all you more experienced cake decorators if I should refund the bride some of her money for that tier. thanks for answering my question =)

The cake is fine, IMO. I see what you're talking about, and yes it's sort of messy looking, so I may refund a small amount, but no way would I refund the whole tier - was the cake inedible? No? People ate it and it's expected they pay for it. And I wouldn't have brought boxes for the whole cake, maybe one for the anniversary cake, but it's not expected around here that there will be so many leftovers, so why the heck would you throw in cake boxes for the cake that is supposed to be eaten at the wedding? Weird. The owner of the center was probably just embarrassed that he didn't have the boxes HE would usually provide. Don't let his rudeness hurt your feelers!

I really appreciate the feedback. I think we are our biggest critics, so it does help to have another cake decorators opinion.