Haha lucky you! That causes less problems for sure.. at least baking runs in my close family so everyone are very appreciative and aware of how long it takes to bake

My sister is quite funny though, there are a few specialities from my country that I could not find a good recipe for so I bothered her for her recipe several times.. finally I realised why she never gave it to me; everything she bakes comes from a box

Btw, its very nice of you to bake for the local fire house and breast support group.. :)

You know I think there are a few sites that show funny photos like pinterest cake fails and such.. if you have any customers who complain that ''its only a cake'' and ''I can do it myself'' just show them that

for example; http://justsomething.co/the-34-most-hilarious-pinterest-fails-ever/

I had a client once wanting a very detailed jungle cake, and she wanted it to be perfect, but of course, she wanted it at a discounted price. Of course this wasn't going to happen. But what baffled me was her response at the end of each email when we were discussing flavours, details and others. She kept repeating: "I am excited, I pray that it looks just as great if not better in person, oh and that it tastes just as good if not better" and then again in the next email: "I pray that ur cakes taste as great as they look.". Wow were we ever offended. 

We replied back saying "We are sorry to let you know that unfortunately we won't be able to take your order. We make cakes as a hobby and it is something we do for fun and that we enjoy doing. We find it a little offensive that you insinuate that our cake might not be good, we would not have customers if that were the case. We have tried to work with you this whole time but it doesn't seem to be working. 
We hope you understand."

She actually apologized after, but we decided not to make the cake for her.

SweetShop5, I had a person inquire about a catering and added that she wanted dessert to be a "kick-a$$ apple pie".  Since I don't know what "kick-a$$" tastes like, we declined.  We just knew it would be a PITA client from start to finish.

I had a customer recently as for a Batman cake. She said "I want to keep the cost as low as possible as long as it looks like a Batman cake". I new that she was looking to pay grocery store prices and it wasn't worth for me to spend my time designing something special. I told her what my minimum price was for a buttercream (no fondant) covered cake for the servings she wanted before making any design suggestions. I wasn't surprised when I didn't hear back from her. 

I had a customer recently ask for a Batman cake. She said "I want to keep the cost as low as possible as long as it looks like a Batman cake". I new that she was looking to pay grocery store prices and it wasn't worth for me to spend my time designing something special. I told her what my minimum price was for a buttercream (no fondant) covered cake for the servings she wanted before making any design suggestions. I wasn't surprised when I didn't hear back from her. 
Read more at http://www.cakecentral.com/forum/t/751860/things-not-to-asksay-to-a-baker/3150#post_7630677#XxFOTY9bKiJxIwhF.99

I know this doesn't fit exactly with this forum because it is not actually what someone said to me but I must let it out before I cry. 

I started.doing cakws as a business on the encouragement of mu friend's cake vendor.  She would give me tips and helped me with pricing for my first year and I am truly greatful to her for that. I send customers to her who are in her neck of the woods and she does the same. This year I'm not baking because ive had a rough pregnancy with twins. My only request from my family was that they ordered the cake for my shower from her. I sent her the image of cake I wanted and the topper. All was going well and I had no clue the shower was yesterday until I happened to go next door into.my bakery and found my husband had hid the cake there. It was a hot mess. I was hurt becUse the boq had fallen off and I saw hot glue (glue gun.glue

Sorry I accidentally hit the submit button.

I saw glue gun glue behind the bow. I sat for hours in disbelief that after all this time my family didn't know better that to repair a cake with a glue gun. I am a full time reacher and even started doubting my ability to teach the nation's children if my own family, after years, would used melted plastic rather than icing to fix the cake. I couldnt take it anymore and send back and expressed my dissapointment in them and made a batch of really thick royal icing and told them id fix it myself. (They were disappointed because I foind out about the shower by seeing a fault) hubby explained that he knew better that to use a non edible glue and pointed me to a spot on the cake that he and my mum had used icing to mend (I saw that once they pointed it out) he explained that it was my mentour that had assembled the cake with glue and pointed me to the fact that every fondant  leaf on my two peas in a pod cake was attached with hot glue and that he and my mum were actually trying to remove some it to make the cake edible. The cake had other flaws too so I asked the photographer not to take any pics of the cake because not only would it hurt her business but it would also hurt mine if that pic ever got posted. 

When we cut the cake there was no buttercream under the fondant, the cake was burnt, and no attempt was made to cut the black edges off the cake before decorating. The cake was so dry the slices that my niece and I cut had to be fed to the dog. Noone else even wanted to try the cake.

I honestly.dont know what to say to my "mentor" because if I listed all the flaws including but not limited to what ive posted here I know she would be very upset. I was taught if I have nothing good to say then say nothing but the cake is so bad that something must be said. Any ideas?

So if I understand it correctly, your friend is your mentor and you asked your family to order the cake for your baby shower from her, but when it arrived it was not edible?

To me it almost seems as if she thought the cake was for photography or decoration purposes only.. if not I just don't understand why she would deliver you such a horrible cake? especially if she's supposed to be your friend. If I were to bake a cake for my friend it would be made with such love and care

If I were you there is no doubt I would give her a piece of my mind, it is really not acceptable and I bet you if she was in your shoes she would do the same.. perhaps sit down with your husband and write a long email to her and explain how you feel and list everything that was wrong with the cake.. of course its not necessary to be rude or angry, just a calm email explaining how disappointed and sad you feel

Hope you feel better! x

That is just bizarre.  Is this the first and only cake you've ever had from her?  I would conclude she is a hack, one of the bakers Cake Wrecks was built upon.  If she is that bad and has a shop of her own(?!) an email from you is not going to change her if she thinks this is acceptable to anyone, especially her friend.  If you tell her everything that was wrong which is EVERYTHING about that cake you will lose a friend.  But now you know not to ever recommend her to anyone in the future but you can still be on the receiving end of her recs.  This is just my opinion of course, but when someone is that far gone I would just leave them alone.

How terribly disappointing Shona!  I am so sorry that happened to you and I applaud your family for trying to make the best out of a bad situation.  I know you expressed your understanding and gratitude to them.  Now as to your friend and mentor-- well, maybe she had a really bad day.  I have had days where no matter what I did I was messing up.  Usually it's because of distractions (someone at the door, phone ringing, last minute babysitting for my grands).  This is why sometimes I am decorating at 3 a.m.-- it's the only quiet time I have.  Sometimes it's just in the air like what happened to me today.

I just woke up to a ruined cake because I broke one of my rules, and put a buttercream cake in the fridge without the box (the box wouldn't fit on the shelf but the cake would)  Apparently the door didn't close tight enough and there was condensation all over the top of the cake.  I had to make a batch of butter cream, scrape it off, re apply it.  The transfer is so far holding its own.  Thankfully, it's a family cake and everyone will be more than understanding.  But except for getting up at 6 a.m. today I would have had no time to redo the whole cake if it had been a more serious problem.

This person is your friend and your mentor.  Personally, I would value that over the cake experience.   My approach would be to take her out for coffee or lunch and then have a very honest, sincere, low key discussion with her about the cake and ask her if something happened that day?  Ask her if she had a bad day, maybe ran out of time to fix things that went wrong, etc.  Tell her specifically what you found when you cut the cake.

Things happen.  It's regrettable.  But she is human and we all make mistakes.  Give her a chance to explain and apologize.  If she gets defensive or doesn't see the problem you can still be her buddy but don't refer any clients to her.  I still probably too fresh and you are probably still a little raw about it-- but try to put it behind you and focus on your bundles of joy!

No she isn't a friend. I met her through a friend. She was just my cake mentor. All I can think of is how badly I must have looked when she didnt deliver to my standards to the customers I sent to her. 

I understand that we all have bad days which is why im judging the cake as if stuff just happened but even then I can't wrap my mind around no buttercream beneath the fondant, hot glue, and the burn edges not removed. The others flaws though cake wreck worthy could happen to anyone one.

As soon as I finished posting this morning I broke down in tears. Hubby drove 6hrs for this indelible cake because I insisted she did my out of respect for the help she had given me over the years.sigh. Im going to pen that email, delete the pics and delete her number. At this point I'm tired of my cousins laughing about the ass with arms that was put on my cake (was supposed to be twins rather than but cheeks) wish I could erase everyone's memory of the cake

well if not a friend send her photos and ask for a refund. Don't refer her to anyone, and try to put it behind you. 

Oh, in that case, what @Bonne Bouche  said, get your money back and move on!

You said this person you call your mentor is a friend's cake vendor?  Why not ask your friend about her first.  Has she been doing this shoddy work for your friend? Does this person post pictures or have a fb page or website so you can check out her work?  I think there's something strange about this whole thing.  I can't imagine why or how someone who has given you good advice would be so terrible!

Carmijok it pizzles me too. So obviously her customers value price over quality. I tried explaining the problem myself because I didn't want my family contacting her because they wouldnt sugar coat anything but my attempt at explaining fell on deaf ears. She says her brain is seized up and she isn't understanding so I just called it a day and forgot about it. 

I cut the top of the cake off to avoid any glue and this is what I found. Nowonder the cake was as dry as Cookie. Everyone makes a bad purchase sometimes. 

I had a girl order a 30cm high 10kgs worth of mud cake and ganache and buttercream teddy bear with a fondant bow and facial features for her sisters birthday  agreed price on $300 she gets here to pick up  and hands me $80 and says I really can't afford $300 I spent too much on her birthday already!!!!!! Are you fking kidding me!!!!!!!!

Emmalee.....that's why you always get 50% deposit  before....and full payment a week before pick up!!!

It was for a friend I went to school with so I didn't think that would be a problem, boy was I wrong :( 

Omg! I hope you didn't give her the cake for $80!

I said to her that she couldn't have the cake for $80 as that wouldn't even cover my ingredients cost and she lost it and said she was going to slander my name across the Internet so I would never get business again! Hate customers like this even worse when it was a friend! 

Hmmm.  So with friends like that you don't need any enemies.  Deposit, deposit, deposit and full payment before delivery.  That's the best policy.  I've never experienced but have heard of people refusing to make a final payment because after the cake is devoured the customer claims the cake was below standard etc.  This biz would be great if it wasn't for the (some) customers LOL!

Well please say you didn't let her hold you hostage, emmalee.

Well please say you didn't let her hold you hostage, emmalee.

Definitely learned from my mistake that's for sure! Always deposit and payment befor pick up! 

And no definitely not I told her she could do what she liked but she wasn't having the cake for $80 so she left, I never heard anything though so I was lucky 

Gah. People are such a-holes.

I had a person who lives in another state, is as total stranger to me, and has never had one of my cakes do a review on my FB page.  She was a "Like" that I picked up when I boosted a FB post about one of my cakes.  She gave me a 3 star rating and no comment to justify it.  Based on what?  Who knows.  But that one three star rating had a huge impact on my overall rating.  The only cure was to take the rating option off my FB page.  So people can't leave a review like they used to, but I at least don't have to suffer because someone is being an *sshole.  I have a comment section on my Web page so people can comment there.  I wouldn't mind constructive comments that can be addressed/answered, but that kind of stuff drives me crazy.   Some people are either just plain stupid or mean.  Maybe both.

@jchuck  

She left without the cake, I ended up selling it the next day to someone else

and no I never saw any comments and never heard anything bad so I'm just lucky I guess! But yes definitely not a friend that's for sure!

It's so sad that we can't do something we love without having people basically think we should do it for free :(  

So very true Emmalee

But, a true friend would never take advantage this way, so no loss. She figured you for a pushover. She was all talk (bluff) and no action. She knew she was wrong, that's why she didn't shout it out on social media.   I gotta say, I was very impressed with your gutsy stance!!! I'd bet most decorators would have given up the cake for the $80, then whined, grumbled and complained to anyone that would listen. You held your ground, and stuck to your principles!! A better person and decorator for it too. Definitely not easy what you did. You go girl!!!