So I got stiffed by a client for the first time.  I got an e-mail through my website a couple weeks ago requesting a baby shower cake.  After several exchanges of ideas with the client, I sent her a contract and requested payment.  By that point, it was only a little more than a week before the event, so I said that I would need full payment.  She still had not contacted me or paid me by the Monday of the week of the event, so I contacted her again.  I finally heard from her on Thursday, with the event on Sunday.  Her grandfather had passed away over the weekend, so she was dealing with that and then wasn't sure she was going to go through with the shower, but she was convinced to by others, so she wanted to know if I could still do her cake.  If not, she completely understood.  Well, a pregnant woman who's grandfather just passed is a pretty sympathetic case, so I said I could do it.  I baked the cakes, but then she didn't contact me back, so I called her on Saturday and she said that she thought that it was all set to go and didn't know she was supposed to call me back or write me.  I asked her again about payment and she said she could do it.  I still had not received payment by Saturday night, but stupidly made the cake anyway because I had already baked it/felt bad for her/she sounded trustworthy.  Cut to today and she has not contacted me, has not answered any of my calls or e-mails.  She said she would pick the cake up before 12 and it's 10:45 now, so I feel like this is the end.  So frustrated.  I guess it's my own fault, but she was pretty sympathetic.

Also, any ideas of what to do with the cake?

AUgh. Some people!

Just as she had a very compelling story, so do you. I would call & leave a message. "Client, I am calling because I haven't heard from you. I want you to know that my heart really went out o you. I know you have been struggling in a tough situation, & I had hoped to make it a bit easier for you. Dispite my policy, I have baked & created a wonderful cake for you. I can only assume, at this point, that you will not be coming to pick up your cake or pay for it. That really puts me in a bad situation. It's no really fair to me. In the future, I hope you will recognize that you should at least notify people doing something for you. It is the least of common courtesies."

I will say that this weeken I had my very first no show for a consult. I called & called. Appt was 10. Finally got an email at 6 saying her fiancé was insisting on "reasonable" prices & she would be turning everything over to him. She even said "sorry for the inconvieniance." Really?! What time did you know you weren't coming?!! Call! Instead, I wasted the 1:30 waiting & calling. I did not reply to her email. She wasn't worth one more second of my time!

Of course you realize this is exactly why you don't even turn on your oven before you have money in hand.  So chalk this up to a learning experience, remove the extra decorations and deliver it to your local homeless shelter.

Sorry, that sounded a little harsh.  You seem like a very thoughtful, caring person and I'm sorry you had this happen.  We've all tried to do nice things and ended up paying for it.  This is exactly why you have to cover yourself and remember that you're running a business, not a charity.

Depending on the decoration - pass it along to a homeless shelter, nursing home, as a thank you for your local hospital staff, fire dept. police dept., school staff on Mon.... unless it is a "belly cake"' that one might require quite a remodel, eh?

Really sorry that happened - a learning experience - not fun.

she sounded like a really troubled soul

i think you deserve great kudos for being compassionate

and you get to be a further blessing to the brand new entity who gets to eat the cake be it family/friends/firemen/whosoever

and this experience will help you to divide the difference going forward

where you can much more easily still show compassion but also

be equally careful on where to draw the line/pull the plug on a business deal

and when/if i do something like this--it's with my permission

i mean i know i might get taken advantage of to a point

but i'll go through with it sometimes just so i don't miss out on the chance to be a blessing

plus sometimes it's less stress (for me)

so all in all i think you did good if you look at it that way

Yes, thank you for all of your responses.  I definitely learned my lesson.  I was trying to decide what I would have done differently, and I think I probably would have ended up baking the cake anyway, but definitely called her Saturday again prior to decorating the cake to say that I couldn't begin work until I received payment.  Then I could have just frozen the cakes and used them for samples and tastings.  Thank you again for all the advice.  Just so annoyed that after constantly e-mailing me about design and answering her phone yesterday, somehow she's nowhere to be found.  I keep trying to tell my self that maybe she went into labor and can't contact me, etc.  Continuing to try to not think the worst of people :)