I SOOOOOOO NEED TO VENT RIGHT NOW!!!

AAAAAAHHHHHHHHH!!!!!

I have a cake order from someone I sort of know(we use to carpool in middle school and kinda grew up together when we were younger)but i barely know her,know her!!she wants an EXTREME CAKE???!!!what ever the hell that means..I've tried asking her what she is looking for and she is leaving it up to me...i asked if she has a theme or color scheme she would like and nothing!!!absolutely nothing!!!it took forever for me to pull the colors out from her(purple,white,pink,red)

I had sent her a photo of a beautiful chandelier cake and she said "yea thats cool"...i ask a few more questions with no response and then ask if she even still wants to get the cake from me and she says she does and to include those colors since shes wants "sort of a chandelier cake"...wth is that??!!..i text her saying i thought she wasnt really wanting a chandelier cake and her response..."ok,cool thank you".......???????????? WTF does that mean and have to do with my question???? "but still go off of what you feel...I want something like that but more extreme..im only feeding 20 people if that...frilly with a taste of extreme that will make peoples mouths drop".........................she must have some sort of idea in her head,im sorry but if you are thinking you want an extreme cake you have got to have some sort of something in your head!!!..."no not really i don't this time that why im leaving it up to you..do what you feel since you know what i like now"

NO!I DON'T KNOW WHAT YOU LIKE!I DONT KNOW WHAT YOU WANT!!!

sigh...i get it..shes giving me an open canvas most would probably love this opportunity!!are mad that i'm venting about this..but i dont know anything about her anymore..i cant look at things on her fb page to find out what she is into because she shut it down.i dont know anyone anymore who REALLY knows her to ask their opinion...just ugh!!just tell me a base idea that you want and let me go from there..and how the hell do i make something so frilly and extreme and feed only 20 people....clearly i am new to cake decorating cuz i am just lost!!!!

You're going to go nuts with a customer like that.  Dump it all in her hands - just like she did you.  Tell her to contact you again when she knows what she wants because when it's all done and delivered, you KNOW you're going to get an email or call saying that it was nice but not exactly what she had in mind.  In other words, you and she may not realize it yet but you're being set up.  This is not going to end well.  You can't go into a restaurant and sit there looking at the menu then tell the waitress you still don't know what you want.  What do they do then, turn their backs and leave until you know what you want.  They're not psychic and neither are you.  Do yourself and your nerves a favor, make the call...............dump it.

There's an old comedy routine where a man is in charge of the lost and found at the airport and another is looking for his luggage.  The lost and found guy says It's your luggage and you know what it looks like - how am I supposed to find it?  Your client is the lost luggage guy! 

Good luck, it sounds like she might not know what she likes until she sees what she doesn't like - at your time and expense!

Theresa

frilly and extreme -- 'extreme' to me means 'with a motor in there to produce movement'  -- i had 48 hours once to do an extreme cake for a tv audition and so i did a butterfly with flapping wings using the apparatus inside those hallmark kissy angel bears you can get at valentine's --- do you have experience with motors and cakes -- i don't i just used what i had very quickly -- 

an open umbrella/ballerina/sun/ that revolves over some flowers -- a dressing table mirror with lights decorated with make up and jewelry that revolves -- 

but are you able to determine that is she understanding the cost factor here -- this would come at a hefty price -- bucket loads of expertise -- her indecision is reminiscent of peeps who want to order elaborate cakes for $50 or something --

Have you discussed price at all?  What is she willing to pay for frilly extreme?  Maybe if you price it high enough this madness will end!  She has super high expectations but no concept - not a good combination.

AWhat is her budget for 20 portions?

That's the first thing I'd have asked.

Instead of dicking around with e-mails and quotes and all I'd ask her budget.

It might be $19.99 and you can send her to Wal-Mart.

Yep, my first thought when you said extreme cake was "Show me the money", get the budget first before you waste anymore time.

It depends how friendly you are with her - if you want to spend some time working out what she likes, show her a selection of say 5 cake pics and ask what bits she likes on each. That is after you follow the advice above about getting a budget to go on - she may not know how much 'amazing' costs!