I delivered a two tier birthday cake on Monday morning ( 11.30am) the woman was really pleased with how it looked etc and paid cash. Wednesday evening i recieved a phone call from the mother of the woman who ordered the cake to make a complaint. the conversation got very confusing but here goes....

The cake was cut at the party the following day and given out to guests, the remainder of the cake was saved until the following evening when it was taken to family to be eaten. When the family have come to have there slices the mother claims that specks of mould were present in the cake. I asked her from when the cake was cut at the party to the following evening of family recieving it how was it stored, as clearly between that time the cake has started to spoil therefore must have been stored incorrectly.

The mother then responds with....when the cake was cut at the party it was completely rotton and had to be thrown in the bin no one had any we want refunding...So I told her thats not what you just told me you said guests had eaten it and it was saved over night for family. She then states that her 78 year old mother had eaten the cake and could possibly die from food poisioning as she is already in ill health ( so much for noone having any!). I was rather shaken from the complaint and confused as i have never ever had a mouldy cake complaint and never even heard of it before to be fair. So i told her i would contact her daughter to arrange a refund.

After i had time to stop shaking and think it through properly i came to the conclusion that if the cake had started to spoil after it had been cut then it would be there responsibility as you would not serve a mouldy cake to guests and then save it to share amongst family for the following day, nor would you watch your elderly relative eat a peice of rotton food and not stop them.

I have had countless messgaes and phone calls demanding a refund. She did send me a picture of a slice with the tiniest speck of mould but there is no proof that as soon as the first slice was cut it was full of mould also like i said above you wouldnt serve to guests etc...would you really wait until the evening of the following day to make a complaint?

So they are threatening if i dont give them a full refund they are taking further action against me and my business, im very shaken and upset as i have never experienced anything like this nor had myself or business threatend.

has anyone any advice as to what i can do about this or what action could they posisbly take against me, It would be easy to give them a refund but i am not in the wrong and they are clearly after a free cake. The whole order process and lead up to delivery they were constantly messaging and changing there minds i didnt thnk they would go ahead with it, even delivery they didnt answer the door and as i was about to get back to the car they suddenly appeared.

That is tough, and it definitely sounds like they are fishing for a free cake! Is this all on the mother, or has the daughter complained?  If that cake was bad the first day, you should and would have been contacted right then, not 3 days later.  It does sound like the cake wasn’t properly stored.  I’d start documenting everything, get as much info as you can, and get ready for a fight.  

What was the answer when you asked about how it was stored? And already the fact that her story has changed has shown that she is lying.

Sadly some people are just plain crazy!  You are correct about the cake and them eating it!  Who does that?!  I would not give a refund.  They should have taken pictures the day they were all eating it if that was the case.  Also they should have brought it back to you of what was not eaten so you could asses the "mold" growth.

I have found on the very few occasions  of someone wanting a refund it was a Byers remorse situation and since they could not get anything from other vendors the bakers were whom they targeted.  Stand behind your product.  I am with you on they did not store the cake correctly.

Stand you ground, you know your product!  Good luck! 

it takes weeks for mold to appear in cake -- unless you have a fruit filling or something like that that wasn't kept refrigerated -- that will go faster -- but cake takes a looong time --

here is one scenario -- 'a friend' once used some vanilla simple syrup that was stored improperly -- they did not know it needed to be fridged -- the cake was fine at the reception, the leftover went kaflooey -- and it assaults the nose -- it's awful when that happens -- so if something like that had been used in your cake -- yeah it could go like that -- overnight it could go -- one way or the other --

but fruity stuff can go faster, cream cheese icing could go, cooked pastry cream -- toffee cooked with eggs -- stuff like that has to be handled properly and in the good ole' days I was ignorant of these things -- and even if it was kept in a fridge that wasn't cold enough that can hasten it's demise --

so with that being said -- the lady is not handling this well obviously -- and I don't need to know what was in your cake -- but you check back over everything you used and determine if you have any liability -- you can private message me if you have any questions or anything -- and I don't know what happened i'm just throwing ideas into the idea pot --

waiting to complain is not indicator of mold or no mold -- if it happed as reported they are as taken aback as anyone --

now has the one who ordered the cake and the one who paid come back to complain? or is it peripheral people? and should this cake have been refrigerated and did you tell them that?

"...i came to the conclusion that if the cake had started to spoil after it had been cut then it would be there responsibility as you would not serve a mouldy cake to guests..."

no, it's your responsibility if the cake goes moldy unless it was tampered with -- like if the knife was dirty --

was this a fruit cake?

What color icing did you use could that be the speck of mold.  Most cakes get a off taste before you see mold. After the cake is delivered it is their problem and how they handle and store it.

What kind of cake was this? 

I agree with -K8memphis, it takes a long time for cake to mold unless there are extenuating circumstances.  And I agree with mahtc2016, there is a good possibility that what was represented as mold in a picture, may not have been mold at all.  It could even have been a little speck of something which she put on the slice just for the picture.

Any update on the situation?