This past weekend I made a wedding cake for an acquaintance of mine. They had ordered a two tier naked cake with fresh fruit filling and decoration. We set up the cake and they loved it. We were attending the wedding as well and when it got to cake time, the venue was cutting and plating Costco sheet cakes. The cake I made wasn’t even being served to the wedding party. I didn’t say anything to the customer about it, because at that point I was a guest, but the Costco cake was nowhere near as good as the cake I made. I have the guests didn’t think it was the same cake...
How do I prevent this in the future? I won’t be a guest at 90% of the weddings I make cakes for, so I wouldn’t have any way of knowing what is actually being served. Thanks in advance for the advice.
Something similar happened to me. The gal had come to me months before for pricing & tasting but didn't order. When she came in for a small 2 tier cake I felt I had seen her before but didn't connect. I had a contract that said if any other cake was there I would not leave my cake (something like that but wording was somewhat differant). There were 2 Wal-Mart sheet cakes boxed/ sitting in plain view when I delivered her 2 tier 'show cake'. Since it was just weeks before closing my bakery I went ahead & left the cake. You might want to come up with similar wording in your contracts and stick to it. Maybe someone else on here who has something similar in their contract & has had this happen will speak up as to what they did.
Oh I had donated a 3 tier cake to a school function- it had perishable fillings... They never served my cake, and I couldn't even eat the cake they did serve from the catering hall. It was awful and I eat anything chocolate. The next day the cake showed up "in tact" but all wonky in the faculty room. I took the whole thing and tossed it. That was the last time I donated or even attended this annual function. I'm not sure you will be able to stop this from happening, guest or no guest.
That is so odd. And a waste of money on the bride and grooms part. I have heard of couples supplementing servings with sheet cakes (made by the same baker as primary "show cake") but I have never heard of a couple spending money on a real cake only to serve sheet cakes from a big box store. How confusing that must of been. Honestly, I would ask your acquaintance about it mainly to help clear up any concerns or curiosity you may have. As for future orders I would definitely make mention in your contracts that your cake will be the only cake served at the event. It would be the same if someone hired a florist to do their bouquets but then the couple grabbed some supermarket flowers and plopped them into vases for the reception tables. People would think that all flowers were done by the florist and if the reception tables look like poo than that could be bad for the florist who put together the bouquets.
But in the end, unless you see another cake at future venues you will never really know if another cake was served, but hopefully the "threat" in the contract would be enough to dissuade most people from doing what this couple did.
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