AIBU to expect the birthday cake booking date changed without extra charge?

@Tally2721 the impression I have is that the cake maker thought the party was cancelled, not that it would be rearranged.

I’m a cake maker myself, and although I haven’t read all 17 pages of comments, I think this is fairly clear-cut.
The cake maker would have allocated time in her schedule to make this cake, potentially turning away other customers in the process. However, I do think she was in the wrong for offering to freeze the sponges and then not following through, instead giving them to her neighbours.
It’s possible she didn’t actually have the freezer space available, but if that was the case, she should have communicated that to you rather than making an offer she couldn’t fulfil.
When you contacted her to explain that the party had been delayed, she should have clearly explained your options. She could have offered to complete the cake as planned, with you collecting it and storing it in the freezer until the event (cakes, including iced cakes, can last for months in the freezer when stored correctly). Alternatively, if you didn’t want to go down that route, she could have explained that a replacement cake for the new date would require a further payment.
Ultimately, I don’t think it’s unreasonable for a cake maker to expect payment for the time and ingredients already committed, particularly when they may have turned away other work. But I do think there was a lack of communication here, and offering to freeze the sponges and then giving them away was unfair to you.

thanks for the update.

So what she has is the profit she had planned to make in the slot you booked for a cake, plus a cake that she had no need for. And she saved a bit of money on icing. To avoid the cake going to waste she gave it away.

What you seem to have wanted is two chunks of her time for the same cost as one, because you don't think you should pay her again for the time and ingredients needed for the cake when you now want it, even though she could have made and sold another cake in that time. Had you not cancelled at the last minute and rescheduled she could have made and sold two cakes, making two lots of profit. Alll she has really saved is the cost of a bit of icing, because the first cake had already been made when you cancelled.

OP, you must see that driving lessons and nail appointments are very different to celebration cakes. You have said yourself that this is a big birthday and you wouldn’t normally get a professional cake. So this cake maker gets less than an order a year from you, no matter how good her service.

If you cancel a driving lesson late notice then that’s one in a series of, what, 20? And the rebooking will be prompt, the instructor hasn’t bought anything specifically for your lesson ans may well be able to offer the slot to another pupil with less than 48h notice.

(FWIW, DS1 is learning and is charged for less than 48h cancellation)

Ditto a nail technician, who may get a walk in or may hold a cancellation list. But in any event, can expect repeat business from you in the timescale of weeks, not years.

When you first spoke to the cake maker, you were cancelling the cake. you did not say that you were hoping to rearrange, could she hold onto the ingredients etc. It would have been better if both you and she had been clearer about the cake freezing, but it sounds like a short conversation.

Equally, she might have realised once she hung up that there was wasn’t space in her freezer or that she didn’t know if vegan cakes froze well, but didn’t want to ring you back as - to her mind - the order was cancelled owing to illness.

This is where you've gone wrong I think.
You've thought she was putting it in the freezer to save for you. She's thinking she'll put it in the freezer to save wasting it. Then she's given it to Doris next door instead, still not wasted.
She didn't say she was saving it for you, you've assumed that. She thought the cake order was cancelled, because you didn't tell her you'd want it at a later date.

Exactly this (edited as the PP quote didn’t paste first time)

The OP did pay in full for the first cake and it was made, although not decorated! So the OP should have been offered the cake she had paid for! It shouldn’t have just been given to someone else.

regardless of the fact the baker has now offered her 50% off a 2nd cake

Indeed the communication was poor

No but she kept the original time free and didn't take any other bookings. I think you should have paid for the first cake, even if she didn't make it. At least for the time aspect (which is most of it)

I would feel very guilty if I cost a small business money.
But at the freezing sponge point, the OP had paid in full and got nothing. So cake maker is up a sponge and has the money.

If the OP had not gone back to rearrange, the cake maker was still up and sponge and had all the money.

Because I think most people would feel guilty that they’d lost a small business person money. Which the op did because a sale which the cake maker thought was £200 became £100. She essentially didn’t pay for the sponge at all with the £100, but the lost time. One or the other. I may have written that as a consolation’please don’t worry about the wasted sponge’ text.

Oops. JRTFT and see that she’s offered 50%. A fair compromise for the lost booking I think.

There was poor communication all round. At that point the cake maker hadn’t said either way that she was going to offer a 50% refund/reduction off a second cake. I’m thinking it was a flippant impulsive comment with the intent of helping the op to not feel guilty that she’d wasted her time.

Is she charging you the full rate twice? If so, I would be asking why she gave the cake to her neighbour and didn’t offer it to you first, given she expected you to pay for it 🫤
I think 50% surcharge is fair. If she had said at the time that you couldn’t change date and planned to charge you full price again, then that’s different, but had that been the case then I would have expected her to deliver me a birthday cake!

I can't see why the OP would feel better that the sponge she paid for was being used by someone else. If it were me, I would feel a bit worse!
Different if I was being offered some money back but at that point, she wasn't.

She didn't offer to freeze the sponge for OP though, she said she could freeze it to use at another time, I read that to mean she was trying to make OP feel better about cancelling, in that it wouldn't go to waste. OP took it to mean that she was saving it for her, but why would she if OP was 'cancelling', OP never mentioned re-arranging so as far as the cake maker was concerned OP didn't need the cake anymore.

She has offered OP 50% back as she never completed the cake, to cover time wasted, but if there was a chance OP wanted to still have the half made cake, or postpone the party and still have the cake the time to say that was at cancellation phone call, not leave it to chance then complain two days when later the cake maker has disposed of it.

Very fair point.
But if you had offered to freeze the sponge and then gave it away, would you not feel any accountability for that?

Congratulations!

This depends on how well your business is doing, which we are unaware of. I run my own business and I have a waiting list miles long. I don’t want the business of customers who cancel with short notice and can’t grasp that that comes at a cost of a time slot is reserved for them. There are many people who get a response of ‘sorry I’m fully booked’ from me when I’m not - but will be. I run a banned list and this op would be on it.

You can make that argument, but I think goodwill counts for a lot too, if you want to keep building a customer base.

The cake-maker would be reasonable to have t&c upon booking that cancellations within 48h must be fully paid for.

In this instance though, it seems she didn’t. That’s her oversight.

It’s not just the time though is it? It’s the fact that the cake maker can’t rebook that time at such short notice. She may have turned down other work due to the booking already in place.

to be fair, the OPs first posts could be read that way. It wasn’t until several posts in that she heard from the cake maker what the extra charges would be

I think that you would be very reasonable to ask for a 50% minimum on your first order, because you ordered a fully decorated cake and got nothing. Fine to give her something for her time, in fact 50% is more than generous I’d say given that she didn’t even decorate it which would i assume be the most time-consuming part.

One day before the cake would have been made I worked at a wedding cake shop and we made the cakes in advance so yes you still paid if you cancelled the order because we'd done the work and used up ingredients the shop is being reasonable to charge you

An entirely understandable confusion, since that was what the op initially said…that she was expected to pay full price twice…here’s the ops ever changing details about the costs in order…

’She now expects us to pay again’ from the ops first post. ‘Surely it would be reasonable for her to do it free of charge’

’i Paid £200 and she kept the cake. It’s not hard to grasp. You’ll need physio for that reach.’

’she does have £200 and a free cake. I don’t understand why you are struggling with this.’

’ive asked if there is anything else to pay for the new date and she’s said not yet. I do t want to commit if I have the pay for the whole thing again. I’m actually howling.’

someone else ‘so she’s not actually said she expects you to pay 100% of the price again then?’

’I have no idea how much she will be charging me’

’she is charging 50%’

’she has offered me my deposit (50%)’

’a 50% refund’

‘Wants me to pay again 😂 so I’ve efffectiveky bought her neighbour a cake 😂’