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

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)

Indeed the communication was poor

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

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)

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.

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.

thanks for the update.

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.

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

Did she offer the sponges to OP?

The op didn’t have to pay for the sponges in the end @Tally2721- just 50% towards the time. This is definitely one of the threads where you can’t skip reading the ops posts and then have a meaningful contribution as the story changed throughout.

You've already paid for 'The icing on the cake', so maybe offer to just pay for a new sponge (even though the fucker said she would freeze it but lied and gave it away)..

No, and she probably should have done, but it sounds like quite a rushed conversation when OP’s DD was pretty ill.

Ideally she would have offered to drop them, I agree. But she did offer to do the second cake for 50% off when the party was moved.

Maybe she thought twice about freezing it. Paying a bit extra to make a new sponge doesn't seem unreasonable; I imagine the biggest cost is her time for the decorating.

I don’t think so. She’s planned time and space and her stuff - this is a fully you problem

She didn't have the free cake. All she had was the sponge so if you pay her for a new sponge, she needs to decorate it for free.

It did suck, yes, but reasonable adults understand that businesses are businesses, not charities. I booked a hotel room at a cheaper rate many months ago because I was going to a live show next month and didn't want to travel on the day. The show has been cancelled due to the main participant being ill. No ones fault. They didn't plan to be ill. The hotel didn't plan for the illness. I didn't plan for the illness. But it's happened and no one is to blame. The hotel room, it turned out, is non-refundable, and non-adjustable so I've lost a large chunk of money. Money I can't really affotd to lose (your £200 pales into insignificance, in comparison), but these things happen and businesses have to make a profit. That's how life works. So do you know what I did? I swore to myself (not because the main man is ill, but because I didn't check the small print on the hotel booking at the time), and then I moved on. You know, like a reasonable adult. What I didn't do was slate the hotel for being a BUSINESS. You're damned lucky the other vendors have supposedly not charged you!

You want to book her time twice and pay only once, that is unfair. As a former cake maker I would not be using frozen sponge in my cakes for clients, nor would I be handing over half done cakes to clients, for reputational reasons. Cakes left my kitchen perfect or not at all. You should pay her what she’s asking for

Should she pay for the icing though as she didn't spend time on that?

The entire point is that the cancellation was too late (less than 48h) for the cake maker to find another client for that time slot.

If you cancel a driving lesson or a non-NHS dentist etc with less than the agreed amount of notice, you are still expected to pay for the slot. Same thing here.

As the cake maker had received full payment prior to the cake being completed and prior to cancellation, she should have offered the OP a full and completed cake

OP called her to ask if she had started the decorating and she said no. OP absolutely could have asked that she completed and delivered the cake for what - at that point - was a cancelled celebration.

It’s understandable that OP didn’t ask, because she was stressed about her DD, but OP has said herself that it would have been a bit miserable to have the cake delivered on the party day when there was no party and when the birthday girl had D&V. So chances are if the cake maker had offered that, OP would have said no.

The cake maker has offered to make a cake for the new date for 50% off. This seems like a fair compromise.

I don’t disagree that 50% off a second cake is a fair outcome.
the OP paid in full for a cake, including delivery, was then told it would be frozen to use later and then it was given away to someone else. That’s not acceptable. If a cake maker told me she would freeze a cake I had paid for, of course I’m going to presume it will be for me to use at a later date as it’s technically my cake bought and paid for.

the cake maker should have been clearer or have clearer T&Cs on their website/instagram page and these should also be sent to customers to make them aware, prior to purchase.

I’ve been in the OPs situation before when my child’s party was cancelled on the day of her party. Some suppliers were happy to rebook, free of charge. The caterer and cake maker still delivered their items as they were made and paid for. It was then up to us what we did with them

@MsSquiz IMO that was crossed wires - OP called up to cancel and the cake maker didn’t say she would freeze it specifically for OP’s use later, because at that point it was a cancellation.

it may be that the cake maker realised that the vegan cake wouldn’t freeze well or that she didn’t have space after all, but at the moment
she gave the cake to a neighbour, the order was cancelled.

I think that the misunderstanding has been reflected fairly in the discount. YMMV.

Anyway, OP’s original question was whether the cake maker should just do a whole new cake for free, which I think most people believe WBU.

It might have been crossed wires but it should have been rectified by the cake maker as soon as she decided not to freeze it, give it away to someone else.

she gave away a cake they no longer belonged to her as OP had paid in full for it