I sometimes makes cakes as a hobby, and pass them on for fundraising; school fetes, charity raffles, etc, or share them with friends/ neighbours.
I very rarely make a cake I want to try that I don’t already have a ‘home’ for, and will then offer it on social media for a donation to cover the cost of the ingredients. Although my kitchen is of course clean it has not been hygiene inspected by the local council, so I don’t sell cakes for profit.
I recently advertised one on social media and a few people asked me to make one for them. I explained that I don’t make cakes to order and recommended a few good local bakers.
One woman gave a tale of woe, appeared to be friends with someone who had previously had a cake from me, and against my better judgement I agreed to make a ( fairly basic) cake for her. I had to be home that morning anyway for a heating engineer.
I told her how much the ingredients would cost.
She sent a few messages. One changing the flavour and another asking for an extra filling. Both increased costs a little but I didn’t alter the cost to her.
She then said she didn’t drive and wanted me to deliver. I don’t normally deliver. If I am just recouping the cost of ingredients it doesn’t give me much leeway for fuel or indeed accidental damage to the cake, but for the same reasons I initially felt sorry for her and agreed to make the cake, I also agreed to deliver.
It then occurred to me that the heating engineer might need to turn off the power as I had had a problem with the thermostat, so I decided to make the cake the day before.
I turned on the oven and the RCD tripped. I reset it and it happened again several times. I called the cooker cover plan company and they said they would arrange an appointment within 5 days.
I sent her a message apologising that I couldn’t make her cake and explained why. She had mentioned having a supermarket delivery the next day, so I suggested amending her order to include a cake. The message showed as opened, but she did not reply.
I next heard from her the following day upset that I had let her down and she didn’t know what to do. She clearly hadn’t ordered a cake for delivery.
She asked me if I could buy some sort of cake, similar to what I would have made.
My nearest supermarket is over 10 miles away ( approximately 7 miles from her), and I was waiting in for the heating engineer, but my friend was in town and she picked up a pretty decent cake. It cost £1 more than the cake ingredients I quoted.
Once the engineer had called I drove 3 miles to deliver the cake, intending to just charge the original sum ( whilst making a mental note to never agree to make a cake under similar circumstances). When I got there she was quite off with me, strongly implied that I had let her down and getting a replacement cake to her was the least I could do. She went on for some time before I realised that she didn’t intend to pay.
I know I said I would do something that in the end I couldn’t do, but she knew that I agreed as a favour, and not as a business. I don’t know why she thought I should be out of pocket. She’s not a friend, just a random person who contacted me via social media.