Wedding cupcake mishap AIBU bride wants full refund for me wrecking her big day?

[ilovepombears]

I run a home based cake making business a few months ago I had a request from a bride to make 100 black cupcakes for her wedding. She provided the wrappers and black food colouring paste and also black and white photo toppers of the couple as she asked it this would bring the costs down so I deducted this from the bill.

Today is her wedding day and there seems to be a massive miscommunication somewhere along the lines.
Friday I baked all 100 cupcakes and whilst I was waiting for them to cool I text her and asked if she was sure she wanted them all black buttercream or if she would prefer black and white or black and grey. She texted back and said 50 black 50 grey would be ace. I then had another text asking where the buttercream was going. This should of really set off alarm bells. I told her the buttercream would be going on top of each cupcake. No further response.

As the wedding is out of town she came to collect them yesterday. They looked stunning and really complimented her wedding theme. She seemed a bit off when collecting but said she liked them.

Two hours later I receive a text from her saying how dissapointed she is with the cakes and how they are not as disscused as the cakes are white.

I didn't understand where she was coming from so I tried to call but she didn't answer then text to say I have wrecked her wedding.

After a while of toing and froing it transpires what the bride in her head has ordered is 50 black and 50 grey sponge cupcakes as in no buttercream frosting. Where I was suppose to put the picture toppers is still a mystery.

She has seen hundreds of images of my work and I have never produced a nude cupcake. Always have frosting on them.

She has not given me time to rectify the issue. Not that I would as I am not having my name associated with what she thinks she has ordered. Not would I let black sponges out to be eaten as they will taste horrendous but they have so much colour in them can you imagine the additives.

She is now asking for a full refund as I have "screwed up her order" what do I do? I'm my head she has received what she has ordered.

If you guys ordered a black & grey cupcake how would you interoperate that? What she thinks or what I have made her.

Just asked DH what he would expect if someone said they were having ''black cupcakes'' for their wedding.

And he said ''... er ... chocolate?''.

So there we are - SO much scope for misunderstanding in this situation it's amazing!

I'm amazed anyone would want a black sponge at wedding. I wouldn't eat it as a guest as I'd not want my teeth and mouth stained with whatever is used to make a black sponge and icing. Boak.

If you search google images for black cupcakes a lot of the images show cakes with black sponge. They look a lot more appetising than I thought they would.

But the order form clearly states vanilla flavour, so op could not have made it with a dark chocolate sponge as the customer specified vanilla

I reckon the bride is trying it on. She could certainly see the buttercream when she collected. The fact that she's moaning about that when she could clearly see it at the time makes her a chancer. At most I would offer a partial refund as a gesture of goodwill but anyone claiming the colour of the sponge ruined her day is a drama llama.

That looks vile, More. Like something full of additive shite that will stain your teeth, tongue and mouth if you eat it. Yak.

The bride isn't trying it on though, she may have no idea how hard it it to make a black vanilla songs. It's the OP who has to guide this!

Songs? Sponge even!

With lego there that cupcake is black looks vile. Agree with others misunderstanding on both sides. When i read op i thought he want black sponge.

I agree that vanilla is the flavour not the colour of the sponge, I don't think your checklist really changes anything.

A huge number of people here have said they would expect black sponge in her position.

Thos black cakes look like iron shit.

Black sponge maybe, but grey sponge?! Grey sponge?! The idea is revolting. You are in the right. Who doesn't know what a cupcake is in this day and age - cupcakes are flippin' everywhere!!

I'd also set a time limit for queries & a deposit up front

I'd do one sample cupcake and get their approval on that too before making more.

If contact the venue and ask if there was any real issue with the cake as you are concerned (get another opinion)

I would consider vanilla a white or off white colour. Vanilla ice cream, vanilla paint, vanilla sponge.

But when we're talking about food, I think most people understand vanilla to be a flavor. Most people don't call white cake vanilla, they call it white, nor do they say they want brown cake when they mean chocolate. I could make a white cake in a lot of different flavors - lemon, almond, orange, etc., but the cake would be called white. You wouldn't call it vanilla because of it's color.

I don't think paint comes in flavors, so vanilla has to be the color, there's no real chance of confusion there. Not all vanilla ice cream is "vanilla" colored, either - look at Superman ice cream. It's vanilla flavored, but it's blue, yellow, and pink.

I think you should have offered a partial refund OP, the offer of an anniversary cake will just infuriate her ( would you want to order more goods from someone who you believe wrongly delivered on your initial order?)
How much would an anniversary cake cost ?

I remember I had asked for cake toppers at our wedding, naff but there you are. They cost £50 extra 10 years ago. I tried to give the cake maker a picture of us so she could get the hair colouring and length right and rough general size, but she wasn't interested and as I should have guessed they were ridiculously rubbish and didn't even have the right outfit (DH was wearing a kilt but not on this creature)NB before anyone starts on me i wasn't expecting perfection I just wanted them to look nice and vaguely like us - DH has blond hair. It certainly didn't ruin my day, but it was a slight disappointment.

Rather than an anniversary cake far better to have offered some financial compensation be it 50% or £50, or work out your costs minus your profits and offer her that. When I read your OP I thought she wanted black sponge - if it's now a "thing" then it's something you should know about and should have clarified with her.

If I was making a black sponge I would make a chocolate sponge and add a small amount of black colouring to make it darker. I think colouring a vanilla sponge would be vile. I have made green sponge before for the dd's and it produced very green poo ( sorry if tmi but it was almost glow in the dark ), I dread to think what that amount of colouring would do to your insides .

I do think the bride is being a bit OTT, her wedding day must have been pretty poor if the cupcakes ruined the day, surely the cake is only a tiny part of the big day and the colour of the sponge would not be the end of the world.

I do tend to give wedding customers samples before the big day ( to see the design and taste the product ).

I think you have 2 choices, you either stand you ground but risk that you may get bad rep, or you give a partial refund, maybe just charge for ingredients ( I take it the cakes got eaten? ).

I'd assumed black sponge. If black sponge is not feasible, you should have told her. However, what you have produced is very near to what she wanted, so if I was bride I'd put it down to experience and accept the black icing, that sounds ok to me. When I got married my flowers were not as I was hoping but it was hardly the end of the world, I might have had a small discount.

It sounds like a miscommunication. I very much doubt it ruined her wedding day. But it seems as though she had an image in her head of what the cupcakes would look like, while you had an entirely different image. The order form isn't detailed enough to clarify matters.

I would offer a partial refund and chalk it up to experience. Customer service is very important when running a business.

The buttercream description on the form says vanilla and black, so it is possible that the sponge could be the same.

I'm going for 50% refund too, to cover costs and get back some good will with the customer.

As it is cupcakes I would assume it would be the frosting that was black/grey not the sponge itself.

They look a lot more appetising than I thought they would.

They look burnt. I have created black cake before. Not edible black cake, mind you...

I may have missed this in the millions of posts, but the other problem with coloured sponge is that it, um, comes out the same colour as it goes in.

As DD gleefully pointed out after eating bright blue sponge at a birthday party last week. And yes, we all had to go and see it

I've not read the whole thread but black sponge would leave your teeth looking like you've been eating licorice yuk.

A very quick google image search shows me that vanilla sponge is almost always normal, uncoloured sponge - off white/beige type colour.

But how would you make grey cupcakes? Surely adding 'some' black colouring to a basic sponge mix would give you light brown cakes anyway?

I'd ask her to return the cakes which ruined her wedding, and then maybe offer her a refund, of up to 10%, of the uneaten cakes? She saw the order, accepted the finished cakes, and took them away; I think she's been very unfair in expecting a full refund.

After trawling through all email correspondence with the bride to see if this has ever come up in discussion.

Her early email when discussing designs she asked if I could do rainbow "sponge" cupcakes and my reply was sorry I do not colour any of my sponges they are vanilla chocolate or marble so half and half so if you are wanting rainbow cakes I can give you the name of a local baker that specialise in them.

Her reply was no that's fine.

She never in all our emails stated the word sponge again.