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.

I would have also thought that the buttercream is to be made black not the sponge. Why wait 2 hrs after collecting them to let you know. Offer the chance to rectify (doubt she'll take you up) but don't give a refund xx

If I had such an exacting set of requirements that meant deviation from this would ruin my day then I'd have had samples made prior to the day.

You're in the right and she sounds loony (grey cake = barf).

But I think the best thing to do is suck it up and give her a 50% refund.

Actually red would be the one that I might think they meant a red cake because of the popularity of red velvet cakes, so I'd check that one iyswim. But the fact you told her that there would be buttercream I think covers you. Also, was she really expecting just a dry, no buttercream but coloured sponge cake? Surely that would just be really dry and taste like chemicals!

She sounds crazy.

I make cupcakes and other cakes, I have only done one cup cake wedding so far and all went well, I do always worry about something like this happening but the customer always gets to see the items when they collect so have time to say if they don't like them, your customer should have said something when they were collected, she said they were ok and took them ( I presume she payed for them? ).

I have worked in catering for many years, once when working at a function suit we catered for a huge wedding, the bride and groom looked quite rough ( not the type of people to have such a posh wedding ) which rang alarm bells, on the day they complimented everything that was presented to them ( I did the food and supplied the disco as part of the package ), all ran smoothly. A few days latter we had a phone call to complain about apsalauuly everything ( apparently there was not enough food, the quality was poor, the staff were rude etc..etc.. ), very odd as everything was fine on the day, anyway we contacted other people involved in the wedding and they had the same, the lady who made the cake, the photographer and the entertainment all had complaints from the bride and groom. Turned out the bride and groom took out insurance against the wedding, they never planned on having to pay for anything, unlucky for them that it's not that easy to claim money back through insurance so they had to pay for everything ( they probably got divorced before they payed it off ).

Stand your ground, what's the worst they can do? The cakes were viewed when collected and all was fine.

After reading your first few paras I assumed you were talking about a black and grey cupcake - as in the cake itself being black.

I'd also assume 'red' would mean those red ones that are all the rage these days.

I'd explain that you mis-understood, and that had you understood her properly, you'd not have made them anyway, for the reasons you mentioned. Then offer her a discount and chalk it up to experience.

Explain to her that black sponge would taste awful (I didn't know this) and awful tasting sponge really would 'wreck' her wedding.

Brides are a different breed imo view is tainted as I work in a bridal shop

I think it's a matter of miscommunication. She had something specific in her mind and didn't get it across to you. I'd probably offer her 50% refund but accept no liability. In my experience the row is not worth the bad publicity.

I think there was miscommunication on both sides.
I think the order should have been clarified in writing by you (email or letter) at the time of the order - so it set out the order as you believed it to be I.E 100 plain cupcakes with black frosting / buttercream, with picture topper supplied by the bride.
That would have given her time to ask questions sooner, but also would have given you written proof of an agreement between you - a contract as it were, of what was agreed. Then when she complained you could have said I for filled our written agreement to the letter.
However, the fact she checked them before she left and took them means she is not entitled to a full refund. If she was that unhappy with them she should have said so whilst she was with you. The fact she took them means she accepted the goods. I think she is trying it on TBH.

I bake. Not professionally, but I do take commissions.

In your circs I would have assumed that she wanted the decoration of the cakes black/grey. But I also always ask what sort of sponge they want (vanilla, choc, etc). Did you ask this? I would never assume coloured sponge unless they were talking about a very colourful theme, eg rainbows. I always double-check before colouring the sponge itself, as that is quite an extreme thing to do.

IMO, even if you did not ask specifically about the sponge, you do not owe her a refund. She did not give you a clear brief for a very unusual request, plus she had many opportunities to mention it, but did not.

Surely you ask questions about buttercream etc at the time of bookings?
Sorry I took it that she wanted black sponge and the picture on top of the cupcake. You know like store bought kid ones. Maybe a blob of icing to hold in place.
I would offer a partial refund and ensure that all future bookings u ask specific questions - color/ flavour of sponge- icing/buttercream color/ flavour- additional topping- case color etc. egg free.
I have had a black egg free cupcake, not sure how it was made and it was amazing.

I took it as the cakes being black.

I think you need to at least partially refund and aim to actually make sure you know the expectations in future orders

Black and grey sponge would be horribly unappetising IMO. And she took them and told you she liked them at the time.

I find it hard to believe that the colour of the sponge "ruined" her entire wedding. Sounds like she's trying it on tbh.

If someone asked me for black cupcakes I would understand that to mean black sponge - and would go on to explain to her that that would taste disgusting and to suggest alternatives. Perhaps you could put that to her, and suggest that in reality if there hadn't been this misunderstanding you would probably have ended up agreeing on more or less what you have done?

Wait... did she want plain sponge with black and grey buttercream?

Or black and grey sponge with no buttercream?

Oh and if black food colouring doesn't ruin the taste of buttercream it isn't going to ruin the taste of a cake.

I don't think she's trying it on at all, she asked for black cupcakes and got white ones, of course she's going to be upset.

As she will probably keep the cakes, I think you should offer half of the full cost back, including half of the cost of the extras she provided.

She's probably gone back and someone has said 'that's not what you wanted' and her day is really important and all matching and costing a fortune and it's got on top of her.
I do think it's better just to cut your losses and not argue this one.

I things she's probably trying it in but word of mouth is everything so I'd probably offer her a discount.

To be honest, if I had ordered 200 black cupcakes, I would be expecting them to be black cake with black icing. If I had wanted normal cakes with black icing I would have said I wanted 200 cupcakes with black icing. If I had wanted nude cakes I would definitely have specified no icing, as the default for cupcakes is buttercream, also, as others have said, how were the toppers meant to be attached. So I think a bit of fault on both sides, but no need for her to be so rude.

I'd go with 50% refund and then as someone else said, for the future make an order form with:

cake - flavour / colour / additions (choc chips etc)
buttercream - flavour, colour
decorations - specify
cases - colour / type

I would also assume she meant black sponge, what food colouring are you using that affects the flavour? I use a paste colouring, wiltons ones, I did some pink cake pops yesterday, you only need a tiny bit of the paste to colour the batter and it doesn't affect the flavour at all.

This was obviously a miscommunication issue, but not your fault.

The definition of cupcake in the dictionary includes the phrase 'usually iced'. If the bride didn't want icing she needed to say that when you had the buttercream discussion.

The time for her to say she wasn't happy was when she collected the cakes as you could have offered to put things right. Perhaps offer a 50% discount for goodwill?

And yes to amending order form so it includes all specifications.

Gel food colouring in colours such as pink, blue, green etc. only requires a tiny bit to be used, but to make a dark colour such as black you would need to use an outrageous amount of gel and even then it would be difficult to create proper black.

OP, YANBU - you told her the buttercream would be on top, she's seen samples of your work before, I think she's trying it on.