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'm a caker as well. You were blooming brave to agree to black cakes in the first place as black colouring is hell on teeth, tongues and bowels :/ (also, not sure if you're aware but in case you're not, you also need to check the colour 'limits' on packaging as legally, deep coloured cakes including rainbow cakes actually go again the food regulations due to containing too much colour).
I'd say details should have been clarified when the order was placed, however it's very odd for someone to want naked cupcakes. I have only had one for naked cupcakes when a lady wanted to do the decorating but didn't have the knack of baking part. If she wanted naked, she should have advised of this.
Anyhoo, I would personally have advised her that I was sorry she was unhappy with the cakes as she should have advised you of this on collection. She could have easily told you then so you had chance to fix them, or to refuse to pay you the remaining balance.

I also strongly suspect that a lot of the posters suggesting you take a 'firm line' with the customer wouldn't actually use you to cater for their wedding day, they'd go with someone that was recommended as delivering what the bride wanted.
Sad brides = bad business.
Thread slagging bride and bride's taste off on wedding day = insane.
I think the posters suggesting you ask for this to be deleted have a very good point.

I would have expected black cakes. I don't understand why she asked 'where is the buttercream going?' if she didn't want buttercream.

If the OP has them returned, then she will have to bin them.

Without knowing how they have been handled and stored, you couldn't, as a professional business owner, pass them on.

Obviously many posters on here don't understand your obligations and responsibilities as a food handling/supplier/service provider.

The wedding is today. Op is hardly going to be able to contact the bride to negotiate the return of cakes.

One thing to bear in mind Op is you don't want to refund too much, but if you refund nothing you have to think on how it will afect your business. Word of mouth is massive promotion and negative feedback could really affect you. If someone told me this happened to them and they got no apology or no partial refund, I'd definitely cross you off the list of people to use. A partial refund with an apology that makes it clear the was a miscommunication with sponges hence the refund but the bride a) knew there was buttercream via text and saw them, would make me think 'fair enough I'd use them'.

Word of mouth is massive promotion and with people using wedding planners, who promote and websites liked Hitched.co.uk to leave reviews, offering nothing could well be detrimental. Had she been completely in the wrong it would be but you both are and in that case a negative review may not help you any.

You need to really consider it because even though people may say 'don't refund at all' and you may think you are 100% in the right, it should be obvious from the answers here that there was unreasonaility on both sides and you need to factor into potential losses if you get negative reviews. That's just what you have to do if running a business or self-employed, my DH had to offer money off to the most horrendous abusive wanker purely because the negativity the man could have given my DH was worth far more then the loss of money and, sadly, confidence and pride.

Meant to add that when she picked up her order she may not have been able to immediately see that the sponge was not black, hence her seeming a bit off. When she's got home and unwrapped a cake then she's realised they're white sponge.

Yeah, refund.

If the OP has them returned, then she will have to bin them.

Without knowing how they have been handled and stored, you couldn't, as a professional business owner, pass them on.

Of course! My suggested wording was a "naice" way of saying "Yeah I might have misunderstood you but if you think that means you're getting ££££ worth of beautiful, tasty cakes for nothing, think again."

This would hopefully open the dialogue for a mutually agreeable solution - a partial refund and the bride keeps the cakes (and moans to all her guests about how she wanted black ones and they all say to her "Christ! Thank God you didn't get them. They sound awful!" )

Sorry, I think you should have taken care to find out exactly what was expected. These cakes are probably delicious, not sure why everyone keeps saying they would taste horrible due to food colouring.

It's a pity you didn't get her request in writing, then you'd be able to prove she didn't explain properly.

As Vycount says, the wedding is today, so all this talk of returning the cakes is academic.

OP's cakes, imperfect as they are, will be used at the wedding. Full stop. Base advice on this.

Unless, of course, OP wants to bother the obviously very highly strung bride with such demands on her wedding day, which I'm sure would go down brilliantly...

She collected them and said they were fine.

Case closed.

If she didn't like them she should have said so before taking them off and presumably eating them. It's all very convenient that she doesn't like them after she picked them up.

I've just double checked my booking form.

I filled one out during the brides consultation.
I then email it to her and highlight any options she has not decided on for her to fill out.
Then she collects the cakes and signs off my contract a different one with terms and conditions and order details. As she had not decided on flavour of cake she filled that in herself so the contract reads.

Sponge: vanilla
Buttercream flavour; vanilla
Buttercream colour: black
The final contact states the colour change to 50 black 50 grey.

I checked all 3 copies, was especially interested in the form I filled out during the consultation and there is no mention of this on any.

I also have a section for any other details and she left that blank.

I have scanned in these documents incase and I'm sure she will be back in touch.

Since concluding my own investigation I am env line to say no refund but as a guesture of goodwill I will offer to make a free anniversary cake on the couples first anniversary.

How does that sound? Fair?

I'd just say no refund. The written details seem final.

I wouldn't offer an anniversary cake.

See I wouldn't have known black cupcakes would need loads of food colour and taste disguisting. If she doesn't bake then it might not be obvious? Would you considef a partial refund?

Personally, I think that sounds too nice.

But in the interest of business and maintaining a good company image, I'd do it.

I can see how in her own head she thinks you can make a totally black bun

After reading your last post I would also not offer an anniversary cake. I think she is trying to pull a fast one. If she said vanilla sponge I would never in my life have guessed at her wanting black vanilla.

I would send her that information before offering a cake of any kind OP, it seems pretty straightforward and if she's signed for that she's not due anything back. For future though with cupcakes you could also always do a for a promo to their specs and send them a 'like' image to verify to?

And also maybe add sponge colour to your order sheet just in case. It seems pretty straightforward, I'd still say black cupcakes would mean black colour though but i can see where the miscommunication has happened.

It's in black and white. What she wrote was different to what she had in mind. How were you supposed to know if she didn't specify?

The problem is that there is nothing on that form that allows the buyer to specify the colour of the cake, so I don't think it takes you much further forward, OP. Vanilla is obviously a flavour, not a colour, as demonstrated by the fact that the vanilla buttercream is specified as black.

You started this thread by saying you had a request for black cupcakes, and if that is how the request was put to you I would interpret it as meaning the sponge should be black. If you thought otherwise you should have checked it.

But your contract states the sponge is vanilla, that is a flavour, it doesn't say anything about sponge colour.

Personally, I think all that form demonstrates is that there is no specification of the colour of the sponge. The fact that the colour of the buttercream is specified just highlights the omission. I'd think black cupcakes=black sponge.

I'm only saying this to demonstrate there are alternative interpretations.

Anyway, good luck.