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AIBU?

Share your dilemmas and get honest opinions from other Mumsnetters.

Original poster

To want a refund

175 replies

CakeConundrum · 11/10/2016 06:20

I had a cake made for an important birthday. Whilst it wasn't quite cake wrecks bad it was certainly a Pinterest fail.

I've followed up with cake maker but she is implying it's my own fault.

AIBU to request a full refund?

OP posts:
Notso · 12/10/2016 07:01

All my kids birthdays I have bought a novelty cake from Asda £10, job done.

Job done if you just want to provide a cake. Not job done if you want to have your cake and eat it, those supermarket cakes are grim. Dry with thick layers of fondant, if my kids bring a slice home from parties they usually go straight in the bin.

LuluJakey1 · 12/10/2016 07:01

It is awful. The gold leaf is awful, the flowers look like I painted them (and I was banned from Art at school and made to do another subject because I had no skill at all) and it is sinking because of how it has been iced and put together. It looks very little like the photo. You should have had a full refund.

However, you ate it so it is hard to ask for a refund now. You should not have accepted the cake.

user1474781546 · 12/10/2016 07:09

Notso I don't send cake home in party bags. The awful Asda cake you talk of is cut and served at the parties, kids devour it.

DesolateWaist · 12/10/2016 07:09

(As an aside I wouldn't have paid £160 for the cake in the original photo either.)

BrainPrions · 12/10/2016 07:10

That cake looks terrible. If they don't have the skills to make the cake, it's their responsibility to tell you and give you a more realistic option.

If I spent £160 on a cake and it came home like that, I wouldn't even serve it. I'd have brought it back to the bakery then cried in a puddle of my own tears.

You might have made your own bed by eating it though. It will be hard to argue a refund if the person came in, approved the cake, then brought it home and ate it.

CozyAutumn · 12/10/2016 07:11

I think it looks awful tbh.
I've ordered professional cakes in the past and they have always been at an excellent standard.
That cake just isn't. And £160? Shock Bloody hell.

Yourface · 12/10/2016 07:19

I think something happened in transit. Did someone have it on their knee or on the front seat? Neither of those are advisable?

Gold leaf nearly always look shit. Those pics you see on Pinterest have been photoshopped to crap. It's expensive and I won't work with it. Did you ask for it to be patchy? If not then yes that's awful.

The bottom tier isn't awful but not as good as the original. It's the gold leaf that lets it down so badly.

I really think you need to get to the bottom of the transit issue. Two tier cakes virtually never collapse. I think it was on a knee and the driver braked.

BrainPrions · 12/10/2016 07:20

You can make your own cake for $2 for the cake mix box (and maybe a little more if you don't have basic sugar/eggs on hand for frosting). Then just frost a floor/ground/whatever, and arrange action figures the birthday kid gets to keep to make a scene.

Yourface · 12/10/2016 07:22

Sounds like exactly the look she was going for Brian.

Molecule · 12/10/2016 07:33

It's not the transit that's the problem, it's the construction of the cake. The bottom layer should have been doweled and it would be the dowels that then support the top layer, not the actual cake. An absolutely fundamental error. The sample cake looks as if the flowers are printed on the icing, so probably done in a professional factory, the actual cake's are done using a technique called brush embroidery which is pretty difficult, hence it looking nothing like the sample picture. However the cake maker should not have taken on the order knowing she couldn't do it.

I would certainly be wanting at least a partial refund.

Yourface · 12/10/2016 07:45

I don't think a decorator would attempt gold leaf and painting on cakes without having the very basic skills of knowing to dowel a tiered cake. I wrote what I wrote with the assumption that this very basic thing would have happened. You will know if it was dowels since you can see them inside. If they aren't inside then you def stand to get a refund, but if they aren't then they have no business opening a shop. Assuming it was dowelled then it will be the driver's fault.

Also the technique on the cake isn't brush embroidery. This is brush embroidery. It's done with royal icing not food colours. The first cake flowers are hand painted. There are lots of tutorials on how to do it and Nevie Pie (she does courses) is the pioneer of this sort of design.

To want a refund
ny20005 · 12/10/2016 07:52

I'm sure you signed a contract when you paid in full - any issues identified on collection. If someone else collected it & transported it, you haven't a leg to stand on !

Gold leaf has cracked because the bottom tier has collapsed

Don't pay for an expensive cake & get someone else to collect it & deliver Hmm

dontknowwhatadvicetogive · 12/10/2016 08:01

Pics needed?

mrsbakesalot · 12/10/2016 08:04

I have my own cake business so I'm going to chip in.

I'm going to defend the cake maker here.

The covering of the cake is really very good and I like the bottom tier. It's not like your picture tho I will admit.

How was the conversation left with her regarding design? Did she say she would do her own take on it? It's very hard to paint on icing and it's a real skill, I know this as anything similar to that is above my skill and I give my cakes like that to a artist to do the painting side.

The top tier is really ugly, who came up with this design for the top?

The sugar craft flowers are lovely.

The cake is leaning, could be a number of factors transport cake not dense enough to take the weight.
Did the cake have dowel rods in?
To me this cake looks like it's been knocked as I've seen cakes that hasn't had dowels in and they tend to sink in, that damage is at the bottom.

If the design is not what was asked for I would concentrate on that as in my opinion that damage does look like it's taken a hit.

Did you sign anything on collection? As I make my customers sign a contract stating they are responsible for transport and any damage done after left my house is their responsibly.

However if this was my work I would say a partial refund as a goodwill guesture upto £50.

budgiegirl · 12/10/2016 08:06

While I think that the cake you got just isn't of the same standard as the cake picture you sent, I think it's very difficult to complain after as nothing was said at collection, and you have also eaten the cake.

Assuming it's been dowelled correctly, it looks like the cake hasn't been transported correctly.

I make cakes as a job, mostly wedding cakes, which I usually deliver myself. But on the odd occasion someone has collected a tiered cake, I always advise them that the cake must travel completely flat, preferably in the boot or well of the car. Placing a cake on a car seat, or one someone's lap is a recipe for disaster. They also sign a T&C that states that any damage to the cake once it has left my premises is the responsibility of the purchaser. Because with the best will in the world, people just don't listen to the advise given for transportation.

That said, I wouldn't have charged full price for a cake that had a finish like that! The gold leaf is awful, and the painting's not much better.

Molecule · 12/10/2016 08:09

Sorry yourself I was looking at it on my phone so not very clear. What I meant to say was a poor attempt at brush embroidery, but now I see it is no such thing, but both are painted. It will be interesting to see if it is dowelled , something that is fundamental to tiered cakes. If it is I too would suggest that it has been damaged in transit.

Still not sure the cake-maker should have taken on such a job knowing she couldn't replicate it.

ChardonnayKnickertonSmythe · 12/10/2016 08:11

£160 for a cake?

Bloody hell!

mscongeniality · 12/10/2016 08:12

This reply has been deleted

Message withdrawn at poster's request.

happyinthesunshine · 12/10/2016 08:14

Were there supports sunk into the bottom cake to support the top cake?
If no, then I suspect that the weight of the top cake pressing down on the soft bottom cake was the culprit. Nothing to do with transportation.
A soft sponge cake of that size cannot support the weight of the top cake without help.

She hadn't thought the underlying structure through. I would politely ask her about this and suggest a large partial refund so she isn't out of pocket for ingredients.

ChardonnayKnickertonSmythe · 12/10/2016 08:14

There is no way I will pay £160 for any cake.

This a some sort of parallel universe out there.

LucyLot · 12/10/2016 08:17

I think it looks rubbish to be honest like a child's attempt. Not enough like the photo ignoring the lean. Not good enough.

LucyLot · 12/10/2016 08:17

Cake maker should post pics of cakes she has actually made not professional ones she attempts and fails to copy properly.

ConvincingLiar · 12/10/2016 08:21

There's some really shit advice on here from the armchair lawyers.

I agree with others that the cake maker shouldn't have taken it on if it was outside of their capability. The flower painting is not nearly so good as the original.

Provided that your person doing the collection was careful (and not a learner on a moped) I'd expect the cake to survive a short journey unscathed. If it was that fragile the cake maker should have insisted on delivering.

I don't think you can expect a full refund, but that cake was not up to scratch. You'd have been better off with a well executed, but simpler supermarket cake. I would complain.

user1476140278 · 12/10/2016 08:25

Convincing the good cake isn't painted...it's decorated with an edible transfer sheet. That's where the bad cake maker went wrong I think.

user1476140278 · 12/10/2016 08:25

cake-geek.com/index.php/edible-icing-sheets-transfer-sheets/ like these.