To want a refund

[CakeConundrum]

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?

[Imnotaslimjim]

Where was that picture taken? The bottom of the cake is collapsing already, did it fall completely when you moved it? I'm assuming it wasn't dowelled and it collapsed under the weight of the top cake.

If that was a cake of mine, I'd be embarrassed to deliver it and certainly wouldn't be asking for full costs for it (I wouldn't have delivered it in the first place TBH)

I would definitely be asking for a refund. Because you ate it, I wouldn't say you were entitled to all your money back but I'd want at least half.

[Aspergallus]

OP when you cut up the cake, did you find rods etc inserted in the bottom tier to support the top tier?

A professional cake maker would have used proper support within the cake. An amateur is more likely to think you can just put a heavy tier on top without any support.

If there was no support I'd demand a full refund and submit a request to the small claims court. You paid for something aesthetically pleasing, and it wasn't. If it hasn't been constructed professionally, you were missold.

[BendydickCuminsnatch]

Wow that's pretty awful! Is the shop/cake maker new to the business? The top tier is pretty bizarre never mind the structure of it.

Did the person who collected it sign anything? My clients have to sign upon collection/delivery to state the cake is what they ordered and in good condition and their responsibility from there onwards. General rule is if you've eaten some, it's not refunded as it was obviously OK - otherwise you'd get so many people saying 'Oh the cake was shit, can I have my money back - can't send you pics of what I mean as we ate it'.

[BendydickCuminsnatch]

A professional cake maker can't just copy someone else's design. yes very good point, there are such things as copyright and morals, people!

[KitKat1985]

I think since you accepted the cake and ate it, you can't ask for a full refund. However even allowing for the fact that invariably a copy is never going to look exactly the same as the original, I agree the cake you received looked a bit poor. I think a partial refund would be fair.

[KitKats28]

I spent 25 years in the wrong job! I honestly didn't realise until these recent cake threads that people would pay this much for cakes. I've always just done them as presents for people, and I've never thought mine were that amazing. Having looked at some of the shitty ones people charge for, I could have made a living from it!

[Stormwhale]

It's shit. It's utterly amateur and shit. I would be fuming. Also interested to hear if there were dowels in it. Without the collapsing issue I would still have been demanding a partial refund as it looks crap.

[diddl]

If the cakes were transported seperately, is she saying that you somehow didn't put it together properly?

[mum11970]

Transported flat for a few minutes? How flat though? If transported in a car, putting it on the seat is not flat, the floor is flat. Unfortunately I think you would be hard pressed to get any refund as you didn't pick it up yourself, so have no way of knowing what it looked like when handed over. Mind you there is no way I could bring myself to hand over £160 for cake!

[diddl]

It wouldn't collapse do to being on the seat of a car would it??

[diddl]

do=due!

[OdeToAutumn]

I don't know about the collapsing issue but in terms of how it looks I wouldn't be happy. What she has tried to do doesn't look very well executed and I would be asking for a partial refund (especially if she said she could get a similar finish, albeit maybe her own design, as the original).

[budgiegirl]

It wouldn't collapse do to being on the seat of a car would it??

It could, yes. Because it wouldn't be level, it would slope, and therefore the uneven weight from the top tier could put undue pressure on the base tier.
Cakes are fragile things, people do forget that sometimes.

[MovingOnUpMovingOnOut]

That's a bad cake. But you still served and ate it so I still think a full refund is out of the question but a partial refund is in order.

Did it have dowels op? If not, then I would expect a discount to take it to not much about cost.

[ItsAllGoingToBeFine]

I don't know enough about cake construction to comment on that, but the quality of decoration on your cake is vastly inferior to the image. I wouldn't expect an exact copy either (copyright etc) but the painted flowers are shit, not at all artistic, and the gold leaf is completely different - much less used.

If the cake maker couldn't decorate it to the standard you obviously wanted she really shouldn't have taken it on.

And the problem with cakes is you can't really reject it if it's not good - where are you going to get a replacement in time?

If it was me I'd be happy to pay for the cakes (you say they were good) but not the decoration.

[diddl]

" it would slope, and therefore the uneven weight from the top tier could put undue pressure on the base tier. "

Oh yes, I get that .

I was assuming()that the tiers were in seperate boxes.

[diddl]

wrong face, meant to put.

[budgiegirl]

I was assuming(hmm)that the tiers were in seperate boxes

Even if the cakes were in separate boxes, it's still not advisable to transport them on a car seat. Best to put them flat in the boot. Even a single tier could be damaged if it was sloping, although it's less likely.

[PatriciaHolm]

I agree that it looks like it's collapsed at the bottom not the top, suggesting it was a transport problem not a structural cake issue.

It is decorated really badly though.

[DesolateWaist]

Collapsed or not the painted flowers look like a child has done them.
If the cake maker isn't capable of paining flowers to that standard then they should know.

[Mozfan1]

cake just seen the pics, you're right it's pretty fucking bad. I would be very disapointed. The bottom bit looks like it was drawn on by children and the gold leaf is shite.