Would you be happy with the finding of this cake for £80

[forfoxsakee]

I ordered a graduation cake from a lady who I have used for years and all of the cakes have been beautiful which is why I've returned every time. However I picked up this yesterday and I'm a little disappointed in the size and finish compared to the picture I sent of how I would like it. I've messaged her to tell her I was a little disappointed with it but she hasn't replied so am I being unreasonable? She wasn't in when I picked it up she left it with her teen son to hand over so couldn't really say anything there and then.

Three days to ice? Was she applying it with a toothpick?

Three days to ice??

I think somebody else did it. You've had a very dissapointing response from her too.

I thought I would try and deal with it privately before leaving a bad review on her page but I feel like it warrants it now.

Funny thing is I've left raving reviews on there before.

You definitely can get a near perfect finish in buttercream and ganache, I use both as I hate using fondant.

It looks to me like she ran out of icing and the didn't want to try to colour match the icing by making another batch.

It also looks like she ran out of time.

The amount of flowers you originally wanted plus the cake would have been cheap at $140.00.

I don't make cakes professionally but I do make them, the last one made for my Grandma and it cost me about $60+ including cake board and ingredients (8 inch cake, iced in a mirror glaze, over a white choc ganache, filled with swiss meringue buttercream, cake was a vanilla cake so admittedly expensive fillings and icings but you haven't said what yours is?).

The amount of time to make the basic flowers and roll the pearls plus time to make the different icings, filling, cake etc amounts to hours. Yours had a lot of hours just in the flowers if it was meant to match the oiginal.

That being said, if she gave you that price and said she would make the original photo cake then what she charges for her time and to cover her costs is her decision so if she wasn't going to end up making much/anything from your cake then that was on her and yes I would be disappointed to receive what you did.

what a terrible response from her-tell her she either resolves this or you'll put it on sm for all to see

I'm not a brilliant decorator. But I can ice a cake in a few hours. (I appreciate that complicated fondant takes a lot longer. But the basic icing shouldn't take long... Unless she was counting the resting time between layers.

Meh it’s just a load of sugar fondant and probably very average sponge. Why people bother spending money on cakes like this when they could have a massive chocolate cake or cheesecake is beyond me !

It's an awful cake. The finish and colours are rubbish.

I would love to be able to do a good smooth buttercream cake. You need a lot of patience. Done properly it's stunning. I'd be disappointed with what is here.

is a good one.

I would focus my complaint around the fact it doesn’t look like a similar finish to the photo you supplied. That makes the buttercream argument and reference to previous cakes redundant.
The 2020 part looks really bad, like it’s been stuck on by a child.

It should have taken her 20 minutes max to fill it and crumb coat it, maybe an hour to ice it if she had it in and out of the fridge for smoothing but with the finish on it it would have been a 20 minute job. 3 days.....hahahaha! Not a chance, that is so far from the way a cake is iced that it is ridiculous.

You want them iced and covered ASAP so that they don't dry out.

What size did you order vs what you got?

I bake on the side / sell some locally, and some people don't picture the size very well even if you tell them exactly what you're going to do.

It does look slightly amateur - but buttercream does have a much more "homemade" finish to it vs fondant. But I also believe it tastes 1000x better, so only use buttercream. I'm very clear about that when someone orders

The reason the 2020 is so big is to try to cover up as much of the bad finish as possible

Can you stop the payment that you made, or was it paid in cash?

If it took three days to ice it’s going to be so stale! Bugger that! If I make a cake I’d chuck it out if it was three days old. Gross!

@Livingoffcoffee buttercream can be made near perfect. The trick is to let is to apply more icing than needed, use a bench scraper to remove the excess, put in the fridge to let it set hard then quickly before it condensates apply more buttercream to the outside and remove the excess. This will fill the little air pockets you get in the first coat.

For the top just work carefully to bring the edges in smooth. Once you get the practice you will find it pretty easy, not as easy as 'rustic' but it's a good skill to have.

@forfoxsakee

She replied and basically said there is nothing wrong with it and it's buttercream and my previous cakes weren't which is why it looks different and it took three days to ice so wasn't rushed 🙄. I'm just going to reply saying that I appreciate that it is buttercream but it wasn't even smooth and it wasn't just that but the colour is awful and it's smaller than expected. I'm also going to say that I'm disappointed after being a loyal customer that she is not even willing to discuss why I'm disappointed or even offer an apology and I won't be ordering from her again. This was a previous cake she did for me.

Bakers daughter here, plus I now make lots of cakes for family and friends, including my brothers wedding cake.

She would have had to smooth the frosting to fondant the other cakes otherwise there would be bumps and troughs all over the cake.

She’s having you on. She’s run out of time to finish this properly and just smashed it all together in the hopes that it wouldn’t look too bad but it failed. Does she have photos of other cakes that are just frosted? If not, I suspect this may have been the first and she didn’t realise how tricky it is to get frosting smooth especially when it’s warm.

Photo of my brothers wedding cake just to show off. Tiers were sat on top of each other for the wedding but didn’t get any good photos as I was in charge of my 18 month old niece when we got to the venue so all the photos were taken in a dark disco room! So the gaps between tiers weren’t on the finished cake!

That's lovely, Callaird

Three days to ice?!!! The cake would surely be going stale then?!!

Yes, she really didn't make things any better by admitting the cake was practically past it's sell by in addition to looking shit...

The lady I use for cakes is excellent. This is what you get for £80 - hopefully the photo will attach

The one you have pictured is not an £80 cake!

What did you actually order, OP?

Was the cake you ordered from her catalogue?

Did you ask for buttercream rather than royal icing?

Does she not specify size in the order?

I think even if she was going for the rustic look, the numbers and cap are still a bit crap. Plus it’s not really a rustic look cake.

Remember Harry and Meghan’s wedding cake?

@EmmaJR1

The lady I use for cakes is excellent. This is what you get for £80 - hopefully the photo will attach

The one you have pictured is not an £80 cake!

Wow! That I would happily pay £80 for.