AIBU to be disappointed in this cake…

[Notwhatiimagined]

I picked up dds cake today and it was not what I expected.

Would you be happy with this cake? I’ve attached two pics below, one was the pic I sent to the cake maker of what I wanted (a family dog) and the other picture is of the cake.

Also his head is made of Rice Krispies as apparently heads are hard to do. I wasn’t aware that it wouldn’t be all sponge.

It’s from a proper cake shop, not someone who does it as a hobby.

What do you all think?

I’ve had amazing cakes with people animals etc in them made from fondant with great detail etc for the same price-I always use a particular cake shop and I know they would have produced a cake that really looked like your dog.This is a lovely cake but I would expect more for that price

It’s a beautiful cake!

If I was in the north I’d totally use this cake maker!!!!

You’ve been totally unreasonable.

The problem is that you sent her a photo of the dog….you didn’t send her a photo of cake you like the style of etc….so realistically, the baker had absolutely zero idea of what you or your daughter were expecting in your head. if you wanted the sort of cake where someone looks at it and can’t tell if it’s cake or not, then you weren’t going to get that for £110.

So few people would not in a million years work the hours at their job for free the way a cake maker does! I ran my own business for a few years, I hated every second of it and it pains me to even make my own kids cakes now let alone anybody else’s.

I've been binge watching Extreme Cake Makers on Netflix and for most of the cakes that had heads they have been made with rice crispies and marshmallows, so if they are anything to go by that's the norm!

I think it looks lovely, did you specify you wanted a realistic looking dog cake? The cake is more in the realm of cartoon dog, but it's still lovely.

@groundhogdaycherry

I made this cake I'm heartbroken

It looks lovely, I wish I had half your talent

@ilovepuppies2019 both of those cakes are lovely, I especially love the pug! Did you make them?

For £110, I’d be expecting it to bark and shit gold bricks. 😆

Makes my usual Colin The Caterpillar for the DC look cheapskate

You’re actual dog is adorable.

The cake is cute.

It”s more than I would spend on a cake, regardless of artistic merit.

Maker should have told you in advance about the Rice Krispies.

But in the end, your dd was happy with it.

I'm in the NW, I am no expert but that seems very expensive. £60 maybe.

Asked my son and he was freaked out that ''she wants to eat her dog. What if it's watching?'' disclaimer: he is 8 and on the spectrum.
pineapple's pic freaked him out even more!

I like the cake OP but price does seem steep for the end result. My Mum is a hobby baker and so always seems to charge mates rates anyway, but she agrees that although less is sometimes more, you are allowed to be a tad disappointed.

@TellySavalashairbrush

TBH I don't think it's the best. Can I ask how much did you pay for it? I think anymore than £25 and I would have been disappointed.

A shop bought plain cake can cost that! Would you not pay for the time and costs of whoever made it by hand?!

This is why I don't buy bespoke cakes. £25 for a prettily decorated round cake from the Chinese bakery does me nicely

It's actually not bad at all for the price. For a realistic looking dog you would need to pay £350, just like her original cake maker quoted. This cake would have taken a day to make. £110 minus ingredients of £25 is hardly a great wage for a day. The argument on whether you think £110 is a lot of money for a cake or not is a completely different issue. Many of you who don't think a cake is worth that much happily pay out £60+ per6 weeks for a two hour haircut/colour and think it is totally worth it. Others wouldn't dream of paying that amount and others again think that anything under £100 is cheap and won't look nice. It's all about personal value, often not taking into account that it is a job and has to be worth the money in terms of time to actually do it.

I think cakes made by professionals are fantastic and the time and effort that goes into are huge but it seems so over the top be paying £150 for a 4 year old's birthday cake when they are likely to be as pleased with the £10 Jurassic one from Tesco.

Just seen your update..o wouldn't pay that much for it! I'd be happy paying up to £35

@groundhogdaycherry you've done nothing wrong at all. It's a lovely cake. Suspect op is a chancer and trying to get some money back for no reason at all. Sorry you had to read her post. I bet she didn't talk to you first either.

@MaybeAMoaner

£110 !!!!!! Oh my god. That’s a lot of money for something you eat

You aren't paying for a cake You are paying for the time of the person that has taken a long time to design, bake and decorate the cake. Their skills. The ingredients. Delivery. Their business running costs etc etc etc.

The fact that it's going to be eaten doesn't mean it takes less time to make

Looks great. Although spending over one hundred pounds on a child birthday cake is ridiculous. Good home made Victoria sponge, water icing and a few candles is realistic and it takes minutes to prepare.

I think the fact that your original very talented cake maker wanted £350 for this job should have been your clue that this is actually a highly skilled cake. I wonder if you discussed the finish on the outside, because a big problem with this cake is that it is decorated with buttercream rather than fondant, which is much cheaper but will give you nowhere near the same level of intricacy and accuracy with the finish. Sculpted cakes are really hard, which is why I never take them on. I would say that the biggest issue here is that the cake maker is a buttercream drip cake person, which while great, has a whole heap of skills missing that are needed for a sculpted, realistic animal cake unfortunately. To be fair, they probably shouldn’t have taken it on, but the price should have been your clue that this wasn’t going to be the masterpiece you envisaged. I think for £110 you got a pretty good cake.

The reason I haven’t responded to the person saying they made it is because they were joking!

They are much older than the person who made it and live nowhere near me.

Not sure they could have done a better job

Is the N on the end upside down and back to front?? Or is it just me? Sorry to ask but it’s really annoying me.

I gave her high expectations of it.

This is your problem, @Notwhatiimagined. You knew you’d decided to go with a much cheaper price from someone who didn’t specialise in realism cakes, but still gave your DD “high expectations”.

I’m going to go against the grain here OP- I don’t think it’s very good considering it is from a professional bakery. It looks like it’s been made by a cake enthusiast rather than a professional.

Yes I agree. I think it’s very amateur and I would be disappointed and unimpressed too.