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?

You were told by your original baker that the ultra-realistic cake you wanted would be £350, and you didn't want to pay that for a cake despite knowing the baker did excellent work. I think you got a cake well worth the money you paid; bakers need to cover ingredients, utilities, training and time.

£30 on one cakes worth of flour eggs and butter and icing? What, really?

Yeah I do find this a bit hard to believe. Flour is about £1 for 1.5kg, eggs are £2 a dozen, sugar maybe £1.50 for 1kg. Butter is the expensive bit, but 1kg of butter (more than enough) would be £6. I don't think I would need to spend more than £15 on ingredients and there would be some to spare - one cake doesn't use 12 eggs and 1.5kg of flour

@NotPersephone

Best possible job with an impossible brief I’d say.

It’s a dog made of cake, not the V&A.

For latecomers, the perfect summation from NotPersephone

one cake doesn't use 12 eggs and 1.5kg of flour

No, it will often use more. For a cake that size, I would use at least 18 eggs, probably more. Then there's the cost of icing (around £4.50 per kilo for professional quality), fillings (butter, icing sugar, jam, chocolate etc), flavourings, greaseproof, cling film, electricity, equipment (professional cake decorating equipment is expensive), cake boards, ribbon, boxes, colourings. Try buying all that and then see how much change you'd get out of £30 (hint - it would cost much more)

@DockOTheBay

This link is a cake calculator. This is the recipe for 1 layer of the cake, so at least double it... it takes 12 eggs for 2 layers.

Bakers hoping to get repeat orders or take pride in their work need it to taste as least as good as it looks, so need to use the very best quality ingredients, not supermarket basics

https://www.bbc.co.uk/games/embed/food-interactive-sponge-cake-calculator?units=metric&cakeType=layercake&tinShape=square&mode=numberOfPeople&value=31&flavouring=chocolate&icing=buttercreammfillcover

Not sure that link worked properly...

This is what it gives me for ONE LAYER of a 30 serving cake ...



Chocolate layer cake with buttercream (fill and cover)
Equipment: 25cm square cake tin
Baking time: 35 minutes per layer
Serves: 31-35
Ingredients
Per layer of cake
325g unsalted butter, softened
325g caster sugar
6 medium free-range eggs
80g cocoa powder, dissolved in 125ml boiling water
2 tsp vanilla extract
2 tbsp milk
325g self-raising flour
½ tsp baking powder
For the buttercream
500g unsalted butter, softened
1kg icing sugar
4 tsp vanilla extract
6 tbsp milk

Name change fail, need to work out how to get my usual name back without typing it every time 🤦‍♀️

@DockOTheBay

£30 on one cakes worth of flour eggs and butter and icing? What, really?

Yeah I do find this a bit hard to believe. Flour is about £1 for 1.5kg, eggs are £2 a dozen, sugar maybe £1.50 for 1kg. Butter is the expensive bit, but 1kg of butter (more than enough) would be £6. I don't think I would need to spend more than £15 on ingredients and there would be some to spare - one cake doesn't use 12 eggs and 1.5kg of flour

Eggs are £2/dozen if you use cheap ones - I buy 6 for £1.80 but those are only mid-range. A cake like that would probably take 2 packs of butter for the actual cake, then 4 or 5 for the icing (possibly more if the cake was layered and filled too). Caster sugar, flour, vanilla essence, rice crispies, marshmallows, gel colours, baking paper - it all adds up and a decent baker (hopefully) won't be using the cheapest of cheap ingredients.

I. Want. Cake.

I. Want. Cake.

I'm now baking a mocha cake because of this thread

I think its a good looking cake, a cartoon image of your dog which is fine for a child's birthday. I'd be happy with it, but I can see why it wasn't what you were expecting. They could have made a bit more effort with the eyes, should perhaps be small, black, rounded, shiny and spaced further apart to be more like your dog but that is an easy fix. Its a custom made cake , which must have taken hours of work and it does look vaguely like a cartoon version of your dog which is a bit of fun. I hope your DC enjoys her day, and appreciates a nice mum to go to so much trouble.

@groundhogdaycherry

Message deleted by MNHQ. Here's a link to our Talk guidelines.

The poster claiming to be the cake maker has had all their posts removed.

@RockinHorseShit

Name change fail, need to work out how to get my usual name back without typing it every time 🤦‍♀️

Sign into your Mumsnet account and type your old username in. You can check it in previous usernames to ensure you get the correct spelling etc.

Its great OP. Im in the North west and its not a bad price costing up ingredients, time etc. Theres not much profit in there. It does like like the photo but in more cartoon form than real life style.

@RockinHorseShit

I. Want. Cake.

I'm now baking a mocha cake because of this thread

This may well become the first thread I hide. It’s bloody dangerous!

Mmm mocha…..fancy. A bowel of buttercream and jam would probably do me right now. ☺️

@HaveringWavering

We’ve been to a few parties recently for my son’s classmates (Reception in a private school). They’ve all had entertainers and expensive, bought cakes. It makes me feel sad that the parents are so hands-off; my best memories are my Mum baking my birthday cakes and taking charge of the pass-the-parcel. I’m not sure what to do when it comes to my son’s turn as I don’t want him to feel embarrassed but it seems soulless to outsource the whole thing.

Not sure what 'private school' has to do with expensive outsourced parties. All my DC have been through the prep/independent system and every party I ever did for them from 4-11 was a DIY party at home - pass the parcel, musical statues, musical cushions (as not enough chairs), sleeping lions, playing on the trampoline if the weather was nice, with a piece of Colin the Caterpillar in a napkin to take home. The children always seemed to have a good time. I was a SAHM but M&S are better at baking than I am. I don't think entertainers/ridiculous expense is by any means a private school thing.

Yes, YABU.

@BrilliantBulb

The baker told her that's what she was getting. *@TwinsandTrifle* *@Notwhatiimagined* did the baker actually tell her what she was getting though? OP did you actually see any other dog or sculpture cakes from this baker as an example of their work? Otherwise, ordering a model from a drip cake business is a little bit silly.

I did go in and see her to make sure she understood that we were expecting a like for like of the dog as her price was so much cheaper than the dinosaur cake maker.

I think this is the crux of it. OP specifically queried "I've been quoted 3x more for a life like cake, you understand this is what I want, you're only asking for £110 compared to £350"

So the baker told her she was getting a life like cake, for that price. Then made that. The baker did not provide what she said she was specifically going to for the agreed price.

@JollyAndBright

People are definitely missing the point.

It’s not that you think it’s a shit cake for £110,
It’s that you specifically asked for a realism cake, the baker agreed to a make a realistic cake of your dog,
But that’s not what you got.
You got a cute buttercream dog cake. It’s not a realism cake.

Did you know it was going to be buttercream and not fondant icing?
It would have been possible to do but very difficult and a lot of work, that would have been the first alarm bell for me.
Also the rice crispy head should have been discussed before hand.

I would make a complaint.

This.

I too was a SAHM and bought birthday cakes from M and S! I used to make a Christmas Cake for a long time and also did my DDs Christening Cake as well.I think your doggy cake is lovely BTW .Its expensive but reflects the time and skill in a creation such as this .Its less a cake more a piece of Art !

That’s incredible!!

“I did go in and see her to make sure she understood that we were expecting a like for like of the dog as her price was so much cheaper than the dinosaur cake maker”

But it doesn’t sound like Op showed the baker a similar cake. She described that she wanted “like for like” as in the cake to be indistinguishable from the real dog. She knew that the going rate for something realistic was 2-3 times the price and yet still assumed that this baker would do the same job.

If someone said to me they wanted a realistic looking dog cake I’d assume they meant that they wanted it sculpted, not just a round cake with ears on it or a canine version of those unicorn cakes - I wouldn’t think for one moment that they expected me to spend the best part of a week creating a lifelike 3D model including airbrushing and isomalt eyes etc for just over £100! The baker probably thought you had realistic expectations having already been given a quote for the type of thing you wanted and though “yes I can make something 3D with piped fur within her budget”. Had you actually shown her photos of what you expected it to look like she’d have said that either she couldn’t do it (I’m an artist as well as a baker and I couldn’t do it!) or she’ll charge appropriately.

Lesson learned re communication.

FWIW on the Rice Krispie front it may be that she initially tried making the head in cake and it didn’t work. Rather than come to you with a problem she found a way to solve it. Sometimes things go wrong when I’m baking and I find a way round it, I don’t bother my customer with things that will make them worry, especially if the amount of actual cake you got was enough to feed the number of guests you had.

I'm one of the people who wouldn't really enjoy slicing up and eating a realistic likeness of a beloved family pet. But then I feel guilty biting off the head of a marzipan pig.

@Aquamarine1029

It's adorable. What on earth did you want? A cake that looks like a taxidermied dog?

@RaisedByPangolins

“I did go in and see her to make sure she understood that we were expecting a like for like of the dog as her price was so much cheaper than the dinosaur cake maker”

But it doesn’t sound like Op showed the baker a similar cake. She described that she wanted “like for like” as in the cake to be indistinguishable from the real dog. She knew that the going rate for something realistic was 2-3 times the price and yet still assumed that this baker would do the same job.

If someone said to me they wanted a realistic looking dog cake I’d assume they meant that they wanted it sculpted, not just a round cake with ears on it or a canine version of those unicorn cakes - I wouldn’t think for one moment that they expected me to spend the best part of a week creating a lifelike 3D model including airbrushing and isomalt eyes etc for just over £100! The baker probably thought you had realistic expectations having already been given a quote for the type of thing you wanted and though “yes I can make something 3D with piped fur within her budget”. Had you actually shown her photos of what you expected it to look like she’d have said that either she couldn’t do it (I’m an artist as well as a baker and I couldn’t do it!) or she’ll charge appropriately.

Lesson learned re communication.

FWIW on the Rice Krispie front it may be that she initially tried making the head in cake and it didn’t work. Rather than come to you with a problem she found a way to solve it. Sometimes things go wrong when I’m baking and I find a way round it, I don’t bother my customer with things that will make them worry, especially if the amount of actual cake you got was enough to feed the number of guests you had.

100% this.

I feel like the OP was expecting far too much for far too little. I can't believe a picture wasn't shown to the baker tbh especially when OP knew that the bakers speciality was standard drip cakes.