AIBU to expect the birthday cake booking date changed without extra charge?

[JavSurge]

We had to cancel DD's birthday party the day before due to her having S&D. We'd have gone through with it if it was a runny nose but not S&D, as much for our guests as well as her.

Anyway, most of the vendors (hall, entertainment etc) have honoured bookings in changing the date without charge given the circumstances.

As for the cake, she wants to charge us again. Now, for context, she had not finished the cake, had not started icing or decorating it. What's more, once I informed her the party couldn't go ahead, she said she'd pop the sponge in the freezer to be used for another time.

Now we have a new date arranged I have contacted her (2 days later) and asked if the sponge will last (Google says it will) until the party in a couple of weeks and if she's available to decorate it and deliver it on that date.

She's come back saying she didn't freeze it in the end and instead gave it to her neighbour, and now expects us to pay again for a new cake?!
If she'd iced it and it was ready to go then I would completely understand. However, given that it's just a change of date, am I being unreasonable to have expected her to just to use the sponge for us, or even used the sponge for another customer and then made it fresh. Either way to me seems reasonable as she'd not be using extra resources or time.
I can of course understand she might have got an extra customer (money) on the later date but it wouldn't have caused her extra costs.

Am I being being completely unreasonable?
If the cake was decorated I'd have never asked her to redo the whole thing for free but given that she said she was freezing the sponge surely it would be reasonable for her to do it free of charge (or a nominal fee if anything extra is needed)?

Where did the second cake from?

Hmm I think you are both unclear due to the lack of terms and conditions.
I think it's fair she charged you for the cake (and it was perhaps a bit careless to admit to it not being completed). She would have blocked out time to do it and with short notice wouldn't be able to book someone else in.

You don't actually know how much she is going to change you for the new cake. I do think she should give a discount. Especially as it was misleading to say it was being frozen. I think I would query that if she came back with a high price and state that when you cancelled she said it could be frozen, and therefore had you known that it couldn't be kept you would have collected it since you had already paid for it in full.
I definitely think there should be some kind of gesture of good will here.

Fine, then she should have delivered a beautifully iced cake to OP first time round.

She only baked the sponge - the skill and time is in the icing. Any professional in this situation would offer to bake the second cake for half price.

Perfect and reasonable comment.

No skill required in making a decent sponge?
I beg to differ...
OP would have had a beautifully decorated cake.... had she not cancelled at last minute.

That OP doesnt want to pay for.

I think the baker has communicated badly and been unprofessional. She said she'd freeze the cake (I too would have assumed she meant for the rescheduled party or for another time/client) and then she said she didn't freeze it in the end and so she'll have to make a new one.
She's moved the goalposts.

I thought OP has only paid for 1 cake?

The minute she decided not to freeze it she should have offered it to @JavSurge as she has already paid for the ingredients/cake/time/etc ... she didn't freeze it, she gave something the OP had paid for to someone else. In spite of it being obvious OP was planning to do a new date, hence the original plan to freeze it.

So actually I don't think YABU ...

Yes but thete was no point in receiving the cake as it would have gone on before new party.

So far, but from her op her expectation is that the cake maker will produce a second cake on a second new date for free (or a nominal price).

Still waiting and that's exactly my point!

I think it was up to you to ask for it imo.
You cancelled the order for D&V so am not sure why she would think to offer.

OP could have shared the original cake out or frozen it herself if she knew she was going to have to pay for two cakes.

I genuinely am baffled that people think it’s OK to keep your £200 AND the cake

I don’t think I’ve seen anyone say that. My reading of this is that everyone has said she should have had the first cake that she asked for.

but plenty of us are trying to help the op understand why it would be completely unreasonable to expect the cake maker to make and decorate a new cake on a different day (even using the frozen sponge) either for free or a nominal charge (as per her op).

the reason it is unreasonable is because the cake maker already blocked out her diary on the originally planned date to decorate the cake. The op needs to pay for her time there.

that’s the bit the op can’t understand

If she’s going to charge you again then she needed to have given you the cake surely?! Not given it away! Her saying she will freeze it for the new date would make me think that’s great. You need to find out if you’ll have to pay extra. If she wants you to pay again I’d say that’s not fair as she never gave you the cake.

Has she said how much she is going to charge for a new cake? It really depends what that price is to whether she is being unreasonable.
I had interpreted from your post that she had asked for £200 again.

And I've not seen where the OP expects the second one for free but is concerned that another full price is going to be expected.

Lots of people are justifying it but seem to be missing the fact that full price was paid but no cake was given. People talking about how the baker cant work for free but seem to miss that they paid full price for nothing and then was told their £200 cake was handed to a neighbour rather than frozen as they were told.

The whole thing feels like terrible communication.

She should have, imo, only charged for sponge but also not given it away as its technically yours. Probably nothing more you can do. I wouldnt be spending a load more money on another cake but buy one or two from Waitrose.

She made the cake, even though not fully decorated, and will now have to repeat the process. The first cake should have been offered to you as per cost, but you do need to pay for the repeat.

I'd expect to pay for the ingredients she used in the cake, but probably not for the decoration ingredients, given they hadn't been used. I'd also expect to be paying for her time (used, and the time not used, but reserved.)
I wouldn't expect to pay the original deliver fee, because that didn't happen.

I’m still interested to hear more about the design, it may throw a lot of light on it.

If she didn’t want to freeze it as she said, I think either she should have only charged you for her time to bake the cake and ingredients for the cake (including any specific decorations she might have bought), and given you the plain sponge or just made the cake as you ordered and gave it to you anyway since you’d already paid. No way should she have gave it to her neighbour so this out your consent, you had already paid so technically owned that plain sponge.

Yes but the cake she made should have been given to the OP as she had already paid for it!

the OP didn’t say “I don’t need the cake, so do what you want with it”
the cake maker said she’d freeze it, the OP took that to mean for her DD’s rescheduled party.

this situation has happened to me before and we cancelled on the day of the party - I ended up with a buffet for 60 kids that we chose to give to a local homeless charity rather than it go to waste. That was our choice.

the cake maker giving away the original cake that was paid for, was not the OP’s choice

It’s literally the title of the thread!