re: How do you feel???

Hi Jennifer of Cup a Dee Cakes. Totally agree about letting the design be picked and finalized prior to offering a gift. I got caught out offering a 21st birthday cake as a ‘gift’. My best friend wanted an English rugby ball. That’s great I said – I will do it for the birthday present. (In my mind envisaging hiring the rugby ball shape tin and making an old fashioned leather traditional rugby ball – easy peasy) As soon as I offered the gift, my friend announced she did not want just a half a rugby ball which was what the tin allowed you to do – but a ball that looked like a ball – which meant cooking two cakes and trying to cover in fondant icing (without getting creases in the icing) Sitting on what should look like grass. I was already thinking this was tricky when she then announced ‘oh and I want his name in big bold letters on the side in that flat icing you do, and the logo of the company that creates the ball and the English Rose crest that the England players have on their ball that they play with. This meant trying to do a ’run out’ with flooding icing into a piped edge, but not onto a flat surface because of the rounded shape of the ball!!! Ahhhhhhhh. Did I do it – yes. Did it take me hours – yes. Would I do it again – No. What did I learn – keep quiet about a gift until the cake is designed and finalized!!! Needless to say the value of the cake was waaaaaaaayy more than I would have gifted for this birthday boy. Lesson learnt.