19 Replies

My my….you really came to the rescue. Beautiful job…quite the classy cake compared to how it started. I guess you do see this a lot, being a bakery….but you get what you pay for. As for the FB post….How do you know she made the cake Sharon?? Just because she said she did doesn’t mean she did. Does she have a picture standing beside the cake to prove it??? I don’t think you have to remove the post. You said you didn’t name names… Actually…if it were me, I would have never owned up to making it!!! Hee Hee. She’s just miffed because you showed her sloppy workmanship. Can’t believe someone could charged $75 for that poor excuse for a cake. I have to say, even my local supermarket makes birthday cakes much nicer than that.

Well, we’ve been messaging back and forth on fb for awhile now after I posted this. She said that she was not happy at all with the cake herself and that she was the only decorator on shift and had to do 30 cakes plus the wedding cake and she just didn’t have the time needed to spend on it. I now feel sorry for her. I worked in a grocery store bakery very briefly when I was 16 and they treat employees like slaves. The store ended up giving the couple their money back and let them keep the cake. I told the girl that I would hope that she could sit down with her supervisors and create a couple simple designs for the discount wedding cake program that discount customers could choose from and leave the fancy cakes and the customers that come in with magazine pictures to the pros.

Wow, what a difference. I have to wonder though what the heck the bride thought she would be getting for $70.

I just can’t stand that the grocery stores are doing this. It’s wrong on so many levels. And to top it off the reception was being held at what I consider to be one of the better banquet rooms in our area! Definitely not a backyard picnic.

And Cinderella cake did go to the ball after all! beautiful job. You have a heart of gold.

You did a fantastic job, you made it look beautiful!! I can’t understand how anyone can could give someone a cake in that condition, I would be mortified!!!! You gave them exactly the right advise, if they can’t produce the cakes people ask for they shouldn’t be making them!!! Thank goodness you were there to help Sharon!! :-) x

Wow, you really showed up the shop bought one…. There is no comparison and shocked they could sell something so sub standard as a supposedly professional cake… $75!!!! Your having a laugh!! Daylight robbery
Guessing they want you to take it down as it totally shows up their shoddy work …

Wow, well that is the kind of thing I expect to see on cake wrecks, although like you say I have sympathy if the baker herself felt that it was bad but was forced by being overworked. I’m not sure how it is in the states but for the equivalent of 70 dollars I don’t think I could even pay for the ingredients on a cake that size, let alone time! I guess in the end that’s all they got, a bunch of ingredients thrown together, but it’s a shame they were promised much more than that.

Great job!!! You made a Bride really happy and saved her day!!! It is a pity some customers do not appreciate the costs involved in producing a good custom made cake and opt for cheaper options, then end up disappointed in the end!!!!

Just read your post about the baker Sharon. Obviously if it was a well known supermarket in your area, the decorator would have recognized her cake/her work on the FB post. I can’t imagine having to churn out 30+ cakes in a 8 hour shift….all by myself, let alone one being a wedding cake. Although I do have sympathy for her, I’m guessing she isn’t a very experienced decorator. Because the cake reflects it. Time management…..the wedding cake should have been #1 priority before doing the birthday cakes. But it does reflect how some supermarket bakeries are run like an assembly line.

Over the years we’ve had several ‘cake wreaks’ brought in to be fixed and we’ve also been called by reception halls to come and try to save a cake made by someone inexperienced. One was a 3 tier over a fountain with the plastic stairs coming down on each side to satellite cakes. The actual cake layers had slid off each other because they put some kind of jelly inbetween the layers without even leveling the cakes and everything else that goes along with a filled cake. The supports were just cake pop sticks. What a mess! I also witnessed at a hotel with 3 receptions halls, a family member trying to salvage a cake that was completely falling apart upon delivery. They were in tears and I almost offered my help. I couldn’t because I still had two wedding cakes that still needed to be delivered that day. It just breaks my heart that the biggest retailer in probably the world would put their employees in such a situation. I would love to sit down face to face with the CEO.

I agree Sharon, but bottom line…that CEO doesn’t give a darn. As long as the store is registering a profit and he and his shareholders are making money…he ain’t doin nothing!!!

I reckon that if you don’t mention the name of the shop the original came from or the name of the person who did the decorating you can leave the picture up.

What a transformation Sharon and I think that this happening could be a blessing in disguise for that poor girl! :-)

Thank you everyone for all the nice comments. My daughter and I are tossing around the idea of offering Budget Friendly wedding cakes in our bakery now. I just found out a couple days ago that the cake from the grocery store (oh heck, it was Walmart) actually cost $140.00. What I saw on the box was the balance due upon pickup. The cake was a 12", 10", 6" to serve 94. So that works out to 1.50 a serving. I have 3 cake decorators on staff and any one of us can decorate a simple wedding cake in 1 to 1.5 hours. We are thinking of charging 1.90 a serving with 5 simple design options. No delivery will be available for the Budget Friendly cakes. (Walmart doesn’t deliver….) Can I have everyone’s thoughts and opinions on this, please. We start at 4.00 a serving for what I’ll call a Full Service Cake which includes delivery in our local area…. (Fondant is always extra)

Heck ya Sharon…go for it. I gotta say, my mouth dropped when you said that cake was actually $140!!!!!! Man oh man, I thought $70 was a rip off. When brides see they can get a good quality, lovely tasting, well decorated cake for a comparable price of the WalMart one…I bet they’ll come on over. Wondering if you could put a side by side photo in your shop window of the “terrible” cake, with the transformed cake. A little blurb…something like:
“We saved the brides day by repairing/transforming this grocery store wedding cake she bought from this…..to this. You don’t want to be disappointed on your special day….tight budget? We can help you with that”. Then add your info about $1.90 a slice…5 designs etc., etc. ☺️

jchuck….Yes, I like your idea. Now would be a perfect time to implement the new pricing as well before the bookings come in for next Spring/Summer/Fall. Brides start coming in in January/February and March for next seasons events. I honestly don’t do a whole lot of wedding cakes in the Winter and when I do, they are usually kind of short notice (2 to 4 weeks). Winter in my area is very blustery and cold. I’ve already written up the pamphlet and started on the dummy cakes for photos. In our building we’ve always had an extra storefront that we rented out for a long time then we put in a liquor store for 9 years, then turned it into an engraving studio for 9 years. I closed that a few months ago and we’ve turned the whole area into a cake studio complete with consultation area. I also have room for display cakes but, haven’t had the time to make any yet. We’ve been decorating in the new area for a couple weeks now and absolutely love it!! So much room for everything with our own hand sink and 3 bay dish sink.

Your new cake studio sounds wonderful. Be interesting to see the response you get from your new initiative. I’m not surprised about few winter weddings, I’m not too far from you as the crow flies. It’s cold here too, but I do believe you get more snow. But winter weddings and Sunday weddings are starting to become popular here because there so much cheaper. Off season.

Beautiful transformation! You made a huge difference in the couples day which was a very nice thing to do. I do like your idea on the budget friendly cakes! I think that’s awesome for the people who really cannot afford the fairy tale :)