Recently, I helped with a wedding of a young couple from my church. I usually do the wedding and grooms cake for the weddings at church, however, this young lady had a family friend that was a cake decorator and she absolutely could not tell her NO about doing the wedding cake. She also had a friend from her job that wanted to do the grooms cake.

I was really sort of relieved because I am a full time student and that weekend was going to be a rough weekend for me, with a project, a paper and 3 tests the following week. However, I would have much rather done them than what happened.

As I mentioned, I helped with the decorations and assisted the chef they hired to cater the sit down dinner. (What fun that was, I had a mini course on food garnishes and learned so much from this chef.) So needless to say I was a the reception hall when the "Cake decorators" delivered the cakes. I was talking to the first one, the one that did the wedding cake, and was told she had been doing cakes for 30 years. I was appalled, as she started carrying in the cakes. First, she just carryed them in, uncovered from the back of her van. I went out to see if I could help, and the back of the van was very dirty. Second, there was not enough icing on the cake, you could SEE the cake underneath the thin layer of icing. Third, when she was finished assembling it and had left, one of the other ladies from my church came running into the kitchen. "You have got to see this cake, it is hideous. Come see if you can do something."

Apparently the decorator had not spoken to the bride about what color flowers to use because, she used RED, ORANGE, YELLOW AND PEACH ROSES. The wedding decor was all pink and black. It was hideous!!!!!!!!!!!! The bride was crying and saying I hope it tastes good. I sent somebody to the local grocery to purchase some corresponding flowers for me while I took all the decorations off the cake. When I finished at least from a distance the cake looked pretty and it did match the decor of the reception hall. The cake however was horrible, it was dry and the filling was way to sweet.

The grooms cake did not arrive until around 30 minutes before the wedding started. And again, I was appalled. Actually at first glance I took a sigh of relief, but after arranging it on the table and getting a closer look, I was again upset. The lady apparently had never dipped strawberries in chocolate before. First, there was not enough chocolate on each strawberry. She had only dipped the very tip of each strawberry. Second as the strawberries were being taken off the cake to cut it, all of them came off in one clump. She had apparently placed the strawberries directly onto the cake as she dipped them and they set into a big heap of chocolate and strawberries. This one did taste good, but it was dry too.

The embarrasing part came when different church members came up to me and said what a good job I had done on the cakes. I was real quick to tell them "I don't take credit for those cakes!"

My pastor came up to me and said at first he thought, "Well she did it again, she is so good at doing cakes, but as I got closer, I realized Royanne did not do those cake." "Yours are much better, not only do they look good, They taste as good as they look"

Since the wedding, many people have told me the same thing. At least I know what my church members think. I have told them they are my ginea pigs. I try out all my new recipes and ideas on them. If they like them I know other will too.

But in the end everything was ok. everybody understood that you didn't do the cakes and you managed to fix the cakes and save the day!
poor bride, i really feel for her.

I wish you had some pictures though.

I would love to see these cakes too, especially the main one. lol What a mess.

They were very lucky to have you around. You just about guaranteed your future business there.

I feel bad for the bride! At least you were able to fix what you could and now people know that you're the DEFINITE choice for their cake decorating needs!!

That poor bride. What cake decorator doesn't ask the bride her colors??? That is crazy!! Sounds like you saved the day. Congrats.

Oh that poor bride!! Can you imagine a cake decorator not asking what colors to use?? OMG, what a wedding and groom's cake nightmare!! But thank goodness you were there to help out like you did!!

oh my goodness! i would have been speechless. the cake decorator.....wow, i cant believe that. even the worst decorater would know to at least find out what color to make the cake!
i hope you get lots of business after this!!! i also hope that no one orders from this lady again! especially a bride.
wow, unbelivable!
melody

Wow!! Thank God she had you there to make it better. I would have been crying. It sounds like the lady doing cakes for the last 30 years stopped her cake design classes in the 70's....sounds like the colors of my great aunt's living room furniture. UGH!!!
I guess from now on, people will know who to call for the cakes!!
By the way, if you would have done the victorian cake you did with the fresh roses, she would have been thrilled. That one is simply gorgeous.-

I had a similar experience this summer at a friend's wedding. The cake decorator was an extremely nice woman who stayed and helped us heat and serve the food for the reception.

However, her cake had a very thin layer of crappy looking frosting on it. It looked like a crumb coat. There was no special decorations on the cake-just the cheapest fake flowers that Walmart has to offer. I thought she was a member of the bride's family and had just done the cake to help out. She said she's been doing cakes for 20yrs! Aye carumba!

At least she used different flavors of cakemix so the kids were very happy with that part. The bride and groom were far too happy and in love to notice any imperfections in the cake.

Wow! lucky for them you were there! I think a certain someone with 30 years of experience should be embarrassed!! You however should be
darn proud that people can tell when it's not one of your cakes!! I hope you get tons of orders!

I am curious what that lady thought with you doctoring her cakes.

Good save!

All I can say it that it was lucky for the bride that you were there to take the initiative...congrats to you and I hope you get lots of cake orders from that wedding!