Chalk it up to experience and ask more questions next time. I have to agree with KellyAnne1284. I would have thought a jersey shaped cake from her request. I am LMAO to think you ruined a one year old's birthday. I bet this child is scarred for life because his mother didn't get the cake she wanted. Reckon this child will ever care who Montana is????? 
I have said it over and over: "There is too much emphasis on children's birthdays and too much expense." If this child's first birthday was ruined by something as insignificant as this, what is going to happen when the limousine is late for his 5th birthday or the chartered jet for his 16th?
JMO
Diane
In all honesty, I would have assumed she wanted a cake shaped like a jersey not a cake with a jersey on it.
I would have offered a partial refund. I don't think she was out to get a discount or a freebie. It really sounds like she just didn't get what she thought she asked for. Sure she was a little over dramatic, but customers sometimes are when they're unhappy.
Then again, I always worry about a customer who isn't satisfied with my work. My business is nearly all by referral and the last thing I need is someone trashing my work to everyone she knows.
In all honesty, I would have assumed she wanted a cake shaped like a jersey not a cake with a jersey on it.
I would have offered a partial refund. I don't think she was out to get a discount or a freebie. It really sounds like she just didn't get what she thought she asked for. Sure she was a little over dramatic, but customers sometimes are when they're unhappy.
Then again, I always worry about a customer who isn't satisfied with my work. My business is nearly all by referral and the last thing I need is someone trashing my work to everyone she knows.
Hear hear! That's pretty much exactly what I've been wanting / trying to say!!!
movingritealong,
You did a great job on the cake.
Like everyone has said. Experience... I did expect to see a sculpted cake, but that's because I do a lot of shaped cakes. It's all about experience and what you know.
Making cakes is 1 experience at a time. I have learned so much for reading so many post on here. That I keep a list so I dont forget.
I have a list of questions I ask when someone wants a cake.
Then when I make my design I draw it out and send them a copy so they can see it. I try to make it 3D where I can and of course previous cake pictures too to make sure I got the right idea.
Then once I am satisfied I know what I am doing I print out my instructions with all the info on it. Cake flavor, colors neede and decorations. That way I have it to refer to and I make notes on this page as I go. Then I make notes once the person pick it up or I deliver. I keep all of this in a binder - it's helpfull, sometimes too when you have had a hard time, you find another way to do it the next time.
By the way I am sure that the boy was happy with his cake, I am also sure that just mom had issues and most likely not about the cake.
Good Luck on the next one, from an x-pegger!
It sounds like maybe the cake was for mom not the child. I wouldn't worry about it. If she never orders another one from you, oh well. Those customers we don't need.
I think your cake came out great, as for the mom, that's another story. You won't be able to please some people no matter what you do.
I had a customer who ordered a german choc poundcake (poundcake with pecans on top), when he picked it up I showed him the cake, he said ok and paid me. Then he tells my friend who is his co-worker, that the cake tasted great but he was not happy because there was no icing. I told her I showed him the cake and he said ok. He never contacted me about the cake. Then she begs me to make him a GC layer cake for free (that's what he really wanted) so I said I would do it for her. I made a small 8 inch 2 layer GC layer cake for him (for free) and he never even called to say thank you. I will never do that again!
The next customer that ordered this GC poundcake actually saw a picture of the cake on a giant monitor. She saw it and said "I want that". I showed her the picture so there would be no misunderstanding about what she would get. When I delivered the cake to her she asked "where is the icing".
I'm not trying to knock sports but what 1 year old really cares about them? 
Especially the jerseys?
I'm sorry but I think that a baby would be far happier with something they liked to play with like a ball, duck, bear, truck, doll, etc. Not that they really care much at that age about what their cake looks like anyway.
Maybe next time you should specify what they're paying for, say it will be $XX for a sheet cake with that drawn on it and then if it's not what they want they'll correct you and say "no I want it carved."
Everyone just keep in mind that Tuesday is the FULL MOON. We all know how it brings out the CRAZY people!!! 
I've been dealing with them all week at work!
Well, I emailed her with my apologies (twice I apologized!) and told her that it was a misunderstanding. I also suggested that next time she orders a cake with that in mind, to tell the person that she wants a shaped cake. And, as she told me not to use her as a reference, of course I wouldn't but that I'd likely use the picture as part of my portfolio/advertising, with no mention of who ordered the cake.
Well, she emailed me back and ranted about how I've ruined her son's birthday and the memories will never be right, and how everone agrees with her, that had she asked for that that THEY'D have known EXACTLY what she meant and and...... OH! And if I use a picture of the cake, I'll be behaving as a liar and a cheat, as that was NOT what was ordered!
I ignored this one. Live and learn.
oh good lord..
if they have to form birthday memories focused on a CAKE... they really need lessons on how to GET A FRICKEN LIFE geesh
she was probably mad because the son Loved the cake better then she was expecting IN THE FIRST PLACE regardless of how well to the letter the cake turned out even if you'd created it in the way "she had in mind" mind... there's probably a big sign in her noggin that says "space for rent' or "beam me up scotty- no intellegent life here on earth" 
In all honesty, I would have assumed she wanted a cake shaped like a jersey not a cake with a jersey on it.
I would have offered a partial refund. I don't think she was out to get a discount or a freebie. It really sounds like she just didn't get what she thought she asked for. Sure she was a little over dramatic, but customers sometimes are when they're unhappy.
Then again, I always worry about a customer who isn't satisfied with my work. My business is nearly all by referral and the last thing I need is someone trashing my work to everyone she knows.
Had she contacted me and sated CALMLY that this wasn't what she had expected, and there was a misunderstanding, ABSOLUTELY I would have given her at least 1/2 back. or even better a 'next cake is free' coupon.
I am the QUEEN of good customer service. I demand and expect it of others, and give it completely. But I DON'T believe the customer is always right, and there is such a thing as being a good customer too. Even after the first email, (while I stewed a bit) had she come back and simply said, I accept your apology, but I'd like some recompense, I'd have very happily (well, less than happily, but...WOULD HAVE) worked with her to find a happy medium.
No, good customers get good customer service. Drama queens get bupkus.
I have to say, if someone said to me, "I want a cake that looks like a jersey", I'd immediately know they were talking about a sculpted cake. If they said, "I'd like a cake with a picture of a jersey on it", I'd have done what you did. I've learned to pay very close attention to not only WHAT people say, but HOW they say it.
Cake looks great, tho...
Ditto. When I read your description I expected to see a jersey-shaped cake. However, it was an innocent mistake on your part and she TOTALLY overreacted.
I'm sorry you had to deal with that!
Before reading my list, see if you can answer this question. If I write "Cat" what do you see in your head?
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Black halloween's cat
Cheshire cat
Puss-n-boots
Morris
Garfield
Felix
Pink Panther
Sylvester
My point is, you may not have made what she seen when she wrote a Jersey Cake. You made what you seen as a Jersey Cake.
Cakes don't ruin birthday parties, people ruin birthday parties.
Cakes don't ruin birthday parties, people ruin birthday parties.
Well said.
Diane
I can't believe you had the nerve to not read this perfectly lovely woman's mind and create exactly what she envisioned! And I REALLY can't believe you had the nerve to ruin this very sophisticated one year old's birthday cake! I mean, he's probably been planning that cake his whole life! And I bet because you made a cake with a jersey on it instead of a cake shaped like a jersey, not only did you ruin his memories, but I bet he has had to completely block it out of his memory! Kind of like a post-traumatic stress thing! I bet a few years from now you can ask him, and he will have NO recollection of his first birthday party....and all because of you!!! Hehehe........my sarcasm is obvious, right? Some people are so screwy! I feel bad for this poor kid, and NOT because of his cake!
Your cake was absolutely fine. Her son's birthday would have been ruined only if the "Jersey" that you made was the state of New Jersey!
PS-The only birthday cake I remember as a child was the Raggedy Ann one that made me poop blue when I ate the dress, red when I ate the hair. 
she prolly ruined the kid's birthday herself by crying about the cake. she are stoopid 
Now, had I shown up with the cake and thrown it at the mom...THAT may have ruined the party!
not to mention pretty freakin' awesome! ''ha! take that! ''
{hugs} I've had ONE dissatisfied customer. I took it so badly I cried and cried. I had a cake to make for the next day and I was so shaken I couldn't work for hours.
I had this pain in the @r$e customer who wanted a cake for her sister's birthday. Her older sister was turning 40, and she wanted a cake that encompassed all the private jokes she had with her.
So, she wanted:
A LARGE hill with a LARGE, glittery 40 on the front. At the bottom of the hill on one side she wanted a blonde lady sunbathing next to a pool. And on the other side of the hill she wanted a pair of false teeth. And she wanted the word 'weeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeee' going down the hill. Oh, and flowers.
OK. Whatever! You're the customer!
So I told her I could do this for X amount. And when she came to collect her daughter's birthday cake a couple of weeks before this cake was made I showed her the pyrex pudding bowl I was going to bake the cake in. She told me 'It's not big enough. This has to be big'. So I showed her a larger bowl and explained that I couldn't go much bigger because the cake just wouldn't bake properly and that the bigger size would be Z amount. So she said fine.
She came to collect the cake. It was boxed. Before she even saw it she said 'I thought it was going to be big?'. It was on a 16" x 16" cake drum. I said 'It is big!'
I opened the box and she said 'Oh. Well. I'm not happy. I'm very disappointed. This isn't much bigger than my daughter's cake I picked up a couple of weeks ago'.
I told her it was a LOT bigger than her daughter's cake. She said 'I thought it would be more hill shaped' - and she was making a gentle sloping hill shape with her hands. I said to her 'I showed you the bowl I was baking it in!' And she said 'but I thought that once you iced it it would look more like a hill'. So I told her I couldn't ice something that wasn't there! I had to cover the cake.
Anyway, so it went on.
A couple of times I said to her 'if you're not happy, don't have it. I'll take it to the hospital for them to have'. And she replied 'I have to have it - it's my sister's birthday'.
She gave me most of the money, but was £5 short (something around $10 I think). She said 'Oh, I thought I had more money'. I told her she could mail it to me!!!!!!!
That same day I wrote her a letter saying I'm sorry she was disappointed with my work and that I couldn't meet her exacting standards.... I always give the utmost care to my cakes,etc etc. I then went on to recommend a couple of other cake makers (who charge the most RIDICULOUS amounts of money... they do celebrity weddings and cakes for movies, etc.) who may be able to help. I also sent her back the £10 deposit for her son's birthday cake the following month saying I didn't feel it was appropriate I make any more cakes for her... AND FINALLY I REMINDED HER THAT SHE OWED ME £5. (which she sent! And she said she was going to cancel her son's cake, anyway! But ha! ha! ha! I cancelled on her first!
The problem I had was that I wasn't even trying to make a cake of a 'tangible thing'. It was all her 'private jokes' with her sister that I was trying to put into 3D.
Gosh - sorry this has turned into such a long message. But I just wanted you to know that there are nutters everywhere!
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