First Unhappy Customer - Need Advice - Picture included! - Page 3

BTW, I just want to make sure that everyone knows that I use Wilton as a guideline when it comes to cake servings. Whatever they say a serving is, I add about 35%. lol I'm adding this since I was the one that posted before with the link to Wilton's serving suggestions. But even with that! The customer should have gotten her 20 servings with no problem whatsoever.

If she knew the type of people she was inviting then she should have ordered over the # of servings she needed. Better to have too much than not enough. I think I will be printing up cutting charts to hand over to people when they get a cake from now on because people really don't know how to cut a cake!
BTW: CHARGE MORE!

I have to agree that around my family, it would have fed about 12 people. I charge based on the number of batches of batter I need to bake for the cake (Including the scraps cut off a sculpted cake.) I figure on 10-12 servings from each batch of chocolate and about 15-18 for WASC. A 9X13 is one batch of batter either way, the WASC is just taller. Have you spoken to her yet? What happened when she actually served the cake? Did she have more than she thought she would? I hope everything works out for you. Your cake was great- you did a great job on it!

I love the idea for using styrofoam blocks as visuals in the store! Thanks for sharing it!

I don't think it's a matter of being "uppity" or not looking at it from a customers view, it's just common sense. I go by a chart for everything and have not (yet) had a complaint about not enough cake. I mean for crying out loud how would she know if she had not cut into it? And I bet when she did, she discovered it was enough.

I agree that often when we look at a cake it looks like it only serves so many but when you get to cutting (reasonable pieces) one generally finds that it is sufficient.

Talk to her and find out what happened, then you can make a more informed decision. I wouldn't refund the money though. You didn't charge that much to begin with.

I'm in the south too, and I like to base my servings on a 1x4x4 portion... that would mean this cake would have served 13 if the corners hadn't been cut off... maybe 11 or 12 with them cut off.

I agree with the poster who said customers have no idea what size a wedding cake chart portion is... they only know what they would serve if they had company over for dinner... at home, an 2-layer 8" round cake would serve 12, but according to Wilton's chart it should serve 24 - none of us would think that is enough cake to serve 24 dinner guests in our home, so I can definitely understand why this customer thought the servings were too small.

For the record, I think the price of $25 was more than fair for the cake received, regardless of how many it served.

Just âdoing the mathâ here â¦..
1x2x4â = 8 cubic inches â¦. Wedding industry standard â¦. 26 servings
1.5 x 2 x 4 = 12 cubic inches .. âPartyâ servings â¦. 16 servings
1.3 x 4 x 4 = 21 cubic inches â¦.. 10 servings
1.3 x 2 x 4 = 10.5 cubic inches â¦.. 20 servings



1.5 x 4 x 4 = 24 cubic inches ⦠Thatâs 3 times a wedding slice and twice a party slice!! So I agree with aligotmatt â¦. That too much cake and itâs Jethro Bodine eaters! Customer needed to order a bigger cake.

Look at the numbers I ran at the top of this post. If this woman claimed only 10 servings, she was cutting a piece of cake that is THREE TIMES THE SIZE OF A STANDARD WEDDING SERVING! Ladies and gentlemen, that IS the size of a freakinâ brick! This is where I'd be explaining how KFC works it, baby!!



Not quite half â¦. A 1.5x2x4 is 50% bigger than a 1x2x4 â¦. Itâs not twice the size (ergo a wedding size is not half the size of a party size). 1.5 x 2 x 4 = 12 cubic inches //// 1x2x4 = 8 cubic inches.



Of course they like it better! They are getting more cake for (usually) the same money!



BINGO!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! TOTALLY AGREE 1000%!!!!!!!!!!



I believe the opposite. Being the grandmother of a 6 year old and a 1 year old, Iâve been around a lot of their (and the neighborhood) birthday parties, with up to 10 or 12 little kids under the age of 7. A wedding cake portion is PERFECT for a child! Not too big, no wasted cake. Trust me, I OBSERVE these events with an eagle eye on this. I survey the parents, I ask my daughter for feedback and what comments she was given after I leave. Iâve been to birthday parties where it was a hamburger/hot dog cookout and where it was just cake-only. So with and without food, everyone was very happy with the cake size.

And when my dinner guests get to the dessert part, they usually ask for âjust a littleâ because they are too full from dinner, so it is not âtoo smallâ for dinner guests â¦. Wedding guests are âdinner guestsâ and when I cut the cake into 1x2x4âs, I get a lot of folks who ask for âa little smaller, pleaseâ.

But....How is she supposed to know it isn't enough before serving it?

Well, it's just my personal opinion, but I wouldn't expect a 2-layer 8-inch cake to be enough to serve 24 guests as the wilton chart suggests... I would expect it to serve half that many. I think smaller portions are expected at weddings because the cake is frequently not the only dessert served.

At 99% of my weddings it is. As I research other caterers, their wedding pricing menus, like mine, do not include a dessert because the wedding cake IS the dessert.

Granted there are some brides who have a Dessert Table ... I have one on my menu, too. But when I sell this, they use it as an Appetizer Table and open it up BEFORE dinner during 'snack' time. But I sell this so infrequently that I'm thinking of removing it as an option.

Yes, this size portion might indeed be appropriate for a 6 or 7 year old, but considering this cake is a skateboard with a scull and flames on it, I'm thinking he was probably quite a bit older. Do we know how old he was?

I'm not exactly a big math nerd, but I think it would be pretty easy to eyeball how to make 20 servings from a cake that shape and get an idea of serving size. If it was round, it might not be as easy, but it's a rectangle. Picture cutting it in half lengthwise, then in half the other way. Then eyeball what 5 even pieces cut from one of your sections would be, and you know the size of cake serving you're getting.

I think it's unrealistic to say that she could not feed 20 people with this cake. If she couldn't get 20, it's because she didn't want to. Maybe she's not getting the big slices that she wanted (but didn't mention when ordering), but everyone will have cake.

I consider my 9x13 to be 24 servings, but if never hurts to mention that it will feed "up to 24". That way if they know they're going to want bigger pieces, then they will order a bigger cake.

No refund, your cake was priced too low to begin with.

Possibly a discount off her next cake, but price it right! And maybe explain the serving sizes only so that she knows you have a standard and you were not shortchanging her.

Also - she called before she cut it - when you call her it is slightly possible that she will say that there was plenty of cake after all! I'd call, not email, just so you can say you just got the message and it does not look like you were trying to dodge her.

I can't say I know how old this particular birthday kid was, but I was just addressing a comment about wedding portions being 'unrealistic' for children's birthday parties.

THey are welcome to cut it any size they want ... but if they KNOW they are feeding (for example) teenage boys, then as a mother of a teenage boy, *I* know that I have to get more cake than what is "normal".

It is not my responsibility as a cake decorator to provide bigger servings at the same price because the client is feeding a small army of teenage Jethro's.

Any mother out there who has ever planned an event for teenage boys knows how this works.

I agree! I betcha she made it work for the number of guests she had!

When my dinner guests ask for a sliver of cake, they eat... they comment... and then they go back for more .

Just for clarification - I wasn't saying the size of the cake was too small or too big or too anything. I was just stating that it is very understandable for a customer to be surprised when they get a cake that is smaller than they were expecting. Cake designers are very aware of this issue and can be a little more proactive to ensure the customer knows what they are paying for.

Happy baking to you!