Hey all,
Here's my cake disaster story. I've been stressing about it all weekend and I realized I should've come here in the first place for advice.
A friend of mine, R, (who works for a wedding magazine) had referred me to one of her friends for a wedding cake. She had told me her budget was only $250 and feed 200 and initially I didn't want to do it because it's not worth it, but i figured, whatever, I'll take the loss because it's for a good friend of my friend and it'll give me another cake for my portfolio.
i can't seem to find the link the the cake she wanted copied, but it was from pink cake box, it was 3 tiered square and it had bronze swirl decorations along the bottom of each tier. i'll continue to look for the pic after i post cos i just want to get people's opinions more.
So the cake was for this past Saturday and for those who live in or near Toronto know it was raining/thunderstorming like crazy last week so needless to say, my decorations weren't drying because of the humidity. i have a fan, i have an AC unit that's constantly running, and although i had made the swirls ahead of time, they just werent drying. i used half fondant and half gumpaste, a decision i realize now that was stupid, but i honestly thought it would dry in time since i've used a mixture before.
so overnight (i pulled an all nighter for this one) i covered the 3 tiers in fondant. the fondant kept cracking on me so i had to cover each layer twice. there were still a few cracks but nothing that couldn't be covered with the decorations and ribbon.
the morning i painted the scrolls in bronze lustre/shimmer powder, but i didn't use any alcohol because it seemed to do the job without. and basically all freaking day i was waiting for these decorations to dry. sooner than later i was cutting it close to delivery time and since i'm an idiot and didn't make any royal icing, i used teeny bitty amounts of glucose to help stick my decorations since i honestly couldn't think of anything else to use. so now not only are the swirlies cracking as i'm lifting them up to place on the cake, i'm getting luster dust EVERYWHERE and pieces are sliding down the side of the cake. BUT the glucose WAS working as an adhesive, i got plenty of pieces to stay put. but again, some piece werent cooperating. so lots were breaking and i was running out of not only time, but pieces that were semi dry. and before we delivered it, i had wrapped saran wrap over the pieces around the cake as to secure them on the ride.
needless to say, the cake did not turn out the way she wanted, and i was also late for the delivery. i was stressing all day about it, and after the delivery (the coordinator just took it off my hands so i didn't even really have to be there) i pretty much had an emotional breakdown because i had felt so incredibly bad about it. like the cake, i was a complete disaster that night. i was crying and like.. beating myself up about a job badly done and well.. i haven't been sleeping well or feeling well since, to be honest. at the same time, i didn't want to email her or call her and leave her a message because quite frankly, i wouldn't have known what to say.
so today i got an email saying "I assume you know why I'm writing to you. The cake we ordered was a disaster! Had I seen it when it was delivered I would of said something. Even the Manager of the reception hall brought it to my attention. I'm sure you can admit that the workmanship was unacceptable. It was just a mess. You've put me and R in an awkward position. R felt really bad about it and it was not even her fault. However, because you are a friend of R's I will give you the benefit of doubt and trust that you will do the right thing and refund me for the cake. I just wish you called or gave me a heads up about the situation before hand. I'm a very understanding person otherwise. I'm waiting to hear back from you and I can provide bank transfer details or pick up the cash in person. I do have photos so I hope we can straighten this out quickly."
I am ashamed of my work and I have no problem giving her the money back for it, but i wanted to know your opinions of what i should say, besides apologizing profusely about it. this week just also happens to be the week that umm... "aunt dot" is visiting, so i know that if i try to come up with something on my own, my emotions will get the best of me and i'll probably write something extremely stupid.
I'll be honest and say I dont want to face her in fear of breaking down in front of her because i am sensitive like that, but at the same time I dont want to seem like a coward. I know I don't have any pics of my cakes posted, but I like to think I'm decent at what I do, and for some sort of really horrible reason, I was stupid, and not fully prepared for this cake and so odds were against me on this one and it turned out to be a complete failure.
What's the best way to handle this? What should I say? and how do i basically ask for banking information so i can transfer it without having to face her?
and a completely different story is now how do i face our mutual friend, because she is the one who referred me? the whole reason why i agreed to this cake at that price to begin with was because i figured in the future, this friend could help me out since she works for a wedding magazine.. but now.. it's kinda like.. fat chance of that happening now.
ugh.. i'm so sorry that this is so long.. i'm just so stressed about the whole thing. i'll try to post pics of the original cake.. i'll be honest, i didn't really take pics of mine cos i was ashamed. i took pics from far so that it wouldn't look so bad.
thanks in advance
Here's my cake disaster story. I've been stressing about it all weekend and I realized I should've come here in the first place for advice.
A friend of mine, R, (who works for a wedding magazine) had referred me to one of her friends for a wedding cake. She had told me her budget was only $250 and feed 200 and initially I didn't want to do it because it's not worth it, but i figured, whatever, I'll take the loss because it's for a good friend of my friend and it'll give me another cake for my portfolio.
i can't seem to find the link the the cake she wanted copied, but it was from pink cake box, it was 3 tiered square and it had bronze swirl decorations along the bottom of each tier. i'll continue to look for the pic after i post cos i just want to get people's opinions more.
So the cake was for this past Saturday and for those who live in or near Toronto know it was raining/thunderstorming like crazy last week so needless to say, my decorations weren't drying because of the humidity. i have a fan, i have an AC unit that's constantly running, and although i had made the swirls ahead of time, they just werent drying. i used half fondant and half gumpaste, a decision i realize now that was stupid, but i honestly thought it would dry in time since i've used a mixture before.
so overnight (i pulled an all nighter for this one) i covered the 3 tiers in fondant. the fondant kept cracking on me so i had to cover each layer twice. there were still a few cracks but nothing that couldn't be covered with the decorations and ribbon.
the morning i painted the scrolls in bronze lustre/shimmer powder, but i didn't use any alcohol because it seemed to do the job without. and basically all freaking day i was waiting for these decorations to dry. sooner than later i was cutting it close to delivery time and since i'm an idiot and didn't make any royal icing, i used teeny bitty amounts of glucose to help stick my decorations since i honestly couldn't think of anything else to use. so now not only are the swirlies cracking as i'm lifting them up to place on the cake, i'm getting luster dust EVERYWHERE and pieces are sliding down the side of the cake. BUT the glucose WAS working as an adhesive, i got plenty of pieces to stay put. but again, some piece werent cooperating. so lots were breaking and i was running out of not only time, but pieces that were semi dry. and before we delivered it, i had wrapped saran wrap over the pieces around the cake as to secure them on the ride.
needless to say, the cake did not turn out the way she wanted, and i was also late for the delivery. i was stressing all day about it, and after the delivery (the coordinator just took it off my hands so i didn't even really have to be there) i pretty much had an emotional breakdown because i had felt so incredibly bad about it. like the cake, i was a complete disaster that night. i was crying and like.. beating myself up about a job badly done and well.. i haven't been sleeping well or feeling well since, to be honest. at the same time, i didn't want to email her or call her and leave her a message because quite frankly, i wouldn't have known what to say.
so today i got an email saying "I assume you know why I'm writing to you. The cake we ordered was a disaster! Had I seen it when it was delivered I would of said something. Even the Manager of the reception hall brought it to my attention. I'm sure you can admit that the workmanship was unacceptable. It was just a mess. You've put me and R in an awkward position. R felt really bad about it and it was not even her fault. However, because you are a friend of R's I will give you the benefit of doubt and trust that you will do the right thing and refund me for the cake. I just wish you called or gave me a heads up about the situation before hand. I'm a very understanding person otherwise. I'm waiting to hear back from you and I can provide bank transfer details or pick up the cash in person. I do have photos so I hope we can straighten this out quickly."
I am ashamed of my work and I have no problem giving her the money back for it, but i wanted to know your opinions of what i should say, besides apologizing profusely about it. this week just also happens to be the week that umm... "aunt dot" is visiting, so i know that if i try to come up with something on my own, my emotions will get the best of me and i'll probably write something extremely stupid.
I'll be honest and say I dont want to face her in fear of breaking down in front of her because i am sensitive like that, but at the same time I dont want to seem like a coward. I know I don't have any pics of my cakes posted, but I like to think I'm decent at what I do, and for some sort of really horrible reason, I was stupid, and not fully prepared for this cake and so odds were against me on this one and it turned out to be a complete failure.
What's the best way to handle this? What should I say? and how do i basically ask for banking information so i can transfer it without having to face her?
and a completely different story is now how do i face our mutual friend, because she is the one who referred me? the whole reason why i agreed to this cake at that price to begin with was because i figured in the future, this friend could help me out since she works for a wedding magazine.. but now.. it's kinda like.. fat chance of that happening now.
ugh.. i'm so sorry that this is so long.. i'm just so stressed about the whole thing. i'll try to post pics of the original cake.. i'll be honest, i didn't really take pics of mine cos i was ashamed. i took pics from far so that it wouldn't look so bad.
thanks in advance
Tell your friend that you're sorry it happened, but that based on all the different circumstances you weren't able to do your best work, and you've refunded her friend the money. If she's seen other things that you've done she'll know that it isn't typical of your work and she'll get over it.
