I have been reading some of the posts on cake disasters and this was my first disaster as such with a customer at least.

I am new to all this and was absolutely horrified when I dropped the massively heavy cake before I could get it to the car. I had cream and nozzle ready to go just in case of accidents anyway. So I was able to fix it up to be the best but the edible image was cracked.

The customer on the order asked for a cake with a logo of their company on it. I informed them that the edible logo could only be an A4 size and asked what message they wanted on the cake. It was a sheet cake.

The customer on seeing the cake wanted the logo to be the whole size of the cake. Huston we have a problem! I told her there that I had sent a message to her that the logo was only going to be A4 but I guess she didn't realise that.

So how do I fix this problem after the function? I have suggested for her to take the delivery fee off the price, but I don't know what else to do. It is of course everyone's nightmare. When a cake goes wrong. What are our legal obligations. Should I give a total refund?

I shall be reading more on cake disasters so that I am fully prepared for the next time. I like the advice to do a sketch of the cake for approval first before proceeding. Most customers send me pics of what they would like and that does work best but sometimes instructions are to be had and we all have miscommunications.

Sorry this is long winded just wanted to get some ideas on what to do in this situation and for the future.

Cheers Tina

So sorry to hear your story. I'm sure we've all had our fair share of cake disasters. Give her a discount off her next order but nothing too crazy, say, 10%. Doing a sketch for final approval and specifying as many deails as possible in writing and confirming all this a few weeks before delivery is also a good idea.

It is hard to guage what type of refund/discount she should get without seeing a pic of the cake how it was delivered.

Sorry this happened to you. This might be a dumb question but where exactly did the sheet cake land and on which side? Was the cake inside a box covered?

GatuPR- that was my thoughts exactly. I have the same question.

Saw the cake. It looks really nice. Sorry about your little accident. I'm assuming that they got to serve cake? It wasn't a total wreck, just some cosmetics on the logo?

Here's what I would do. Refund the delivery fee, obviously. If you hired someone to do it, you would want your money back. Second, the customer did not get completely what you thought let alone what they thought. Also, it wasn't a cracked flower, it was the logo at the corporate event. I'd say 20% discount.

To top it off, I'd offer 10% off on a future cake. Don't turn away corporate business. There's money there. Good will goes a long way, too.

Finally, you might not make much on this, but it is a good learning experience.(ie don't drop cakes )If you are losing money by refunding this money, then you didn't charge enough in the first place.

sorry to hear about your mishap. is the pic on your photos the cake before or after the drop? in the pic it looks great! i also like how the cake looks suspended. dont know if that is the photo or the way the cake was presented.
hopefully offering some sort of refund will ease the situation.
good luck!

Thanks so much for all your replies. The cake was in its box and while I said drop, it didn't actually hit the ground rather knocked and the back of the cake hit the back of the box. The image cracked because the cake was jolted and because there were two cakes held together in the middle that is where the cracked occurred.

I shall indeed know for next time and the advice on sketches etc. is a great one for all. I am now going to incorporate that in everything I do.

I shall try not to knock back corporate cakes, but the trauma of it all is a little overwhelming to say the least at this time. Knowing that everyone here has had their share of disasters brings comfort in a horrible sort of way. I wouldn't wish disasters on anyone, if you know what I mean.

The pic of the cake before the disaster is on my album as matthewkyrankelly indicated. I didn't get to take a pic of it as it was when delivered, but it really didn't look that bad, but when you go out of your way to get everything right we all know just that one bit can ruin the whole effect.

Just a question though for next time, I was initially told that edible images are only done on A4 size, is this true or can I get them bigger elsewhere? Or do you all put them together like a collage? Thanks

Actually edible images are available in a number of different sizes, including 8.5x11, legal, tabloid, and then there are the specialty shapes like the 1.25", 2", 2.5",3" and 8" circles. There are also business cards available as well. We also offer a variety pack of Icing Sheets which contain samples of our most popular sizes available. Hope this helps, sorry about what happened to your cake, but in the same note, your image should not have cracked like that. Maybe we can arrange to send you some samples of the ones we manufacture here. You might see a huge difference. Just let me know.

Hi Tiggy,
Well let me first say that our company is not a distributor for other companies products, we are the manufacturer of Edible Inks and Icing Sheets. So we know these products in an out. There is a lot of different varieties in Icing Sheets these days, whether its wafer paper, rice paper, potato paper, frosting sheet, fondant sheet or even transfer sheets. There are so many different varieties it is hard to tell what is what anymore.

Our products are truly icing sheets. We make an icing sheet that "merges" with the frosting without leaving a paper like film, our product becomes part of the frosting to make it easy to cut through. When you apply our icing sheet to a cake and cut through it, even if the pieces are 1"x1" you can still see the picture plainly. We carry only 2 variety styles of our 8.5x11 Icing Sheets. Regular and Heavy. Both supply the same wonderful merge properties you would expect from a good quality icing sheet. We do have customers that prefer a heavier thicker sheet, although both icing sheets are easy to work with.

Overall we pride ourselves on producing the highest quality products at the most affordable price and if you are interested I would be happy to send you samples as well so you can compare them yourself against what you are currently using. You can email me or pm me your information, or even contact me via phone and I will be happy to get some out to you tomorrow. By the way all our products are FDA and Kosher approved and they are manufactured here in the USA.

Actually, I did an edible image the size of an A3 last week. I just fiddled with the program until I could print half the pic on an A4, and the other half on another A4. Put them together and one couldn't even see the seam!

I already have the wide format printer, I just didn't want to spend the money on those large sheets.

Do you do a lot of larger cakes where you have to do the poster effect?