Yeah, do you feel a vent coming on, LOL? Two weeks ago I had a tasting appointment with out of town bride, groom, MOB, FOB, and their local wedding planner. The bride had some kind of tummy bug going on so she could not taste the samples, but everyone else seemed to enjoy them and talking about how good they were. MOB said they'll just take left over samples and let bride taste them when she feels better. I have warned her that uniced cake will not last long and she said they understood.
Since MOB emailed me and thanked me for my time and telling me how happy they are to work with me and how much they love my cakes.
Fastforward to this afternoon...I get an email from their wedding coordinator who apologizes, hopes that I would not get offended, but she received an e-mail from MOB in which among other wedding stuff, it says "The cakes tasted great! Do you think they were a little dry? I did not want to say anything in front of everyone" The wedding coordinator wants to know what my thoughts are... Well, my thoughts are... If they did not like it, then go somewhere else. Why in the world would MOB be worried about saying she did not like the cakes to begin with, it was her family? And why in the world would the wedding coordinator be forwarding me the email and asking my thoughts? You see...I have no patience for this...seems like no brainer to me

Yeah, that is kinda weird....if I were the wedding planner, I think I would have just told you that they decided to go with someone else rather than go into the details of what the MOB said. I don't know if maybe the coordinator thought to give you a chance to defend your cake or something??

I know the feeling about weddings! They definitely can be very stressful!

No clue either, based on email from MOB they still want me, they just asked for groom's cake too. E-mail that wedding coordinator forwarded also says that MOB is putting the payment in the mail. Wedding folks are weird. I'm tempted to cut this one loose myself

Welcome to the wedding world. Get ready to wear hip-waders and use a shovel, cause we get weird stuff all the time.

Dear Planner:
Not sure what you want my thoughts to be. If they were talking about my cake being dry while they were at the tasting, then I'm kind of at a loss as to why they would choose me as their baker.

If they took the cake home, let it sit and then ate it, then dry cake is what they should expect. Uniced cake is extremely sensitive.

Maybe they are unused to scratch cake (I am assuming your cake is scratch). Most people have only had the cake mix stuff and so are used to cake with emulsifiers, etc. If they truly have an issue with the dry texture, but still want to use me, I would be happy to add a brushed sugar syrup to add some moisture.
Thanks for giving me a heads-up. If they need to continue to look elsewhere, I do understand, but please let me know asap so I can fill their spot.

Thank you,

Hip-wader wearing- shovel-sporting baker

Too funny Jen, remember the no patience thing...in 9 years of baking, 3 doing cakes, this is the first complaint of dry cakes. Nilla one was wasc, choco and carrot were scratch. Could they have all been dry? I guess they could, neither I nor my husband thought so though. I guess it's not really that important, just the situation is strange to me

Maybe the wedding planner was just trying to give you a heads up? Did you ask her if she thought the cakes were dry?

As far as why MOB didn't say anything? Maybe she is a people pleasure and was afriad to offend anyone? Maybe she didn't think the cake was dry until she had the pieces after they left? Maybe she was just checking to see if her 'taste buds' were off?

Who really knows with people?

In all the years I was in business, wedding cakes were my least favorite thing. That's a nice way of saying that the majority of brides and moms were nutcases. I have more stories than you all want to hear. My happy outlook and sweet personality returned after I decided to stop tormenting myself with these customers.

I guess I haven't been in this as long, but so far my weddings have not been quite as painful as some party cakes....seems like the party cake people I've dealt with are more finicky and intense than the brides...so far... or maybe I just have less patience...after all, birthdays come every year...weddings hopefully come once in a lifetime...so I understand a little nervousness with a wedding cake.

I too am terrifited to do a wedding cake. for one I dont use scratch cakes I use boxes that I doctor up my self. and for two im not that experienced, and for 3 i dont have anyone to help me carry a wedding cake to a location. from my experience just knowing people that got married they are super picky and I am just too much of a perfectionist and dont take another perfectionist nit picking every single detail. how have you gotten by now? do you do wedding cakes now

I would thank the planner for being honest. If there were a real problem, how could you fix it if you are not aware? Of course, you can disagree that there is a problem at all. But at least she had the guts to tell you. I applaud her. I am told I'm too honest for my own good. I don't think so. I think I leave no one wondering and people who need to know what's up know exactly what I think. Everyone else can take my opinion with a grain of salt or get their feelings hurt, that decision is up to them. But at least they have the facts as I know them to be. And I only give my opinion to those who ask. Other times I just bit my lip and let the blood trickle (wink).

I have had that complaint once. I had a red velvet tasting. Mine are normally so moist they leave red moisture on the plate. This one wasn't. I have no idea what I did differently, held my tongue up instead of down, I guess. Either way, the bride said she really liked the flavor but it was dry. I took a bite and had to agree... and told her so. I asked her to give me a another opportunity. The following weekend I had a single layer 8" iced round ready for her to pick up. She took it home, called me later that weekend and raved. Had she not been honest told me, I would have simply lost the sale.

Now, I've had a taster or two say things that I felt they were simply insane over. Of course, I cannot tell them this. I can only tell them that I hope they find a baker that meets their needs and thank them for the opportunity.

I would rather be told their thoughts, sane or insane, than not be told why I didn't get the job. Give me the opportunity to decide to make it better or decide not to do anything different. But I can do nothing if I don't know what's in their heads.

Run. Do not stop and think about it, just run from this order. Seriously, run.

Well, the thing is I don't know what I'm supposed to fix. I did not think cakes were dry, they were just as always. Noone in the family said anything to me, MOB now ordered groom's cake, and the planner referred another bride. Go figure

run, huh?

Just ask if you need to make them more moist for this customer. You can add simple syrup to them, if so. I have never once in my life had a chicken breast that was moist - not once - but everyone will argue that fact with me.And bread without butter is dry - ALWAYS.

Everyone has their own expectations, likes and dislikes.

This is an opportunity. I agree with tryingcake completely. These are the clients you can win over. Most will never give you feedback so you don't have an opportunity for correction.

For all who said not to try to work with this customer, read The Thank You Economy by Gary Vaynerchuk. This is where we are headed and those who don't get on board will find themselves left far behind. The social network is your best marketing tool. Soon you will see these negative comments in a public forum and you need to be prepared.