Well, back in June I had a baby shower cake/cupcakes order and on the day of the delivery a few things went wrong. First, I had forgotten the cake stand at home so had to turn around home and get it which made me late. Then, after being late, my GPS and I could not find the clients venue (drove around for almost an hour). So of course I was already nervous and shaken (and running on two hours of sleep since I stayed up the night baking and creating the cake) and finally got to the venue with all the cupcakes (in wilton's cupcake portable carrier). When I arrive, I try to contact the client on her cell so that she could send someone to help bring down the 60 cupcakes and 9" cake that I made for the party. After not being able to reach her for 10 minutes I decided to be superwoman and bring everything down myself. HA! What was I thinking???? I stacked the "stack-able" wilton cake/cupcake portable carrier (3 total) on top of each other and attempted to walk towards the venue. Don't ask me how it happened, but the next thing I knew and saw was ALL the cupcakes go tumbling down to the floor!!! I was devastated! All my pretty cupcakes with fondant ladybugs were smashed! I finally got a hold of the client and she came out and THANK GOD she was sooooo nice about everything! She said, "no worries, let's make the best of it." I guess the only good thing about everything was that they were still in a case so they were still edible, just not pretty 
I learned a few lessons that day:
1. Have a plan from beginning to end. Make sure to know where the venue is and have a list of items you will need before leaving your house/bakery.
2. Never! Bring down your products unless you have help, even if that means waiting around a bit for someone to come to you.
3. I will not use the Wilton portable cupcake/cake boxes again because they don't have high enough inserts to prevent the cupcakes from flipping over with even the slightest movement. **Before the kursplat, a few of them had tipped over.** I will always use the plastic clear deep cupcake containers for deliveries.
4. Only for emergencies will I run into the night baking (when possible). The lack of sleep and rushing around was not a good combination.
Not sure if anyone can learn from my story, I hope so, lol. It wasn't a fun experience but I did learn simple lessons in it.
BTW, since the client refused to accept a refund I gave her an order a month later of cupcakes to celebrate her anniversary =)
I had to use some of those dumb shallow plastic cupcake inserts for a cupcake order I did for my sister while out of town (at home I use the cardboard inserts that hold the cupcake secure, higher up on the cupcake). By the time we arrived at the shower, EVERY LAST cupcake was on its side or completely upside down! Horrible! I was glad it wasn't for a client.
No fun!!!!
Definitely not fun!!
Thank goodness it wasn't for a client!
Thanks for posting your story!
I haven't had any big catarophies, thank God! But your tips were great. I did have one problem, where my granddaughter dropped a whole dozen of cupcakes for a farmers market. I didn't yell because she felt so bad any way. Take what comes and deal with it, I guess. Some days are good, some are bad.
im only a hobby baker.. but even the stress of attempting to deliver cakes i do as presents is too much for me! I've had too many close calls to disaster.. and one absolute catastrophe! (see my attempt at topsy turvey cake that fell apart as i was going over a speed bump in my pics) that I now refuse to do deliveries, especially considering most of the time I have a two year old in tow.. its just way too much stress for me to cope with! haha. my car's suspension is shot too so that doesnt really help matters i guess!
That sound horrible. I am so sorry for you. Thank you for making a positive out of it and sharing your advice!
Thanks everyone for your kind words! We all learn from our mistakes and I'm glad there's a site that lets us share them!!
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