Hi, Im looking for a little advice im so upset regarding a wedding cake I recently made and set up. For some reason it wont let me add the picture so you can see how it was when I left it but I have added a link to my FB page at the bottom to the picture, I have now received an email from the bride stating that it had 'collapsed' before they had even arrived! And that the hotels head chef stated - 'the icing is too soft to hold the cake weight' - well on hearing this I was livid, the cake had this supports through all the pillars so just shows how much he knows as there was no weight on any of the icing!! While I was setting up the staff was awful, they didnt even have a table ready for me to begin with and put one in the corner then had a discussion about how they wasnt sure this is where it was going, I couldnt stress to them enough obviously not to move it once I ve set it up but I definitely have a feeling this is what happened. There is no way on this earth that cake could of collapsed, I have literally made and set up over 100 wedding cakes and never ever had this happen to me before. Im so gutted for the bride and groom and am just waiting to hear back from her now as I want to find out where in the room this cake was when she arrived. Has this ever happened to anyone else and what can I do now? She isnt asking for money back or anything but I cannot let them get away with this!!!


http://www.facebook.com/photo.php?fbid=10150642327867461&set=a.162251912460.129717.149130352460&type=3&theater

Just to add to this Ive sent the bride a photo and she has just replied to say that yes form the photo it looks like they definitely moved my cake

Your cake is adorable! I can certainly understand how you feel. But since you have photo evidence that the table was moved after you'd set up and left, the bride has an issue with the venue. Not with you. Let the bride know that you're not happy, and offer her your sympathies.

Yea I agree now I know that she knows the table was moved its her issue with the venue, but equally I dont think it is fair on me that the 'chef' would try to blame me in saying its my cake at fault! I am within a right to ring them and complain about that? Trying to pass the blame onto me

I understand how you feel, but that's what people do - pass the blame to someone else. I wouldn't bother complaining to the venue. The bride will probably take care of that. (If it would make you feel better you can send the venue owner a short note. Very short, just to say that you understand there was a problem with their recent event but your cake was moved after you left the premises.)

I know exactly how you feel.....and I am so sorry this happened to you. This very same thing happened to me last August. After 36 years creating wedding cakes, I get a call the day after the wedding and was informed that my wedding cake collapsed, they had to buy another wedding cake, and they had a bill for me for $860.00. I was really dumbfounded and could not believe what I was hearing and immediately told the person that it was impossible for my cake to collapse. The reception started at 5:30 p.m. I delivered the cake at 4:15 p.m. and was out of there by 4:35 p.m. This cake was taken directly from my refrigeration to the venue 2 miles away. The cake was fully supported as I have always done. The person who called to tell me this was the brother of the groom. He was not there when it happened......so this was only what he was told. I told him the only way for my cake to collapse was the legs on the table were not fully locked into place and someone leaned on the table and the table fell, someone actually picked up the table and moved the table, or someone was stupid enough to actually remove my cake from the table.....which there was no reason to do so. Since this was a two day celebration, I waited until Monday to investigate the situation. I felt someone somewhere knew what happened and I was on a mission to find out. I talked to the custodian who was there setting up the venue and he remarked that the cake was set up fine and no he did not clean up any mess of fallen cake on the floor. so then I talked to the wedding coordinator and she said she noticed the cake was no longer on the table and went into the kitchen. There in the middle of the floor in the kitchen was the wedding cake broken into a million pieces. One of the kitchen ladies cooking food took it upon herself to pick up an extremely heavy wedding cake and bring it back to the kitchen to put it into refrigeration. Why? I have no idea. the cake was ice cold upon delivery and would have been fine sitting out the rest of the evening. No one made any attempt to call me. It was only the next day when I found out. If someone would have called me, I would have brought down one of my dummy wedding cakes and immediately would have started baking sheetcakes in the flavor of the original cake. Instead, the wedding party started calling other bakeries to get someone to bake them a wedding cake at the very last minute. I talked to the bride on Monday and explained to her what happened. She was extremely upset....which I completely understood. I told her she needed to talk to the custodian on duty that day and to the wedding coordinator. She also needed to talk to the ladies in the kitchen about why they took it upon themselves to move the wedding cake. To this day, I never heard back from the bride.....nothing. No apology for someone trying to put the blame on me. This episode took me weeks to get over it. When I delivered wedding cakes after that, I felt compelled to tell the staff NOT to move the cake for any reason. It stays put where it is. Although it was not my fault, I still felt very very bad about the situation and still took it to heart.

My god, that is truely awful. I too feel so bad and even though its not my fault I think its the fact that the whole wedding party up until now have thought this was my fault by not being good at my job! Im glad though that you uncovered the truth at least - I really dont know if this will happen for me. I spoke to the events manager earlier on and she said as she wasnt in that weekend the duty manager is at the moment investigating this and will contact me shortly - one of the comments she said was that the cake WAS due to be moved but this happened before and there was no one at the table at the time (yeah right) and another that she said "the pillars just went through the cake" To which I nearly laughed my head off but instead I went through the exact structure of the cake and how the weight of the cake is actually taken - completely impossible for that to happen seen as though there are thick plastic supports through each one! She didnt have much to say back to that, I cant believe the things they are coming out with to get around this, so sadly I fear they will not admit anything at all Thanks for all your input and thoughts! xx

Cakewhiz...that is crazy. I would have freaked when I found that out, about the kitchen staff. Geez! Don't touch the cake! You don't see us going back there and putting the food YOU made into containers or stirring soups!

Ikklego.....just the fact that you have sent the bride a photo of your cake and she has indicated that it definitely looks like the staff moved the cake table.....should be enough proof that this was not your fault. When your cake collapsed, did they call you right away to let you know? If so, did you go to the venue to check things out?

Ikklego....like you, they gave me no chance to correct the situation if they were claiming it was my fault. Put yourself in their place. If you were one of the staff and a wedding cake collapsed, the first thing I would do is call the bakery who provided the cake so that they could come down and access the situation and provide another cake. Like I said above, I would have immediately brought down a dummy wedding cake to the venue to make things look nice. Then I would have baked some sheet cakes so the guests would have some cake to eat. Believe me when I say this, I would have done this even though it was not my fault. This is a devastating situation. No one called you or I because it was their fault and not ours. Believe me, I cried many tears over this situation. I don't ever want to go through this again. I know it was not my fault, but I take pride in what I do and I want to please the bride so much with her cake. If the collapse of these two wedding cakes were our fault, the staff would have been on the phone immediately calling us to correct the situation. Again, I am so sorry this happened to you. it was not your fault. It is not an easy situation to forget and sweep under the rug. Move on and concentrate on the upcoming wedding cakes you have booked and give those brides 100% of your attention.

I have been following this dreadful saga with great interest.
It must be a dreadful experience for those it happens to.
I am a novice so forgive me if this seems obvious, but when you deliver a finished cake to a function, do you get it signed off?
Meaning, a statement saying you have delivered a finished cake in perfect condition, which must not be moved etc and that you are not responsible for what others do after you have left?
I have noticed in recent years, one needs the written word for so many things, as the spoken word counts for so little with people.
I am in Australia and find it necessary to get written confirmation for so many things now, which would have been laughable ten years ago.
People can be so incredibly stupid and I have discovered unless people have actually done some cake decorating, they have very odd ideas, hence the comments you received from some of the people.
I lost faith in most people having any common sense at all years ago!
Is it usual practise to have the recipient sign off on the cake delivery?
I would like to know how this all ends, by the way.
The cake was adorable and you have nothing at all to blame yourself for.
As for waiting two weeks to contact you, well to me, that says it all!
Keep smiling from down under.

No one at the venue will likely sign off at a delivery. That's why we take pictures - from several angles - to show where the cake is in the room.

Also, I had it in my contract that if the cake on cake and table were moved after delivery that the bride assumed ALL responsibility and no responsibility was mine. Basically, don't move this cake. I had one venue that moved the cake table every time. Every. Time. They purposefully had every cake delivery set up over here, knowing that they were going to move the cake over there. Every. Time.

I tell my brides to make sure with the venue that the cake table is ready and stationary when I set the cake up. Then I take a ton of pix and email the bride at the first opportunity. I also have someone at the venue sign off on the cake, but not another vendor -- someone that WORKS at the venue, I don't care if it's the owner or the janitor. Thus far we've been very fortunate but only because I put EVERYONE on the line from the venue to the bride just to cover my (_l_).

Well let's start with the obvious.

A REAL chef would know that to move a tiered cake, you separate the tiers and reassemble them after moving.

A REAL chef would have known how to do this without the bride having any idea that it had been done.

They probably sent the busboy or the dishwasher to do this job...and the venue is 200% responsible.