According to an article in the internet , a famous player LB J rejected a baker's cake. this I believe was in florida. let me preface by sayig that I do not suffer from hero worship and that it could have been him or his "people" that rejected the cake. His rep stated that maybe the cake was worth 600$, it's just flour, eggs and cake. The baker hired extra employees in order to complete the cake. The article has a picture of the cake. it seems that in lieu of payment, she would receive free publicity. since i know that this individual is akin to a god for many, it appears it would have been a great deal. I hope she is not one of our members, regardless, I feel for her. Interesting enough, her cake was not returned, thus it did not pass muster, but someone benefited. did she have a contract?, don't know.

I just finished reading that article and one thing I will say is that I don't care who the person is, I WILL NOT do a cake just for publicity only, superstar or not, I prefer payment for my work.

I will also say, the guy in the article who just said it's flour, eggs, and sugar, truly needs to be thumped on the nose.

Here is the article:
http://sports.yahoo.com/nba/blog/ball_dont_lie/post/LeBron-James-rejects-his-3-500-birthday-cake-a?urn=nba-wp12773

Sounds like the baker willingly accepted the order for publicity in lieu of payment, and I bet the contract had a clause that allowed the customer to reject the cake if it was not satisfactory. So it's not really a refusal to pay for the cake, since the customer never agreed to pay for the cake in the first place.

Oooh, as soon as I saw the headline on the Yahoo! front page, I knew the ears of CC folks would be perking up

After looking at that cake I wouldn't have accepted it either. That is no $3,000 cake. There are flaws and the work is not clean. I'm not for entitlement freebies, but this cake? Really?

It was not LeBron, the article states that it was its handlers.And I agree, that is not a 3,000 dll cake. And when you agree to make it for free... then it should be free. The publicity (albeit bad) is there (hence, we are discussing it here).

Well, living here where this happened, I would tell you that she is complaining in order to get her free publicity one way or another. On the news, the hotel that contacted her for the event takes responsibility for the order and has offered to pay for the cake, which was not in the original contract. It seems that the decorator is upset because another cake was bought by a friend of the famous person, and was chosen over hers, and therefore she didn't get pictures of her cake taken with a famous person. So, what do you do then, you make sure that the world knows that you were taken advantage of by a famous person. That way you get publicity one way or another, although I'm not so sure I would want my publicity in such a negative way.

I don't want to sound full of myself, but unless that's real gold, there's no way that cake is worth $3,000. But I would say she still came out ahead - - what do they say "as long as you spell my name right . . ."?

OMG! I too thought right away "this is going to be on cc!"

Has anyone read the comments below the article? They're awful! There's over 4,000 of them. I only read about 200 and had enough. There are a few that "get it" as far as cakes prices and do say that cakes are expensive but this was in no way a $3000 cake and I do agree. But NO ONE has said the cake is nice in any way. They all think it's ugly (no comment!).

She's definitely getting publicity out of this, too bad it's the wrong kind! Sad part is, it's her reputation that's being damaged, not LBJ's or the actual employees of hers that are probably responsible for the cake/design.

That cake looks way too simple to be a $3000 cake... I really hate when celebs take advantage though. If she agreed to publicity and didn't get it they should have paid something.

this is a bad situation all around, I would not want this type of publicity. Also, with the type of income the handlers or whomever make, don't use the cake but pay her something.

Being a fan of LBJ, as soon as I saw the cake I understood why LBJ's people turned it away. The colors used are too similar to his previous team colors which is Cleveland and not his present team the Miami Heat. But that definitely should've been outlined in the contract if there was one. And while the cake is not bad, it is very simple.

I think it's just as big a travesty to charge celebs ignorant prices for things just because "they can afford it."

One think I am wondering is where the $3000.00 price tag came in? Did the baker actually say that the cake was worth that amount or is that a number that someone else attached? Because I value my hard work but I can't forsee a 5 layer cake being worth $3000.00.

here is the picture of the cake and yes I believe this cake is worth 3000
http://blogs.miaminewtimes.com/shortorder/2012/01/lebron_james_birthday_cake_and.php

I saw both cakes and I would have chosen the second too!!!

I'm thinking this might clear a few things up if I can get it to work. This is the picture of the cake that was refused.

This is the cake that was actually used.

$3000 sure buys a lot of bulging fondant and overly gaudy cake these days.

Someone on Lebron side obviously dropped the ball here (no pun intended). The rejected baker said she was offered the job only 24 hours in advance because the previous baker quit. The second baker, or second cake rather took much, much longer than 24 hours to complete. I mean let's be honest here, that thing is a masterpiece. And given the choice between the two cakes, the outcome is obvious. Why in the world though, did Lebron's "handlers" ask the rejected baker to make a cake if this second one was already commissioned?

My personal opinion is that the first cake is not worth $3000. No matter what kind of overhead, etc...she has. But, if she was promised publicity and pictures of her cake with Lebron (and if she seriously was only contacted 24 hours in advance I seriously doubt she had a contract, but thats another point) then she is entilted to something. Whether her cake was inferior or not.

Yes, the second cake is a lot better. I feel sorry for the other lady though. Being told that your best wasn't good enough is hard to swallow.

The disputed cake is hideous! But would you just look at that bulging center tier on the cake that was used? Wow!

Unless they specifically spelled out what they wanted, and she didn't do it, then the baker needs to be paid. I wonder how much time she had to do it? It is really simple. It looks like maybe $800 to me, not $3000 by any stretch of the imagination.

@cerobs, yes that cake is great, just not the one discussed in the article nor in my original post. Look for baker not paid for cake by lebron/publicity and it will come up.

I think they're both pretty ooglay in their own special ways, and I also think that this whole thing has been blown out of proportion by publicity whores to make it more interesting. Who cares?

I feel bad for the lady that got dooped but her cake was definitely not a $3000 cake. I understand the inconvenience of the holidays and having to hire extra help and she should have gotten compensated for that. Especially since they lied to her about the other baker not making the cake. Now the other one is nice, but not perfect either. It has bulging sides and is really gaudy, but maybe thats what they like.

On a side note, I am from Miami and know Divine Delicacies bakery well. I don't know why they charge so much for their cakes because they taste HORRIBLE! I had a small cake (for 30 people) for my bridal shower from there in the shape of a box with a ring in it. My maid of honor ordered it for me and she gave detailed information as to how she wanted it to look. She was so upset because they messed it up and still had the audacity to charge $350. I have had other people tell me that they will never order from them again because they taste so dry and stale. I think they bake their cakes too far in advance and maybe thats why they don't taste good. I love making a beautiful cake, but I think its also important for it to taste good too!

Did anyone figure out where she got the 3,000 figure from?

too bad I can't copy the cake that was done for him last year, reds and golds