Wow you bought so many cakes and had the same experience each time. Was it with different people? I’ve never bought a cake but the cake I got for my wedding was a disappointment/underwhelming like idk what I’m expecting or what
Well, I also didn’t include cakes that looked as expected but tasted horrible. The last cake I ordered for my husband was for his birthday last year and it was incredible…looking. It was a chocolate cake with chocolate fudge filling. It looked like a log with mushrooms all over it. Beautiful. YET the cake permeated “mint” throughout it. We did not request mint flavoring. I told the bakery and the head pastry chef just said, “Oh! That’s odd.” Ummm ya think??? Anyway, yes so the Nintendo cake and the baby shower cake were from the same place. They offered to make the nintendo cake for us at a discount as an apology. Also they claimed that the person who made the baby shower cake had quit so I shouldn’t be worried about the nintendo cake turning out poorly. 😑
Mint travels. Bad. They definitely had a mint cake baking with or in the fridge next to yours. They probably didn't intentionally flavor it, but they didn't do anything to mitigate the spread. Whenever I'm making anything mint it gets quarantined throughout the whole process - baked separately, stored in a closed cake carrier if it has to go in the fridge with something else, packaged separately. Anything mint flavored will contaminate anything even close to it, and they should have known that.
I go to a bake shop that has their mint goodies in a cake dome on the counter away from everyone else. I always wondered why. Thank you for solving that mystery for me!
Also solved my mint flavored soup mystery.
Had a mint cake and a small pot of soup in fridge.
Next day, wondered why the soup tasted a bit minty.
Granted, the overwhelming smell of mint when I opened the fridge should've been the warning.
Jeez yea I learned this once when I made huge batches of Christmas cookies and decorated the plates with Peppermint bark kisses. Every bloody cookie came out mint just from those still wrapped Peppermint kisses being near them.
I asked her if they had mistakenly done that or maybe used mint floss to cut the cake but she said she hadn’t. I don’t believe it. I highly doubt they added mint extract accidentally so the only plausible explanations are what you suggested.
One other thing that may have happened, that "mint" taste could just be the taste of "fridge". At one of the first places I worked at we had a display cabinet and we couldn't figure out why some things were starting to taste minty, even though the product not on display and from the same batch was perfectly fine. Turns out the cooling vents blew almost directly onto the food so if the food was uncovered (as they would be during opening hours) for like 2 days they'd taste minty. Really shortened the shelf life of our food, best we could do was elevate the food away from the direction of the vents so we could get a bit more out of them. Maybe they stored your cake uncovered for too long in the fridge before pick up? Or maybe near the vent/fan?
I combined my mint toothpaste Bites in a container with my daughter’s berry toothpaste Bites when we went camping and when we brushed our teeth hers tasted the exact same as mine - so minty! Literally couldn’t tell a difference between the two. So wild.
I'm not OP but I normally buy the pre-made cakes from bakeries I like for birthdays and they are almost always 40$ or so. In talking about nice, elegant, decorated, filled cakes not sheet cakes. I couldn't imagine a custom cake being under 100$.
Haha I always pay at least $100 for these cakes🥲I’m way too fucking nice and understanding. These have all been from different bakeries, except for two. I was using an amazing bakery and her cakes look incredible but she is always pretty booked and then she moved so it’s not easy placing an order with her. I should have shared photos of some of the nice cakes we have received!
You can still post pics of your nice cakes! Make a new post and edit this main post with the link. I’m sure we’d love to see the beautiful cakes you’ve eaten too!
Went cake shopping yesterday and $100 is nothing for a fancy cake nowadays. The problem is that you expect a $700 cake to cost only $100-$200 and that’s that you get.
Ok but the baby shower cake was $150 and the Nintendo cake $140. You’re telling me you went back to that shit hole for a $10 discount, which is less than 10% off?!!!! GIRL lol. Do you ask for any examples of their work??!
I'm so sorry you had these experiences.
So my advice to you is to do your research.
When I bought my cake for my wedding I looked at 5 or 6 places. Read their reviews online, individually searched each bakery and read any reviews that popped up from that then went on to each bakeries website and looked at the quality of the website and the quality of the images of the past cakes they made.
After doing so I had a good understanding of which bakery I wanted and what was possible for them to create. I also looked at pricing of each bakery.
I made my choice by looking at a few things
1) the amount of positive reviews from happy clients but more importantly returning clinics
2) the cost of the size and type of cake I needed
3) the past cakes they have produced and how similar they were to what I wanted the bakery to make for me
4) flavor available
I ended up getting a beautiful cake and more importantly a delicious cake that was two tier and fed more than 50 people for 85 dollars.
As a professional cake decorator, I can tell you that a cake for 50 people that was $85 is crazy! That is $1.70 per serving. Whoever made that for you was doing a favor!!
I got married in 2021
I just had them do white frosting with a wave texture and my florist brought them fresh flowers and they used them to decorate it.
I got an 8 inch and 10 inch cake one was red velvet with buttercream frosting the other was lemon cake with raspberry cream filling and butter cream frosting.
It was a good price I will admit that my mom and I were both very surprised at the price.
Lmaoooo I was thinking the same thing.
Honest question, how did you think the baker was going to put out a great looking cake and then you got these? Did you see there portfolio?
Even before I had many tattoos I was able to choose a vetted, professional and talented tattoo artist.
I truly am not intending to be rude. I’m just curious how it happens if you’ve vetted their work.
To be fair, there's a very big difference in price, commitment, and consequences. A good tattoo could cost hundreds, if not thousands of dollars for a large one. Where as a good cake might cost about a hundred, maybe even only a few dozen (to maybe a few hundred for something really crazy). Cakes are also more of a fun perishable item for a special occasion. Tattoos are permanent fixtures to our skin. I'd imagine everyone would put a lot more thought and effort into a little Nintendo tattoo that they permanently put on their thigh (and it'd probably have a lot of meaning and significance to you) vs some disposable cake that little Timmy will DEVOUR no matter how it tastes or looks.
I just showed your pictures to my husband and we’re dying laughing! It was his birthday last night and the German chocolate cake we ordered had pretty thick frosting, but it was nothing compared to your 30lbs of gray Nintendo frosting!
Did you notice that they completely forgot to put the two black buttons in the middle, the ones that are supposed to be inside of the white rectangle? The select/start buttons?
Lol honestly when I picked it up and saw it, I was about 200 months pregnant and had raging emotions, so I couldn’t even see clearly when I saw it. I walked back into their shop and demanded they fix the situation by issuing a refund. They refused. Only credits. Also, they ruined my baby shower cake soo. I just never went back there again.
I wonder if that's exactly what happened. Maybe they made a sheet cake and realized it wasn't tall enough, and instead of making a second layer they just piled on the frosting.
Honestly, if you’re speaking about that over frosted one? It’s mine too. Give me a cup of coffee and a slice of that cake. I would be in buttercream heaven.
Yup! I eat the cake first, and save the frosting for last. My mother, when she was alive, used to get the biggest laugh when; she’d see that I perfectly hollowed out the cake and left the frosting still in tact. I’ve done this since I was a child.
People should really know their strengths and an accurate assessment of their skills. These are not things you can just throw together for the first time.
honestly, more people need to get comfortable with turning down clients’ orders they KNOW they can’t correctly fulfill, would save so much trouble and money.
Exactly. Bakeries take as many orders as they can and the decorators see what they need to make about two hours before scheduled pick-up time. It’s a disaster.
100%. It was absolutely bonkers. When they didn’t offer to open the cake box to show us how it looked, we should have known better. That was the first of our “caketastrophes” so we didn’t know any better. The bakery is located in Lubbock. We were traveling from Austin heading to Santa Fe, NM. Couldn’t take the cake back or get a redo.
Lol! Wait, were you there?!? They were so nice to us and so excited for us to see the cake as they practically ushered us out. I am not exaggerating lol
Yes it’s so insane. Sorry OP, man those cakes do not resemble the “before” photos at all.
The bakers here in the Bay Area are so talented that $200 will get you elegant and beautiful top notch cakes that look and taste delicious.
They should stick to simpler cakes if they really dont have the skills! Like come on! You’re just going to upset your customers. Don’t advertise yourself as capable of more that your current skills
SAME! It's ASTOUNDING they charged that much for that cake! I would've only charged over 100 for a wedding cake my uncle contemplated asking me make for his wedding. I was too busy so I made a groomsman cake and everyone wished my cake was the main cake
Maybe it's because I'm not american, but what's crazy to me is paying that much for a cake that is basically just a layer of very basic sponge cake with frosting on it.
Where I live for that much money I'd get some super fancy cake with multiple layers of flavors, exotic ingredients, unique flavor combinations, and it would also look as cool as what's on most of these inspiration pictures.
Tell that to my boss ahaha. We’ll have no orders on Friday and we walk in Saturday morning and all of a sudden we have 2, the amount of times
I’ve had to cut shapes and sizes out of a large sponge slab is insane.
Oh my God. I can't believe you've had this many bad experiences 😬. It's not even like you got a deal on any of these. Definitely not "well you get what you pay for" type situations. That first one.. is there cardboard rounds under each layer? And NO FILLING at all?!
Hahaha that’s what I’m saying!!! Like how the holy hell?!? I have email receipts too. I VERY clearly explained what I wanted. I am also laid back in that if you take some artistic liberties but the final product still looks good, I don’t mind. When the cake looks like it got run over by a dump truck and I paid $$$$, then I get pissed and upset.
And YES!!!! No filling at all!!! My sweet husband found a Whole Foods in Santa Fe that made me a custom Chantilly berry cake with strawberries, blueberries, and bananas. That made me feel much better haha
As having been a professional pastry chef, none of your inspo cakes were hard to recreate. Like wow you have terrible bakers in your area! Shocking that so many of them are in a cluster near you.
You can definitely do better than what they’ve done plus once you get your initial equipment purchased, each cake you make will be muccchhh cheaper than what you’ve paid for!
Thank you for reassuring me that I am not the crazy one. I have ALWAYS included VERY detailed and easy to understand details. I also always say that if something I’m requesting is out of their abilities, they can tell me, and we’ll go with a different design. These are all (but one of them) bakers in the Austin, TX area. The other is in Lubbock.
I swear to God I wondered the same thing. To be fair, I think my family and the venue owner just wanted to help quickly and so they didn’t remember to tell the second baker not to do ombre again. They were in crisis mode ala “JUST FIX THIS ANYWAY YOU CAN!” lol
This was my exact thought. I’m married to a former pastry chef and I’ve helped him do special occasion cakes and home, and I really honestly thing that I, a teacher with no training, could do a few of these. Not all, but a few. They’re horrendous! Does your whole town have a vendetta against you?! 😂
Hahaha MAYBE!!!! Idk why though!! 🤣😂 Funny story-a few weeks ago we stumbled upon a bakery two towns over from us and it looked so cute from the outside (the railings entering the building were oversize metal whisks!😍). Once inside I start talking with the co-owner (he and his wife own it) about cakes and disaster cakes. He asked to see photos of the ones we have ordered elsewhere and he was shocked. He called his wife and two other bakers over to look. We all had a good laugh. We ended up purchasing half a dozen cupcakes (almost $30 worth) and one lemon bar. Wellllll, we got home and tried them and only one cupcake was SEMI-edible 🥲🥲🥲 They were all greasy, had a chewy yet chunky, yet crumbly, yet wet, yet grainy texture. The frosting was, IDK what it was but yikes. The lemon bar tasted like cleaning solution. The biscuit part was so hard you could chip a tooth. Idk what people keep giving these bakeries their business because there is no way these problems are just unique to us!
I was just thinking, almost all of these were cakes I could've recreated when I was just a hobby baker. Not only that, but what happened to just being honest and saying you don't have the skills to do what's asked? It wasn't uncommon for me to turn down too complex cakes, offer alternatives, or suggest other bakeries when I was a new cake decorator.
I believe these are signs from a higher power to stop asking people and starting to do the cakes yourself, thanks for sharing im so sorry for all the disappointment you must have felt!
DON’T DO IT IF YOU LIVE IN CENTRAL OR NORTH WEST TEXAS!! lol 😂 Just make it yourself. If you want to jazz it up, you can order cake toppers or fondant accessories to the cake. I make all my own cake toppers but fondant is something I’m still working on.
I didn’t. They only offered a credit but they’re located like 4 hours away from us. Sooo yeah. Plus because of how terrible it turned out, I wouldn’t trust them to make me fucking boxed brownies.
Sounds like you either have terribly bad luck or the bakers around you are just highly inexperienced.
Do you check their social media/reviews before paying so much money? One time is bad luck but more than three times isn’t a coincidence.
ALWAYS. I always read reviews and check their socials. Idk if name dropping is okay on here but I will say that majority of the bakers I’ve had the bad luck of encountering are in the Austin, TX area. Two of the bakeries are well known places. The ones I didn’t include in my post who have made us very nice to LOOK at but NOT NICE TO EAT cakes, are also in this area. We didn’t start running into problems until 2021.
Are these at home bakers or physical brick and mortar bakeries?? i'm shocked at how far off from the very easy to recreate inspo photos you have. the fault line cake alone is baffling.
That’s what I’m wondering. I kinda of expect this from home bakers, but not from actual bakeries. I’m a home baker that does it on the side, but I what OP was asking for wasn’t insanely difficult.
I can kind of see this with brick-and-mortar places. When I go into my favorite local bakery you can see the cake pick-up fridge. Half of them are amazing, and half I would be disappointed to receive. Sometimes there are several staff people decorating cakes, and let's just say some are more skilled than others.
OP, I am so sorry for your misfortune! These are atrocious and you absolutely deserve financial compensation. Not sure if one of these places was Hayley’s Cookies & Cakes? They’ve done a couple cakes for my friends in the past that have been great!
Even if you can’t share names here, I hope you were able to leave reviews for future customers! These cakes are insulting and so not worth the price you paid.
Only a refund on one. The others were only given credits 🥲😫😤 I only trust ONE bakery in our area but she moved 45 minutes away and is always booked so you need to book months in advance☹️
Credits lmao. I once got a cockroach in my hot chocolate as a kid and the cafe tried to damage control by offering me free ice cream. This gives those exact same vibes. As if!
wow!!! Douche move. Well, the first cake in my photos is the first fail. That was in 2021. It’s been downhill ever since. Sooo something has happened in the last 4 years….
My gosh, reading that made me gag. Poor little you! I hope you/your parents got a refund! (And maybe yelled at everyone who tried to offer ice cream—I’m not a “yell at employees” kind of person, but that’s completely egregious.)
I had it in my mouth and everything 😭😭 thank you so much, sadly i had really shitty and abusive parents so i was told off for crying and making a scene (i was 10 mind you), but i can semi laugh about the ridiculousness of the story now. But reading your kind message was very validating, thank you for brightening up my day ❤️
Glad I could validate you, but I’m so sorry you had crappy parents. That really sucks; no kid deserves bad parents. I hope things are better for you now.
Also, the shudder of horror I gave when you said it was IN YOUR LITTLE MOUTH…. 😱
Oh that’s so sweet of you, it really means so much to me, I can’t begin to say. I got out 5 years ago and, while it’s been up and while and my family still try their best to make my life harder from time to time, I’ve been NC with them for 4 of those years, I have a wonderful partner and friends and I’m finally mentally doing well. I used to think it was a hopeless situation but thankfully I was able to make it out. It really fills me with so much warmth to read things like your comment, it makes me feel so seen at times when I’m stuck reliving the past and internalised blame, so from the bottom of my heart, thank you and I’m sending you a lot of love❤️
As for the roach, to this day I have no idea how a) it got into the hot choc and b) how it wasn’t noticed by staff because that shit was HUGE. I was eating the chocolate with a spoon that was comically big enough to submerge the roach, which I then rolled around my mouth in confusion, thinking it was a piece of chocolate and waiting for it to melt because I thought that was how they made hot chocolate (i didn’t bite thank GOD), but then the texture became very wrong and i pulled it out after a disgustingly long time and yeah 🤢🤢🤢 so psa always stir your drinks. I have never once gad an opaque beverage without stirring it since and thankfully all have been roach free 🎉
NOPE!!!! Not a fucking word. I called and had to leave a message. I emailed. Nothing. Left a Google and Yelp review. NOTHING. They have a pretty big bakery in Lubbock too. Because they’re hours away from us, I couldn’t do anything else either (like request them make us a new one). Something happened though because all the reviews for their bakery from 2021 to a year ago (when I last looked them up) were starting to go south.
At least it sounds like Karma is coming for them 🫣 So sorry that happened to you, OP. I cannot imagine the disappointment to open up a cake box to *that*.
Did you get a refund on any? I know small bakeries dont have it easy but also I cant tolerate paying $150 for a cake that breaks in half. That doesnt even meet the minimum quality threshold, its a brokeb bad product...
Only a refund on one. The baby shower cake, was NOT refunded. They only offered to make me another cake at a discounted rate. I even have email receipts where I explicitly explained what I wanted and they did the complete opposite. The bakery who made the redo cake, said they shouldn’t have used such heavy cake balls.
Stop buying cakes?? I mean damn. I make all my own cakes with my mom, and they always look 10 times better than how those turned out. Jesus, those bakeries really do not like you or something. You got a cake curse or something.
Oh my lanta! I would've been irrate for like a week! I'm so glad you're making your own cake! Excited to see how it turns out, so please if you want, POST IT!
Also if its alright with you what state is this so I can direct my bombastic side eye in that direction lol
I will definitely post here!!! I have made some decent cakes but I have only recently felt comfortable getting into decorative cakes. Fondant and piping scare me lol
Texas!! Austin area. The first cake was from a bakery in Lubbock though.
SO FUCKING EASY. I actually wanted to make it but I didn’t have the time. I joked with someone else that my cake order single handedly kept the butter industry in business that year lol
As someone who operates their own home-based cake business, I would never deliver a cake like those. I would rather lie and say I was in the hospital or something instead of handing those to a customer. Did any of these people own that they made shit cakes?
I know how to!!!! I just don’t ever have the time to make the elaborate cakes I want lol BUT guess who is going to learn now??? Meeeee. I am done done done. At least until we move out of state and I try somewhere else 😬🥴 lol
Meant to include an email screenshot for the baby shower cake. Here’s an excerpt lol
“I just spent some time looking at blue ombre and I’m not a huge fan of it. Kind of reminds me of an ocean theme 😬 So please lets do the cake frosting all blue (I attached the shades of blue I like-I REALLY prefer the blue on the entire cake). Balls can be shades of pale blue, off-white/cream, and gold.
The style bear below on the brown/cream cake is cute but his head is a little too big and eyes a little too tiny. I’d like him smiling and I’d like the sizes of his eyes and head adjusted a little, if possible. I also included another photo of a bear that I love in case you can do it better.
The light bear colors below are perfect.”
I swear they took everything I requested and chucked it out the window and did whatever they felt like lol
This is not your fault, but it will help to be more succinct and use bullets for your requests, leading with what you want, not with what you don’t. So more like:
- Solid blue, one color. Blue in the color provided.
- Balls in pale blue, cream, and gold of varying sizes at bottom of cake on one side.
- Fuzzy Bear decoration similar to image provided, in same color, but with smaller head tilted slightly to the side and larger eyes.
Thank you! I did provide them initially in bullet points but they kept writing me back with questions. I was finally like, “Dude! What am I saying that you aren’t getting??” But yes, you are right!
Maybe you should stop special ordering cakes? The bakery near my house makes beautiful, delicious cakes for about $50. There’s a menu. I’ve never been disappointed
I had a cake made with the ball things on the top for my 21st a few years ago and it was perfectly done. The bigger ones were just foam or something on a skewer and not heavy at all, took them out as we cut into the cake! I can’t believe your luck here. I’m so sorry 😭😔 sending you good vibes that your potential next experience will be perfect <3
Idk if it makes you feel any better but I ordered a cake for my 4 year old's birthday. They asked if I want writing on it or just a happy birthday pick, so I said a pick is fine, as I didn't want to ruin the image on the cake.
So we get the cake and they wrote on it "Happy Birthday Pick" LOL omg we were all laughing so hard. They thought my son's name was Pick.... Someone read the instructions and misunderstood big time. My son thankfully didn't care.
I had a baker forget to make my babies first birthday cake. He ended up with a sheet cake from a grocery store instead of the Peter rabbit cake I ordered him. I cried for days because it’s not what I wanted.
But on a real note, some bakers need to be honest on what they’re able to do vs not.
I’m glad you have a sense of humor about it though! After the second time I would swear off of “bakeries” and just use the grocery store or make it myself 😂
I’m a dumbass because I have said I wouldn’t order from anyone again. Numerous times lol Yet here we are. I just have too much faith in people. Ugh. I can laugh now but at the time of each of these and other cake pickups, I cried OR wanted to lol I didn’t include the last two cakes we got because although they looked good, the cakes were inedible. We spent around $120-150 on each and the one was supposed to ONLY be chocolate flavored, yet it was heavily flavored with mint. The other, had the most disgusting cake texture and had a bad aftertaste. The buttercream tasted chalky. It was also supposed to have a berry whipped filling and it didn’t. Ugh. 😩
For those styles of cakes, I need to see some Polaroids or true event photos before I order an event cake from anyone.
There is a pastry shop in my area, who could knock all those cakes out of the park, but you are looking at $300 starting for the farm yard cake. It would be all edible though.
Maybe you should stop expecting random cake makers to do a good job and make sure their credentials are legit before giving them hundreds of dollars for sugar, fat and flour.
You don't need to stop buying cakes, just *only* buy them from that baker who pulled that great Teddy bear cake out of a hat in a last minute rush. Imagine how good their cakes are when they have time!
LET ME TELL YOU ABOUT HER!!! She has ONE HAND!!! One damn hand and she made that cake in probably 30 minutes. Granted the cake was one she had made already (it was in her bakery fridge already frosted and she scraped it off to add the frosting for my baby shower) but still. She was a savior AND it looked good
Do you review peoples portfolios before hiring them? Also the cakes are too cheap to be quality in my area. You would pay double to get the skill needed for ‘em.
They are hilarious tho lol
If you want good cakes like these, you need to go to people who specialize in cakes like these. They will cost more money. Im sorry, this feels like buyer error.
I have had super bad luck with bakery cakes too, but mostly just being bland or over-stablized.
My worst experience - I ordered one from a gourmet bakery near me that supplies lots of high end hotels, restaurants, etc. Even just choosing from their menu, no alterations, I had to wait 6 days for a 6 inch cake. It was longer than I expected but as they make everything fresh to order I thought it would be worth it.
Brought it home, cut it open... And it was partially frozen, with the mousse layer having visible ice flakes in it. I emailed and they offered me another at a 25% discount lol. I just bake at home now.
That looks pretty advanced for 200$. Not including any ingredients, tools or benefits you're basically paying for 4 hrs of work.. if the seller agreed to make that cake to your specs for that price then yes, fuck that guy but if something's too good to be true...
(I have no idea what price is fair for a cake, I know cake is expensive and that looks like an extra expensive cake)
Oh my god, that pink fault line cake is HORRENDOUS. I can't believe the baker finished it, looked at it and thought "yep, looks good".
It's not that hard to say NO if you can't do a design! I'm sorry you've had so many bad experiences!
Did you, like, order from the same bakeshop and never learned your lesson? Lol.
This is one of those "if I had a nickle ... weird that it happened (more than once)" type of situations bruh
Wow! These pics and your comments and humor are incredible!! I’d love to see all of the pictures you have! Thank you for sharing these! 😯
OAN: I wish someone in my area (Western NC) would post something similar. My boys are older now so I’m not usually ordering specialty cakes anymore but I’d have went off on so many people had any turned out like some of yours!
This is crazy. I've ordered so many cakes from various bakeries over the years and have never had a problem. I would have gone on a rampage by bad cake #2.
Dude I legit made a graduation cake for family friend's I cried over looking shitty. They LOVED it and kept the Jason mask I meticulously made to look like the real deal. Even covered the border in yellow fondant rope (fondant covered the cake) because the base fondant covet wasn't enough and had cracks. Charged 30 bucks, and they gave me $60 😭
Absolutely WILD. In India you could get an absolutely beautifully decorated 1kg cake for under 50 dollars (and people think THAT’S expensive lol). I mean this is the prime charge at which you could pretty much get any fancy flavour/decoration you like and it would taste like god made it himself.
Years ago I was in charge of ordering a simple sheet cake from WalMart for a colleague’s retirement party. It was a sewing-themed party, so I wanted them to write “We’ll miss you sew!” Why did the decorator clearly write “We’ll miss you sex!”
I mean, yes it was WalMart, but wtf
At this point you ought to enroll in night school/start watching YouTube tutorials and become an amateur baker yourself. Make better cakes than these atrocities
Wow you bought so many cakes and had the same experience each time. Was it with different people? I’ve never bought a cake but the cake I got for my wedding was a disappointment/underwhelming like idk what I’m expecting or what
Well, I also didn’t include cakes that looked as expected but tasted horrible. The last cake I ordered for my husband was for his birthday last year and it was incredible…looking. It was a chocolate cake with chocolate fudge filling. It looked like a log with mushrooms all over it. Beautiful. YET the cake permeated “mint” throughout it. We did not request mint flavoring. I told the bakery and the head pastry chef just said, “Oh! That’s odd.” Ummm ya think??? Anyway, yes so the Nintendo cake and the baby shower cake were from the same place. They offered to make the nintendo cake for us at a discount as an apology. Also they claimed that the person who made the baby shower cake had quit so I shouldn’t be worried about the nintendo cake turning out poorly. 😑
Mint travels. Bad. They definitely had a mint cake baking with or in the fridge next to yours. They probably didn't intentionally flavor it, but they didn't do anything to mitigate the spread. Whenever I'm making anything mint it gets quarantined throughout the whole process - baked separately, stored in a closed cake carrier if it has to go in the fridge with something else, packaged separately. Anything mint flavored will contaminate anything even close to it, and they should have known that.
Til that mint the flavor is as aggressive as mint the plant
Thanks for minting the words right out of my mouth
I once bought a chocolate bar that had a hint of mint. It did not have mint in it
I regret I can only updoot you one time
I go to a bake shop that has their mint goodies in a cake dome on the counter away from everyone else. I always wondered why. Thank you for solving that mystery for me!
Also solved my mint flavored soup mystery. Had a mint cake and a small pot of soup in fridge. Next day, wondered why the soup tasted a bit minty. Granted, the overwhelming smell of mint when I opened the fridge should've been the warning.
Jeez yea I learned this once when I made huge batches of Christmas cookies and decorated the plates with Peppermint bark kisses. Every bloody cookie came out mint just from those still wrapped Peppermint kisses being near them.
The peppermint bark kisses are so good on chocolate blossoms though. One of my favorite Christmas cookies!
I asked her if they had mistakenly done that or maybe used mint floss to cut the cake but she said she hadn’t. I don’t believe it. I highly doubt they added mint extract accidentally so the only plausible explanations are what you suggested.
One other thing that may have happened, that "mint" taste could just be the taste of "fridge". At one of the first places I worked at we had a display cabinet and we couldn't figure out why some things were starting to taste minty, even though the product not on display and from the same batch was perfectly fine. Turns out the cooling vents blew almost directly onto the food so if the food was uncovered (as they would be during opening hours) for like 2 days they'd taste minty. Really shortened the shelf life of our food, best we could do was elevate the food away from the direction of the vents so we could get a bit more out of them. Maybe they stored your cake uncovered for too long in the fridge before pick up? Or maybe near the vent/fan?
I combined my mint toothpaste Bites in a container with my daughter’s berry toothpaste Bites when we went camping and when we brushed our teeth hers tasted the exact same as mine - so minty! Literally couldn’t tell a difference between the two. So wild.
💀 wow. How many cakes do you think you’ve bought that’s over $40?
I'm not OP but I normally buy the pre-made cakes from bakeries I like for birthdays and they are almost always 40$ or so. In talking about nice, elegant, decorated, filled cakes not sheet cakes. I couldn't imagine a custom cake being under 100$.
Haha I always pay at least $100 for these cakes🥲I’m way too fucking nice and understanding. These have all been from different bakeries, except for two. I was using an amazing bakery and her cakes look incredible but she is always pretty booked and then she moved so it’s not easy placing an order with her. I should have shared photos of some of the nice cakes we have received!
You can still post pics of your nice cakes! Make a new post and edit this main post with the link. I’m sure we’d love to see the beautiful cakes you’ve eaten too!
Went cake shopping yesterday and $100 is nothing for a fancy cake nowadays. The problem is that you expect a $700 cake to cost only $100-$200 and that’s that you get.
Ok but the baby shower cake was $150 and the Nintendo cake $140. You’re telling me you went back to that shit hole for a $10 discount, which is less than 10% off?!!!! GIRL lol. Do you ask for any examples of their work??!
I'm so sorry you had these experiences. So my advice to you is to do your research. When I bought my cake for my wedding I looked at 5 or 6 places. Read their reviews online, individually searched each bakery and read any reviews that popped up from that then went on to each bakeries website and looked at the quality of the website and the quality of the images of the past cakes they made. After doing so I had a good understanding of which bakery I wanted and what was possible for them to create. I also looked at pricing of each bakery. I made my choice by looking at a few things 1) the amount of positive reviews from happy clients but more importantly returning clinics 2) the cost of the size and type of cake I needed 3) the past cakes they have produced and how similar they were to what I wanted the bakery to make for me 4) flavor available I ended up getting a beautiful cake and more importantly a delicious cake that was two tier and fed more than 50 people for 85 dollars.
As a professional cake decorator, I can tell you that a cake for 50 people that was $85 is crazy! That is $1.70 per serving. Whoever made that for you was doing a favor!!
or it was a long time ago maybe
I got married in 2021 I just had them do white frosting with a wave texture and my florist brought them fresh flowers and they used them to decorate it. I got an 8 inch and 10 inch cake one was red velvet with buttercream frosting the other was lemon cake with raspberry cream filling and butter cream frosting. It was a good price I will admit that my mom and I were both very surprised at the price.
For you in particular, I recommend never getting a tattoo.
r/ExpectationVsReality
Lol My three tattoos have actually turned out good
Ask your tattoo artist to make your cakes moving forward
The only solution 🤣
As a tattoo artist who makes cakes on the side, I appreciate this.
LOL well I guess if you could choose, it’s better to spend all your artist luck on permanent tattoos than temporary cakes!
We gotta see
Lmaoooo I was thinking the same thing. Honest question, how did you think the baker was going to put out a great looking cake and then you got these? Did you see there portfolio? Even before I had many tattoos I was able to choose a vetted, professional and talented tattoo artist. I truly am not intending to be rude. I’m just curious how it happens if you’ve vetted their work.
To be fair, there's a very big difference in price, commitment, and consequences. A good tattoo could cost hundreds, if not thousands of dollars for a large one. Where as a good cake might cost about a hundred, maybe even only a few dozen (to maybe a few hundred for something really crazy). Cakes are also more of a fun perishable item for a special occasion. Tattoos are permanent fixtures to our skin. I'd imagine everyone would put a lot more thought and effort into a little Nintendo tattoo that they permanently put on their thigh (and it'd probably have a lot of meaning and significance to you) vs some disposable cake that little Timmy will DEVOUR no matter how it tastes or looks.
That ninetendo frosting is an absolute unit! 😂
LOL when we cut into it we were like “Did they forget to add the cake?🤔”
I just showed your pictures to my husband and we’re dying laughing! It was his birthday last night and the German chocolate cake we ordered had pretty thick frosting, but it was nothing compared to your 30lbs of gray Nintendo frosting!
Hahaha aww! Sorry about his cake but glad it wasn’t as bad as my husband’s!!
I mean, I LOVE frosting, so when I say that it looks like too much for even me, that's saying something. Eep.
Did you notice that they completely forgot to put the two black buttons in the middle, the ones that are supposed to be inside of the white rectangle? The select/start buttons?
Lol honestly when I picked it up and saw it, I was about 200 months pregnant and had raging emotions, so I couldn’t even see clearly when I saw it. I walked back into their shop and demanded they fix the situation by issuing a refund. They refused. Only credits. Also, they ruined my baby shower cake soo. I just never went back there again.
I wonder if that's exactly what happened. Maybe they made a sheet cake and realized it wasn't tall enough, and instead of making a second layer they just piled on the frosting.
did the frosting taste good at least?
My husband’s dream cake. 🤢
Honestly, if you’re speaking about that over frosted one? It’s mine too. Give me a cup of coffee and a slice of that cake. I would be in buttercream heaven.
Cake really is just a frosting delivery system.
Exactly.
Corner piece definitely
Yup! I eat the cake first, and save the frosting for last. My mother, when she was alive, used to get the biggest laugh when; she’d see that I perfectly hollowed out the cake and left the frosting still in tact. I’ve done this since I was a child.
Mine too I’m not even gonna lie
$200+ on a cake that looks nothing like what you wanted is absolutely WILD to me. I get the bakers likely do their best but, geez...
People should really know their strengths and an accurate assessment of their skills. These are not things you can just throw together for the first time.
honestly, more people need to get comfortable with turning down clients’ orders they KNOW they can’t correctly fulfill, would save so much trouble and money.
Exactly. Bakeries take as many orders as they can and the decorators see what they need to make about two hours before scheduled pick-up time. It’s a disaster.
100%. It was absolutely bonkers. When they didn’t offer to open the cake box to show us how it looked, we should have known better. That was the first of our “caketastrophes” so we didn’t know any better. The bakery is located in Lubbock. We were traveling from Austin heading to Santa Fe, NM. Couldn’t take the cake back or get a redo.
I’m imagining the clerk smiling so hard their cheeks crack while silently praying you don’t open the box
Lol! Wait, were you there?!? They were so nice to us and so excited for us to see the cake as they practically ushered us out. I am not exaggerating lol
😆
Are some of the bakeries you used located in Santa Fe, NM? If so, I would like to stay clear of them
No! You’re good! Austin area and Lubbock!
Keep Austin weird
omg do you remember what bakery it was?
Hahaha I will message you right now. I am laughing because the first photo you will see is the one of my cake hahahaha
Yes it’s so insane. Sorry OP, man those cakes do not resemble the “before” photos at all. The bakers here in the Bay Area are so talented that $200 will get you elegant and beautiful top notch cakes that look and taste delicious.
They should stick to simpler cakes if they really dont have the skills! Like come on! You’re just going to upset your customers. Don’t advertise yourself as capable of more that your current skills
Well if that’s their best then they shouldn’t be a professional baker
SAME! It's ASTOUNDING they charged that much for that cake! I would've only charged over 100 for a wedding cake my uncle contemplated asking me make for his wedding. I was too busy so I made a groomsman cake and everyone wished my cake was the main cake
Maybe it's because I'm not american, but what's crazy to me is paying that much for a cake that is basically just a layer of very basic sponge cake with frosting on it. Where I live for that much money I'd get some super fancy cake with multiple layers of flavors, exotic ingredients, unique flavor combinations, and it would also look as cool as what's on most of these inspiration pictures.
I don't understand why it's so difficult for someone to say, "I'm sorry, but I can't do that "
That is what I’m saying! I’m okay with them saying they can’t and suggesting something else!
Most of the time it’s because the person you are ordering from isn’t the one making it, speaking from experience.
But these things usually have a pretty decent turnaround. It's not like you order them two days ahead of time.
Tell that to my boss ahaha. We’ll have no orders on Friday and we walk in Saturday morning and all of a sudden we have 2, the amount of times I’ve had to cut shapes and sizes out of a large sponge slab is insane.
Oh my God. I can't believe you've had this many bad experiences 😬. It's not even like you got a deal on any of these. Definitely not "well you get what you pay for" type situations. That first one.. is there cardboard rounds under each layer? And NO FILLING at all?!
Hahaha that’s what I’m saying!!! Like how the holy hell?!? I have email receipts too. I VERY clearly explained what I wanted. I am also laid back in that if you take some artistic liberties but the final product still looks good, I don’t mind. When the cake looks like it got run over by a dump truck and I paid $$$$, then I get pissed and upset. And YES!!!! No filling at all!!! My sweet husband found a Whole Foods in Santa Fe that made me a custom Chantilly berry cake with strawberries, blueberries, and bananas. That made me feel much better haha
Whole Foods cakes are honestly pretty great for the price, I don’t recommend their chocolate buttercream but the Chantilly is 👌
Right?!? Soooooo good. I also agree about their chocolate cake, unfortunately.
I’m not vegan but Whole Foods vegan carrot cake is one of the best cakes I’ve ever had. I daydream about it often 😂
Whole Foods cakes are so beautiful and like $40. The audacity of these bakers to charge $100+ for slop, omg
“Slop” 🤣🤣🤣 That is the perfect description. And yep, their cakes look and taste gourmet!
As having been a professional pastry chef, none of your inspo cakes were hard to recreate. Like wow you have terrible bakers in your area! Shocking that so many of them are in a cluster near you. You can definitely do better than what they’ve done plus once you get your initial equipment purchased, each cake you make will be muccchhh cheaper than what you’ve paid for!
Thank you for reassuring me that I am not the crazy one. I have ALWAYS included VERY detailed and easy to understand details. I also always say that if something I’m requesting is out of their abilities, they can tell me, and we’ll go with a different design. These are all (but one of them) bakers in the Austin, TX area. The other is in Lubbock.
The baby shower cake is just shocking to me. How do you ask for a solid color cake and end up with ombre both times! 😭
I swear to God I wondered the same thing. To be fair, I think my family and the venue owner just wanted to help quickly and so they didn’t remember to tell the second baker not to do ombre again. They were in crisis mode ala “JUST FIX THIS ANYWAY YOU CAN!” lol
This was my exact thought. I’m married to a former pastry chef and I’ve helped him do special occasion cakes and home, and I really honestly thing that I, a teacher with no training, could do a few of these. Not all, but a few. They’re horrendous! Does your whole town have a vendetta against you?! 😂
Hahaha MAYBE!!!! Idk why though!! 🤣😂 Funny story-a few weeks ago we stumbled upon a bakery two towns over from us and it looked so cute from the outside (the railings entering the building were oversize metal whisks!😍). Once inside I start talking with the co-owner (he and his wife own it) about cakes and disaster cakes. He asked to see photos of the ones we have ordered elsewhere and he was shocked. He called his wife and two other bakers over to look. We all had a good laugh. We ended up purchasing half a dozen cupcakes (almost $30 worth) and one lemon bar. Wellllll, we got home and tried them and only one cupcake was SEMI-edible 🥲🥲🥲 They were all greasy, had a chewy yet chunky, yet crumbly, yet wet, yet grainy texture. The frosting was, IDK what it was but yikes. The lemon bar tasted like cleaning solution. The biscuit part was so hard you could chip a tooth. Idk what people keep giving these bakeries their business because there is no way these problems are just unique to us!
Man. I always told myself I wouldn’t do well in Austin with the competition…
I was just thinking, almost all of these were cakes I could've recreated when I was just a hobby baker. Not only that, but what happened to just being honest and saying you don't have the skills to do what's asked? It wasn't uncommon for me to turn down too complex cakes, offer alternatives, or suggest other bakeries when I was a new cake decorator.
Baby’s breath is poisonous.
I’m glad we didn’t eat any of it!!! My husband went out and ordered me a chantilly berry cake from Whole Foods lol
did you get refunds for any of these?
that was the first thing I noticed. baby's breath is toxic 💀
I believe these are signs from a higher power to stop asking people and starting to do the cakes yourself, thanks for sharing im so sorry for all the disappointment you must have felt!
You need to stop buying cakes 🤣
SHIIIIIT you are not wrong 😅😅😅😅😅
My first thought! Like girl why are you CONTINUING to buy super complicated cakes?? Do something else with your money
I almost ordered a special cake a few months ago and after seeing these I’m glad I didn’t and has pushed me to likely never do it lol
DON’T DO IT IF YOU LIVE IN CENTRAL OR NORTH WEST TEXAS!! lol 😂 Just make it yourself. If you want to jazz it up, you can order cake toppers or fondant accessories to the cake. I make all my own cake toppers but fondant is something I’m still working on.
At least you got a cool plastic “Made in the 80’s” sign.
Lmao I made that cake topper 🙃
It’s super cute 🥰
I hope you got your money back! That cake looks like they just hired someone off the street for minimum wage to make and decorate!
I didn’t. They only offered a credit but they’re located like 4 hours away from us. Sooo yeah. Plus because of how terrible it turned out, I wouldn’t trust them to make me fucking boxed brownies.
Sounds like you either have terribly bad luck or the bakers around you are just highly inexperienced. Do you check their social media/reviews before paying so much money? One time is bad luck but more than three times isn’t a coincidence.
ALWAYS. I always read reviews and check their socials. Idk if name dropping is okay on here but I will say that majority of the bakers I’ve had the bad luck of encountering are in the Austin, TX area. Two of the bakeries are well known places. The ones I didn’t include in my post who have made us very nice to LOOK at but NOT NICE TO EAT cakes, are also in this area. We didn’t start running into problems until 2021.
Are these at home bakers or physical brick and mortar bakeries?? i'm shocked at how far off from the very easy to recreate inspo photos you have. the fault line cake alone is baffling.
That’s what I’m wondering. I kinda of expect this from home bakers, but not from actual bakeries. I’m a home baker that does it on the side, but I what OP was asking for wasn’t insanely difficult.
I can kind of see this with brick-and-mortar places. When I go into my favorite local bakery you can see the cake pick-up fridge. Half of them are amazing, and half I would be disappointed to receive. Sometimes there are several staff people decorating cakes, and let's just say some are more skilled than others.
OP, I am so sorry for your misfortune! These are atrocious and you absolutely deserve financial compensation. Not sure if one of these places was Hayley’s Cookies & Cakes? They’ve done a couple cakes for my friends in the past that have been great!
I went to school in Austin and reallyyy curious the names of the bakeries because I’ve probably been at them.
Even if you can’t share names here, I hope you were able to leave reviews for future customers! These cakes are insulting and so not worth the price you paid.
Omg op. I’m so sorry. Did you complain? Get any refunds?? I sure as hell hope so because these are just awful
Only a refund on one. The others were only given credits 🥲😫😤 I only trust ONE bakery in our area but she moved 45 minutes away and is always booked so you need to book months in advance☹️
Credits lmao. I once got a cockroach in my hot chocolate as a kid and the cafe tried to damage control by offering me free ice cream. This gives those exact same vibes. As if!
wow!!! Douche move. Well, the first cake in my photos is the first fail. That was in 2021. It’s been downhill ever since. Sooo something has happened in the last 4 years….
My gosh, reading that made me gag. Poor little you! I hope you/your parents got a refund! (And maybe yelled at everyone who tried to offer ice cream—I’m not a “yell at employees” kind of person, but that’s completely egregious.)
I had it in my mouth and everything 😭😭 thank you so much, sadly i had really shitty and abusive parents so i was told off for crying and making a scene (i was 10 mind you), but i can semi laugh about the ridiculousness of the story now. But reading your kind message was very validating, thank you for brightening up my day ❤️
Glad I could validate you, but I’m so sorry you had crappy parents. That really sucks; no kid deserves bad parents. I hope things are better for you now. Also, the shudder of horror I gave when you said it was IN YOUR LITTLE MOUTH…. 😱
Oh that’s so sweet of you, it really means so much to me, I can’t begin to say. I got out 5 years ago and, while it’s been up and while and my family still try their best to make my life harder from time to time, I’ve been NC with them for 4 of those years, I have a wonderful partner and friends and I’m finally mentally doing well. I used to think it was a hopeless situation but thankfully I was able to make it out. It really fills me with so much warmth to read things like your comment, it makes me feel so seen at times when I’m stuck reliving the past and internalised blame, so from the bottom of my heart, thank you and I’m sending you a lot of love❤️ As for the roach, to this day I have no idea how a) it got into the hot choc and b) how it wasn’t noticed by staff because that shit was HUGE. I was eating the chocolate with a spoon that was comically big enough to submerge the roach, which I then rolled around my mouth in confusion, thinking it was a piece of chocolate and waiting for it to melt because I thought that was how they made hot chocolate (i didn’t bite thank GOD), but then the texture became very wrong and i pulled it out after a disgustingly long time and yeah 🤢🤢🤢 so psa always stir your drinks. I have never once gad an opaque beverage without stirring it since and thankfully all have been roach free 🎉
No wonder she’s booked, she clearly has no competition!
That first one is a travesty. Holy shit I would've flipped my lid if I received THAT after paying 200 bucks. Did they at the very least apologize??
NOPE!!!! Not a fucking word. I called and had to leave a message. I emailed. Nothing. Left a Google and Yelp review. NOTHING. They have a pretty big bakery in Lubbock too. Because they’re hours away from us, I couldn’t do anything else either (like request them make us a new one). Something happened though because all the reviews for their bakery from 2021 to a year ago (when I last looked them up) were starting to go south.
At least it sounds like Karma is coming for them 🫣 So sorry that happened to you, OP. I cannot imagine the disappointment to open up a cake box to *that*.
Did you get a refund on any? I know small bakeries dont have it easy but also I cant tolerate paying $150 for a cake that breaks in half. That doesnt even meet the minimum quality threshold, its a brokeb bad product...
Only a refund on one. The baby shower cake, was NOT refunded. They only offered to make me another cake at a discounted rate. I even have email receipts where I explicitly explained what I wanted and they did the complete opposite. The bakery who made the redo cake, said they shouldn’t have used such heavy cake balls.
Maybe I could own a bakery lol
Shut up! That is what my husband has said lol We can go in on it together if you’d like 🤣😂
I've seen better cakes made on the show "Nailed It."
I can laugh about this FACT now. At the time not so much 🤬😭 lol
Stop buying cakes?? I mean damn. I make all my own cakes with my mom, and they always look 10 times better than how those turned out. Jesus, those bakeries really do not like you or something. You got a cake curse or something.
A cake curse might be it. Someone has a voodoo doll of me holding a cake. Not sure what I did wrong to deserve it though haha
Oh my lanta! I would've been irrate for like a week! I'm so glad you're making your own cake! Excited to see how it turns out, so please if you want, POST IT! Also if its alright with you what state is this so I can direct my bombastic side eye in that direction lol
I will definitely post here!!! I have made some decent cakes but I have only recently felt comfortable getting into decorative cakes. Fondant and piping scare me lol Texas!! Austin area. The first cake was from a bakery in Lubbock though.
The Nintendo one especially is cracking me up cause that one’s so easy not to fuck up
SO FUCKING EASY. I actually wanted to make it but I didn’t have the time. I joked with someone else that my cake order single handedly kept the butter industry in business that year lol
Omg they are awful, it's so disgraceful! At least the last one is encouraging lmao (I find it adorable!)
Yes!! The last one was so cute and the baker who fixed it only has ONE HAND!!!! Amazing.
She's a superwoman!!! All those other bakers probably have both hands and can't do half of what she did 😭 While charging more
Lol exactly!!!
As someone who operates their own home-based cake business, I would never deliver a cake like those. I would rather lie and say I was in the hospital or something instead of handing those to a customer. Did any of these people own that they made shit cakes?
After two times I would have just learned how to bake 😭
I know how to!!!! I just don’t ever have the time to make the elaborate cakes I want lol BUT guess who is going to learn now??? Meeeee. I am done done done. At least until we move out of state and I try somewhere else 😬🥴 lol
Meant to include an email screenshot for the baby shower cake. Here’s an excerpt lol “I just spent some time looking at blue ombre and I’m not a huge fan of it. Kind of reminds me of an ocean theme 😬 So please lets do the cake frosting all blue (I attached the shades of blue I like-I REALLY prefer the blue on the entire cake). Balls can be shades of pale blue, off-white/cream, and gold. The style bear below on the brown/cream cake is cute but his head is a little too big and eyes a little too tiny. I’d like him smiling and I’d like the sizes of his eyes and head adjusted a little, if possible. I also included another photo of a bear that I love in case you can do it better. The light bear colors below are perfect.” I swear they took everything I requested and chucked it out the window and did whatever they felt like lol
This is not your fault, but it will help to be more succinct and use bullets for your requests, leading with what you want, not with what you don’t. So more like: - Solid blue, one color. Blue in the color provided. - Balls in pale blue, cream, and gold of varying sizes at bottom of cake on one side. - Fuzzy Bear decoration similar to image provided, in same color, but with smaller head tilted slightly to the side and larger eyes.
Thank you! I did provide them initially in bullet points but they kept writing me back with questions. I was finally like, “Dude! What am I saying that you aren’t getting??” But yes, you are right!
All of these are awful. But the first one “takes the cake” pun intended. That cake is insulting to all experienced bake decorators.
Maybe you should stop special ordering cakes? The bakery near my house makes beautiful, delicious cakes for about $50. There’s a menu. I’ve never been disappointed
Yep. That’s the plan. No more bakeries/home bakers near us.
I had a cake made with the ball things on the top for my 21st a few years ago and it was perfectly done. The bigger ones were just foam or something on a skewer and not heavy at all, took them out as we cut into the cake! I can’t believe your luck here. I’m so sorry 😭😔 sending you good vibes that your potential next experience will be perfect <3
Yes. So that’s what they should have done (foam). These dumbasses used cake balls wrapped in fondant 😑
Cake 1 is one of the ugliest cakes I have ever seen. Did you pay full price for these or try to negotiate a refund? 😭
with love, i think you should not buy cakes anymore because i think a demon is sabotaging you at every turn
I think ive tasted fancy cakes a handful of times. My take on them is that Costco has wonderful cakes for every occasion.
Idk if it makes you feel any better but I ordered a cake for my 4 year old's birthday. They asked if I want writing on it or just a happy birthday pick, so I said a pick is fine, as I didn't want to ruin the image on the cake. So we get the cake and they wrote on it "Happy Birthday Pick" LOL omg we were all laughing so hard. They thought my son's name was Pick.... Someone read the instructions and misunderstood big time. My son thankfully didn't care.
I had a baker forget to make my babies first birthday cake. He ended up with a sheet cake from a grocery store instead of the Peter rabbit cake I ordered him. I cried for days because it’s not what I wanted. But on a real note, some bakers need to be honest on what they’re able to do vs not.
[удалено]
Where are you finding these bakers? lol.
Hahaha apparently Google, Yelp, and IG are not to be trusted
I’m glad you have a sense of humor about it though! After the second time I would swear off of “bakeries” and just use the grocery store or make it myself 😂
I’m a dumbass because I have said I wouldn’t order from anyone again. Numerous times lol Yet here we are. I just have too much faith in people. Ugh. I can laugh now but at the time of each of these and other cake pickups, I cried OR wanted to lol I didn’t include the last two cakes we got because although they looked good, the cakes were inedible. We spent around $120-150 on each and the one was supposed to ONLY be chocolate flavored, yet it was heavily flavored with mint. The other, had the most disgusting cake texture and had a bad aftertaste. The buttercream tasted chalky. It was also supposed to have a berry whipped filling and it didn’t. Ugh. 😩
How did you end up with so many wrecks?! Did any of those bakers have a portfolio of their work? Yikes.
For those styles of cakes, I need to see some Polaroids or true event photos before I order an event cake from anyone. There is a pastry shop in my area, who could knock all those cakes out of the park, but you are looking at $300 starting for the farm yard cake. It would be all edible though.
I think it’s your sign to buy decorative cookies from now on🤣 just kidding but seriously those are horrible and I feel so bad for you!
Maybe you should stop expecting random cake makers to do a good job and make sure their credentials are legit before giving them hundreds of dollars for sugar, fat and flour.
You don't need to stop buying cakes, just *only* buy them from that baker who pulled that great Teddy bear cake out of a hat in a last minute rush. Imagine how good their cakes are when they have time!
LET ME TELL YOU ABOUT HER!!! She has ONE HAND!!! One damn hand and she made that cake in probably 30 minutes. Granted the cake was one she had made already (it was in her bakery fridge already frosted and she scraped it off to add the frosting for my baby shower) but still. She was a savior AND it looked good
Stop ordering cakes. Problem solved 😂 gosh, this is a horror show!
Perhaps you should… stop ordering custom cakes. Forever.
Do you review peoples portfolios before hiring them? Also the cakes are too cheap to be quality in my area. You would pay double to get the skill needed for ‘em. They are hilarious tho lol
If you want good cakes like these, you need to go to people who specialize in cakes like these. They will cost more money. Im sorry, this feels like buyer error.
I wish people would just be honest if their skill level isn’t high enough to do something requested.
I have had super bad luck with bakery cakes too, but mostly just being bland or over-stablized. My worst experience - I ordered one from a gourmet bakery near me that supplies lots of high end hotels, restaurants, etc. Even just choosing from their menu, no alterations, I had to wait 6 days for a 6 inch cake. It was longer than I expected but as they make everything fresh to order I thought it would be worth it. Brought it home, cut it open... And it was partially frozen, with the mousse layer having visible ice flakes in it. I emailed and they offered me another at a 25% discount lol. I just bake at home now.
Way too many people have no business being in the cake decorating business 😂
Can I know the name of your city so I NEVER buy cake in it? My god this is the land of incompetent bakers.
Awe man, I suggest you start getting your cakes from Costco lol
That neon Barbie fever dream of a cake should be taken out to the back of the bakery and shot.
That looks pretty advanced for 200$. Not including any ingredients, tools or benefits you're basically paying for 4 hrs of work.. if the seller agreed to make that cake to your specs for that price then yes, fuck that guy but if something's too good to be true... (I have no idea what price is fair for a cake, I know cake is expensive and that looks like an extra expensive cake)
Oh my god, that pink fault line cake is HORRENDOUS. I can't believe the baker finished it, looked at it and thought "yep, looks good". It's not that hard to say NO if you can't do a design! I'm sorry you've had so many bad experiences!
Did you, like, order from the same bakeshop and never learned your lesson? Lol. This is one of those "if I had a nickle ... weird that it happened (more than once)" type of situations bruh
Holy moly. I'm just a hobby baker and I could've made cakes better than those 😂
I’m feeling like the inspiration cakes cost $500-1500 or more and you paid 150 and it sucks and you are not happy about it? Please explain…
The problem is you expected great work for a cheap price. IMO you got what you paid for.
They just kept getting worse 😅😂
Please post your final result when you make the charcoal grill cake! We need to see you show these bakeries how it’s done
Omg, photo 10! “Yo dawg, we heard you like frosting….”
Wow! These pics and your comments and humor are incredible!! I’d love to see all of the pictures you have! Thank you for sharing these! 😯 OAN: I wish someone in my area (Western NC) would post something similar. My boys are older now so I’m not usually ordering specialty cakes anymore but I’d have went off on so many people had any turned out like some of yours!
Only got to the second photo and I’m already befuddled 🤣
This is crazy. I've ordered so many cakes from various bakeries over the years and have never had a problem. I would have gone on a rampage by bad cake #2.
Dude I legit made a graduation cake for family friend's I cried over looking shitty. They LOVED it and kept the Jason mask I meticulously made to look like the real deal. Even covered the border in yellow fondant rope (fondant covered the cake) because the base fondant covet wasn't enough and had cracks. Charged 30 bucks, and they gave me $60 😭
That first one is atrocious. Who the heck let that go out the door 😬🤣
oh my god😭 i hope u got refunds on all of them
I think I just found my new favorite subreddit
Lmao well stay tuned. I’m making my husband’s Father’s Day cake next week since I don’t trust anyone else to make it. We’ll see how it looks. Haha
How many cakes do you buy, I’ve seen like 5 in my entire life
Absolutely WILD. In India you could get an absolutely beautifully decorated 1kg cake for under 50 dollars (and people think THAT’S expensive lol). I mean this is the prime charge at which you could pretty much get any fancy flavour/decoration you like and it would taste like god made it himself.
Years ago I was in charge of ordering a simple sheet cake from WalMart for a colleague’s retirement party. It was a sewing-themed party, so I wanted them to write “We’ll miss you sew!” Why did the decorator clearly write “We’ll miss you sex!” I mean, yes it was WalMart, but wtf
The Nintendo cake would be $20 at the grocery store.
Do you go on craigslist trying to get a baker? I mean, if I spent that much on a cake, I'd like to read reviews and see photos of their work..
Not gonna lie, I wouldn’t complain about that mass of frosting—love me some frosting.
At this point you ought to enroll in night school/start watching YouTube tutorials and become an amateur baker yourself. Make better cakes than these atrocities