This is my 3rd cake order, i charged 85$ for the cake as i do from scratch. Please be BRUTALLY honest, should i refund 15-20$ based on the technical skill or should i leave it?
I have yet to deliver the cake as it's for mother's day
by Baking_Witch13
32 Comments
I’m sure it’s delicious. That said, I’m pretty sure there’s a universal distaste for black frosting (chocolate isn’t black.) You should practice your decorating skills on a frosted surface that isn’t cake. That way there’s no pressure or botched commissions. I hope the mum on the receiving end is a Scot and can appreciate the thistles. I don’t think I’ve ever seen that particular flower used on a cake before. As you’re polishing your skills, try exploring your non-figurative finishes, with just color and poofs. Good luck 🍀
Yes, you should.
Until you develop more skills, stick with very basic decorating and do not offer custom designs until you are confident you can create them.
If I paid almost $100 for a cake and got that, I’d be livid.
I’m going to be brutally honest, as you asked. I think you need to practice quite a bit more before you venture into selling your work. While I understand that your post is looking for critique on the design, it’s clear through the images that you still need to work on the basics, such as smooth and even edges, and clean lines – as your square is a little crooked and irregular. You want to practice to the point that your cake looks clean and crisp without any of the decoration added to it. At that point, you move on to practicing decorations. Practice until you can get your borders even and properly spaced, clean, etc. And then after all of that practice, when you feel confident in your work and it reflects the work of a professional, then you should consider selling your work.
Decorating and selling cakes is fun, but it’s not a skill that comes quickly.
Is the customer a random person or a friend?
If I bought that for 85$ from a stranger I’d be pissed and never buy from you again. 100% would leave a bad review if I could. The discount would make me not write a review but I would not come back unless that cake is the most amazing cake to ever be had.
A friend id probably say nothing but also never buy from you again.
First impressions are everything for stuff like this.
Maybe a frozen cellophane transfer for the lattice so you can follow a grid and get a flat top so it looks more like boards?
Brutally honest? Yes. You have a great idea going on here but the execution needs more practice. The cake might taste great but part of selling cakes is the decoration that goes into it.
If you can and have time, I would scrape off the black lattice and re-ice that section in white. Perhaps go back over with a much, much simpler design, perhaps a trinity knot in the corner opposite the thistles and then just a straight black border along the right and bottom edges.
I would be incredibly upset if I paid for a specific design and received this. I would frankly refund the buyer.
You should offer it to her at cost (materials only), not knock off a few bucks. Especially if it’s a friend. I’d be concerned about hurting the friendship (and definitely losing her as a future customer) by paying store prices for something that is clearly amateurish.
Don’t sell decorated cakes; if the quality is good, it’s worth charging for, but I’d take some classes & practice before you charge for decoration. Or stick with types of decorations you can do perfectly.
If you can, get a job at a bakery & focus on trying to learn & practice what you feel you are weak at.
The black trim is awful. The flowers look nice, though. I’m sure you’ll get better with practice. You’re not ready yet to sell decorated cakes, especially at bakery prices. But keep it up, you’ll get better.
I don’t think you can charge more than $20 for that. Sorry.
This is not a professional looking cake. I would not pay anything for it.
I thought it was good for a first cake. You shouldn’t be charging for that cake.
Take a culinary course on piping before you sell another.
I’m sure you put a lot of effort into this cake and it probably tastes delicious – but I would offer **more** than a 20% refund.
You clearly have a lot of potential but this is not a final product that’s worthy of 60-65 dollars. If I were the customer, I’d be very offput if I was charged that much for this outcome.
I would be very upset if I paid $85 for that. Honestly, you should refund them and practice more before charging for work. Maybe it’s salvageable as just a white cake if you scrape off all the decorations that way you can charge for just cost of materials so you aren’t out of money?
That’s not a professional product, you can’t charge anything for it. Hobbies are fun, keep them as hobbies
I would not charge for this to be honest. This looks like a practice cake from when I was first learning to pipe. I would refrain from charging for future cake orders until you build your skill level.
Brutal honesty, this is awful for that price. I wouldn’t charge a friend a dime for this. It’d be free.
Honestly? If I had paid $35 for this cake and it looked like this, I would have refused it and had you refund my money. The buttercream coat is lumpy and the edges are…not good. The colored part of the flowers is okay, but the stems and leaves aren’t good and the lattice is out of square. The black piping isn’t smooth and in some places it’s thick and others it’s thin and still others it’s jagged. Plus the black doesn’t look great with the pale leaves.
You absolutely should not charge $85 for this cake. You should 100% offer them a discount and only charge them for the ingredients that you used–consider the time you put into it “practice” time that the client should not have to pay for. They may say they don’t want the cake at all, in which case you need to cheerfully refund the whole amount.
You need a lot more practice. Make “practice icing” which is chap and re-usable: beat together
* Solid vegetable shortening – 1 1/2 cups – 287 grams
* Powdered sugar – 4 cups – 452 grams (lightly spooned into the cup)
* Water – 2 tablespoons
* Light Corn syrup – 1 tablespoon
This can then be stored in the fridge and used over and over. Pipe your designs only parchment paper. Practice icing styrofoam rounds. If you want to throw money at the problem, Wilton makes a practice board that you can buy on Amazon that shows you how to do each technique, and you can pipe directly on the board.
Watch tutorials on YouTube. Practice some more.
I think you need to figure out your niche, like what style of cake you’re most comfortable with. Never offer or do another style of cake decorating until you are quite versed in it (practice on dummy cakes). When people pay for custom, they expect a certain level of quality decorating. Just keep practicing.
FYI: That quality of cake decorating is Gifted cake.
Brutally honest; your technique needs some work. Practice smoothing your base layer more. I think the thistles are good, but maybe a few more would be good to fill out the image more. The black lattice is a bit too bold. I would recommend a cream/white color with an edible gold powder mixed in to make it look more like metal.
I think you’re on the right track. Maybe not $85, but I’m proud of you for asking for honest feedback and showing a willingness to learn.
Being brutally honest, i would be pissed to be charged more than $20 for that. If i made that and gave it to my own mum, that’s one thing because it’s a handmade gift from her kid, but charging someone bakery prices for them to have that to give as a gift is unacceptable. In your friend’s shoes, i’d pay you $20, eat it myself and buy a professional cake for my mum from a bakery or shop.
It’s not just the piping, the base icing is wonky and uneven thickness to the point where it’s noticeable, the icing bulges out in places on the sides making it noticeably not square etc. This is not a cake made to sell, and DEFINITELY not for $65. I know you have said the ingredients were expensive, honestly you should take the L on this one and chalk it up to experience.
that cake isn’t worth 20 dollars let along 65. im sorry, bit its just not.
It looks awful. You should avoid black icing in the future
NGL, if I paid $85 for a cake and this is what I got, I’d be pretty angry… If you were an amateur I’d say that the lattice is a really fun idea and I’m sure it tastes delicious regardless, but… 😬
DO NOT DELIVER
Idk… even as a friend I wouldn’t want to pay for $20 for this.
You are not at a point of charging for cakes at all. I would charge them $0.0 and thank them for the chance to practice. You classes, practice, and some Styrofoam cake dummies before you ever charge anyone.
This looks really, really bad tbh. I would be offended if someone charged me for this. Scrape off the icing and replace it with a different design that you can do better. For your friendship, it’s better to deliver on something that looks decent even if it’s not the exact design they asked for.
In the future, only agree to designs you know you can do.
If you deliver this as is, I don’t see how you can charge for it in good conscience. I understand ingredients cost money, but YOU are the one who made the mistake, not her. You agreed to something you couldn’t deliver on. I don’t think it’s fair to charge her for YOUR error in judgment.
Why is the cake by your keyboard? (Keyboards can get really nasty). If I were selling cakes, I would not take them out of the kitchen environment.