my birthday is tomorrow and i’m genuinely so upset, i paid £95 ($130) for this out of my own money, it wasn’t a gift or anything. i don’t know what to do, it’s so bad. i can’t take photos of this on my birthday.
i’m not a baker by any means but i don’t have it in me or the heart to contact the place and tell them i’m not happy. is there anything i could do to fix it? i’m honestly mortified.
by dahvievanityhater
32 Comments
You should contact the bakery. Possibly they can fix it.
I agree. £95 is too much to pay for sloppy decorating. I guess you can try repositioning the pearls but they’d have to redo the cherries. Any reputable business would want to make this right. You should definitely ask them to fix this.
I’m so sorry gosh that’s so bad… And you can clearly see they completely cheaped out on the pearls, they don’t even look like the edible kind they’ve got string through them!!
You definitely didnt get what you paid for. Try adding a few candles or flowers might help it look a bit better for photos
I think it’s salvageable if you dust the cherries with edible glitter, rearrange the pearls to be neater, and maybe add some flowers here and there? happy early birthday!
If you’ve contacted the bakery asking to correct it and they can’t, here is my suggestion : Is it buttercream ? If so :
1. Take a deep breath. It’s not as bad as it could have been. You overpaid though …
2. Take the cherries off, you could replace them by fresh cherries (in season in many countries, should be so in the UK !) just before serving.
3. Gently take off the pearls and the “nineteen”, by scraping it off (if you have a cake scraper or a clean, wide knife or even a clean paint scraper ..).
4. To even out the top to make it smooth, if possible put the cake in the fridge or better the freezer for a few minutes, then put your scraper under hot water, clean it off and gently smooth out the buttercream.
5. You could try to rewrite “nineteen”, or you can get a flat cake decoration with 19 on it then try to reposition the pearls in a correct heart. Or roll out some marzipan and cut out a heart and the numbers 1 and 9 on it to hide the part you scraped off.
6. If you have time to try to replicate the colour of the pink frosting, an extra blob at the top to create a more recognisable heart shape could help ! Or try to gently push that blob a bit forward and perhaps put a cherry to hide the quick fix.
These are just suggestions ! But I hope you manage to find a good fix ! And happy birthday 🎂
If you don’t have it in you to pick up the phone and call them to let them know you are dissatisfied with your purchase, then you’re stuck with the cake. You answered your own question, call them and speak up.
Wow for £95 that’s extremely disappointing. I definitely recommend contacting the bakery, it’s difficult but if you’re paying for their services there is an additional expectation compared to say if a friend or family member was making the cake for you.
The colours are off, the cherries are crumbling and lacking the glitter, the pearls for the heart are completely lopsided and messy with the heart itself being too small causing the writing to be crammed in there, but on the bright side the piping and edges seems neat and tidy so it’s a possible fix.
I also think the bows blend in with the colours in a way that also make the cake look messy.
I wouldn’t waste my own time worrying about this personally. I’d return the cake and get something different that is easier on me. 🙂 because I don’t like to stress about stuff, it wears me out. Then I don’t enjoy my life.
DM me if you’re in N London, I’d be able to help you.
I’m decent baker and cake decorator 😊
Are those strings of plastic pearls instead of pearl sprinkles? Omg.
I second what everyone said about replacing the ugly cherries with nice fresh ones and carefully scraping the top off and covering it with a heart of rolled out marzipan/fondant. Idk what to do about the plastic pearls, I’d be furious about those. Was this a professional bakery?
Are they a bakery or a hobbyist baker? The cherries you could just get fresh like others have said and rub them in some edible glitter or something similar. I’m not sure why they’ve used cheap pearl string when they could’ve used edible balls that look like pearls, then they would have been able to shape it into an accurate heart shape – they can’t do that with the stringed pearls. I would definitely complain and get at least partial refund. But it’s salvageable!
Please don’t be British and not complain to the bakery. If you don’t, they could continue producing things like this and ruining others’ celebrations. They may be able to fix it. I’ll leave the alternative suggestions to others.
What looks the most “off” to me is the pearl “heart.” They obviously tried to contort a string of pearls into the correct shape, which was never going to work. The inspiration pic definitely used individually placed pearls—you can get a jar of Wilton sugar pearls for a few dollars and arrange them with tweezers if you’re so inclined. Or check the wedding section of the craft store—there may be something similar you could use.
Once that center heart looks more like a heart, I think the eye will sort of auto-correct the shape of the whole cake to appear more heart-like as well.
Happy birthday! Hope it tastes delicious!
They really cheaped out on the pearls! Yikes.
Please, for the love of God, call the bakery and complain. I cannot believe they used plastic stringed pearls.
So close. This is totally salvageable. Take it back and ask them to clean it up.
Forgo the writing, and have them smooth out the top. Replace the cherries with fresh ones. Remove the string of pearls and replace with edible ones, using a heart stencil.
Are those fake plastic pearls? 💀
Beads😂 actual beads
guarantee you this is not the first time they’ve done this to somebody because why did they feel comfortable handing you that
it sucks you have to salvage this when it’s an expensive gift to yourself for your birthday! you should absolutely complain and get as much recompense as you can, but for now it’s not unsalvageable! i would take off the peals and cherries – you can easily replace the cherries with fresh ones. scrape the middle so the icing blends, get some edibles pearls/those silver balls from the shop and make your own heart. stick a 1 and 9 candle in the heart if you don’t feel you can ice the word on yourself. and it better taste good! happy birthday 🎂
I wish people & businesses were less afraid to admit that they lack the tools/skills/whatever to give a customer what they’ve ordered.
I see it in baking, nails, hair, construction, basically all crafts, etc etc etc. Customer has an inspo pic, business says “sure we can do that” and then delivers a mess like this, or worse. Like, if you’ve never done it, can’t do it, whatever, just be honest. Don’t accept the job and waste everyone’s time.
If they’d come back and say something like “I can do this part, but that part I can’t quite do” then maybe the customer & business could find a compromise that’s actually in the wheelhouse of the business, and everyone could leave happy. Now the business’ reputation is damaged, & the customer is upset. But I guess at least I have something to upvote on Reddit. 🫠
The bottom doesn’t look too bad, very similar but it’s like they put so much time and effort there that they went “welp this will do” on top. The font is barely legible, they clearly didn’t get a long enough pearl necklace to make a big enough heart, and it’s completely crooked. The cherries could have been dusted with edible glitter to get slightly close to the photo.
They dropped the ball, post on their socials if they do not want to try to resolve it in some way.
I know it’s important to you but don’t forget to laugh! The side by side photos are hilarious and will be a great story for the future!
Take the cherries off and replace them with maraschino cherries. Then take off the center piece and smooth it out with a spatula. I would just get the candles that say the number instead.
I think those two fixes would make it look
100% better
The pearls on the inspo cake are sugar, not from the craft store. Placing inedible objects on a cake from a professional shop is … something.
Like this. https://www.layercakeshop.com/collections/decorating-sprinkles_-_sugar-pearls/products/pearly-white-sugar-pearls-5-6mm-1lb
Do you have a Hobbycraft near you? They sell edible pearls and glitter! I can’t believe they have put plastic pearls on it. What a shit show!
The string of fake pearls instead of pearl sprinkles 🤣🤣🤣💀
I thought you were complaining about the cake in the first photo and couldn’t understand the problem. Then I saw the second photo. I’m so sorry your cake came out like that.
>i’m not a baker by any means but i don’t have it in me or the heart to contact the place and tell them i’m not happy.
Get the heart to contact them. You spent a lot of money on this cake, and it looks like a fair-to-middling student made it. That they’d only refund you £15 is unprofessional. They should have never let it go out to you like that.
I do have one confirming questions – did they offer the picture as something they offered, or did you show them the picture and ask for something like it?
But either way, if this were my business and that’s what was coming out of it, I would want to know. Call and tell them; show them what you were promised and what you received.
Otherwise, I’d fix the words in the heart and leave the rest alone. The cake only looks awful (I think) if you compare it to what was promised, otherwise, it’s fine.
Whatever you do, don’t let this ruin your birthday! Go out there and have a blast. HBD.
I would do as advised with the google review. Even if your not comfortable with doing it, think of the other people that will be let down, on very special days/occasions in their life and who will feel as bad as you do.
Pretty much Night & Day with those photos
£95 is a lot of money!
Took me a fair few moments of thinking “why what’s wrong with it” before I realised. It’s a two picture post. Holy moly 🙈 hope you have a good birthday nonetheless 💖