I’ve never ordered a custom cake before and I am not really sure where to have my expectations… but this feels really off to me, specifically the green color is just so green. I paid a little over $100 for this cake. Am I just being dramatic?
Update: they offered me a refund of the customization fee which was $30.
Also I planned to use this for some social media content for my business since it’s to celebrate my business anniversary and now it just kind of feels embarrassing to post 😅
by mariiiiiiah
27 Comments
I wouldn’t bother complaining if it was a cake ordered from a grocery store, but for over $100 they could at least get the color right.
Is picture 1 the inspiration and picture 2 reality? If so, I’d be a bit upset. $100 seems reasonable for a custom cake of that size. But pic 2 looks pretty much like a homemade cake, definitely not the quality I’d expect from a custom cake. I hope it tastes delicious!
You aren’t being dramatic. That cake is whack. I’d ask for a partial refund and if they say no, post a review with both pictures and your feelings💁🏼♀️
It doesn’t look exactly like the colour green in the picture, but…
It looks like an amazing celebration cake to enjoy 6 years 🙂
Ohhh I thought the first one was the bakery one and I didn’t see the problem…. Then I swiped .. yeah, even if they made the green correct I think the piping still sucks for $100. They did you dirty 🫤
The inspo pic is filtered and manipulated to look as good as possible. If you put the two cakes side by side they’d probably be pretty similar.
I just got into making and don’t sell, so take this with a chunky grain of salt.
Knowing how expensive baking is, $100 makes sense just for the supplies and labor. That *is* also skilled. Maybe not A-tier but intermediate?
Like, I and most other people I know could not produce that level of cake.
The “Inspo” cake, I would imagine, is much more expensive. Is that a pic you sent to the baker or is it on their portfolio?
Other things like filling and flavor also factor in.
I don’t really see any issue with this cake at all. The piping is even and consistent. There was some temperature abuse somewhere it looks like and there’s condensation, but technically this cake looks fine?
You can see cracks in the icing of the inspo pic, the sides aren’t completely smooth, and I think the color is terrible personally. The piping breaks are in almost the exact same spot on both cakes also.
These are two of almost the exact same cake.
The reality is that the time and skill a very, very complex cake like this costs money. If you didn’t want to spend so much on a cake, a grocery store cake would have been a better choice.
Obviously the color is not quite right, and I think they used too large of a tip when doing the boarder so the inside top of the cake is also smaller, which throws off the look. I would politely complain (politely being key here) and see if you can get a partial refund or a discount on the next order even. If the cake tastes good, I wouldn’t completely knock them. This isn’t so terribly done that I would “put them on blast” for it.
Personally when I sell cakes, I have it in my contract that I don’t guarantee a colour match unless I’m provided physical swatches. Different screens show colours differently.
I mean, apart from the colour being the wrong shade of green, I don’t think it looks bad?? Like you can’t expect a 100% copy-paste outcome 😬
Edit- of course, the “6 years” should’ve been in the centre and the “spots” (assuming it’s because of condensation) make it look sad compared to the inspo pic, but honestly, it’s fine.
I’ve honestly never bought a custom cake, but from the videos I’ve seen online I’d say $100 is pretty low for what you were asking for. To me, the size is that of a $100 cake, but they should have communicated that they couldn’t meet your expectations
I am okay with everything except the colors, because the inspo photo looks edited. The bakery should at least get the colors right. I think if the colors matched, the cake would not look so bad.
It looks to me like they put in real effort to match the piping style to your inspo pic. Remember, inspo is just that: inspiration. Unless it was a selection from a catalog offered by the bakery, I don’t think it’s reasonable to expect an exact match to a random picture you found online.
Regarding the color, did you clarify in your order that you wanted that deeper green shade? If so, being upset is reasonable. But if you just asked for green and showed them the pic, I think best to chalk it up to a lesson learned experience, and keep in mind for the future to clarify with the bakery what it is exactly that you want.
At first I was going to say you’re over reacting because the piping may not be as sharp but it’s not bad. But then I noticed the inspiration cake had two colors of green. The one you received used the color from the flower petals for the entire cake plus whatever bright green that they used in the middle. I wouldn’t be happy with this.
As someone who decorates these sort of cakes for a living, yes I can definitely see where it looks wrong. The lettering is not centered, there is condensation causing the colored splotches (probably from the cake being frozen too long and then decorated right away in room temp), and most importantly, the color of the green being too bright.
They could have added in a bit of brown and yellow to mute the bright green. The piping is also a little bit messy and they could’ve used smaller piping tips or adjusted to not make it so… fat idk 😭
But a little over $100 is reasonable for a cake this size with all the vintage style piping, and also depending on what specific fillings you got. I can’t speak for all but if this baker were me, I would offer a partial refund or to redecorate it if you expressed dissatisfaction 😅
Looks like they used pure kelly green food coloring straight out of the bottle with no colour mixing some yellow (and a tiny amount of red) in to soften it.
I can’t speak to the piping but as a painter, you need to know your colour theory if you’re going to work with colour.
I feel like the color shading was the worst part here. If the colors were on point, like the inspo, it’d be a huge improvement.
Oof. It’s too bright and the piping isn’t as neat and tight as the inspo pic. I think that if they knew they couldn’t achieve the desired result, they should have declined. I’d say $100 is a bittttt too high as they haven’t polished their skills. $75-85 would be more reasonable. Hope it was tasty!!!
It looks like a very homemade version of the inspiration pic, which is entirely unacceptable for a cake costing that much imo. I’d be unhappy
The colour mismatch is throwing off the vibe of the cake. Otherwise it’s good – I actually think the piping is really nice and tight. Writing is nice too
They used Brill Buttercream right out of the bucket. No color match was even attempted. I recognize all three colors.
Is the first cake a picture from the same bakery? If so I would be disappointed, but I’m also a little confused as to how people think just asking a bakery to recreate a random cake you found online is going to be perfect, especially for only $100.
I paid around 130€ for round one, that i send specific inspo pictures! ( also this style and type of green but simpler) And she halfassed it and even added something that i DID NOT asked for that jacked up the price. She was like : “When we had christening I did the same for our son, so we could keep it so I did it here as well…” wtf ??? It was plus around 20€ I am still angry as I was taking smaller cake so I could save money…
They did Kelly green when it should’ve been olive green. Any decorator worth anything knows the difference.
The inspo pic looks like they used natural food coloring which tend to yield more muted colors
I think it’s gorgeous but if you’re not happy because it’s not what you ordered, take the $30 and enjoy the cake.