A Piece of Cake??!!!

Get ready to hear a tale, a sad tale, a frustrating tale.................

We had Sweet Pea's birthday party a couple of weeks ago and ordered his cake from A Piece of Cake. We were having a "Little Einstein" party and I wanted a cake shaped like rocket. I had found a website that had instructions how to make the cake, but I am not very crafty, so I called them because I had heard they were good (you bad people telling me lies!!!!) anyway I called and gave the lady on the phone the website and after looking it up she said they could do that and it would look even better than it did in the picture. I was so excited. You see since there aren't any party plates or things for Little Einstein everything was so plain so I wanted the cake to be exceptional.

Hubby went to get the cake (big mistake, ladies never let a man pick up a cake, they don't know what they are looking at) and brought it in and I immediately knew the cake was not like the picture I had given them. I was very disappointed with the cake.

This is what I got


This is what I asked for


The cake in the second picture was not done by a professional, it was done by a man who tinkered with cake decorating. So when the lady on the phone told me she could do the cake even better I honestly believed her. Well as you can tell the cake looked AWFUL!!! Total disappointment.

So we cut the cake and serve it and YUCK!!!! It tasted awful! There was so much red dye that the icing was bitter! So the entire cake, minus what a couple of kids ate went straight to the trash. Now I paid $70 for this cake and it was not edible.

A little later that day Pumpkin starts with a bad case of diarrhea. Surprise it is the color of the icing! This continues for THREE DAYS along with vomiting!!!! The poor little guy kept crying because his belly hurt. Then I find out that one of the other little one's had the same thing happen to her, only she threw up first.

So I decided to call Monday morning to A Piece of Cake and tell them what had happened. The lady (Karen) who identified herself as the owner listened to what I had to say and all she could offer was a discount on my next cake. Well I pondered this and I did not think that was sufficient. I mean two children got sick and I had to throw the whole cake away because it was awful. So I emailed her told her I wanted at least a portion of my money back to make up for everything. She did not respond so I called her late the next day. I spoke with her again and she informed me that the person who took my order said I asked for changes. WHAT!!!!!!! No I did not I gave her the website giving step by step instructions on how to do the cake! How can you screw that up. And as far as the vomiting, well she felt that it was more plausable that two children that had not been around each other for three weeks had contracted the exact same virus at the exact same time than the cake made them sick. Now I had told her I thought it was the amount of dye in the icing that made them sick, not the cake. She said anytime you tint icing red you get a change in flavor. She was so defensive and started yelling at me. I asked her point blank if she was at all worried that two children got very ill after eating her cake and she said "No, not during cold and flu season" She would not even acknowledge any responsiblility. So after getting nowhere with her several friends suggested the Health Department, because the children getting sick. The lady I spoke to at the Health department was so nice and after giving her every little detail including the time when the cake was eaten and when the symptoms started, she too felt that there was something there. I forwarded her the email I sent to Karen and she said she could tell just looking at the picture that there was a lot of dye in the icing. She called Karen and talked to her and Karen calls me and says she still doesn't believe the cake had anything to do with it but I can come and get a Thanksgiving cake for free. ARE YOU CRAZY!!!!! My child was sick for three days from your cake do you think I would subject him to that again??!!! She also tried to tell me that the order taker told me about that in advance and offered airbrushing, NOT!!!! Now what kind of nut would say "Ok, you can make my icing inedible for the color" Especially when the icing is the only thing little ones eat!

The mother of the other child called her to get the dye used to get more information about it since it made her daughter sick. She was RUDE to her and even tried to lie and say she wasn't there too bad she talks too loud because she heard her say she wasn't there and called the employee on it when she told her she wasn't there. So minutes later the other owner (Kathy) calls and threatens me that if anyone else calls about this cake she is going to file harassment charges on me. HUH?! I have not harassed her I called twice about a product and the other mother had every right to call and ask about the dye that made her child sick!

So in summary ( I know this is a really long post but I want this information out there!) DO NOT EVER ORDER FROM A PIECE OF CAKE in PELHAM, ALABAMA!!! You may not get what you want and you may get more than you bargained for the next couple of days.

Oh on a side note the manufacturer of the dye was contacted and he said used properly there should be no tase, evidently that is the selling point. Maybe they should call the decorators at A Piece of Cake and let them know that.