The ongoing saga of sub-par food purchased from major big box chain stores, documented with the miracle of photography and emailed to the Consumerist continues:
Hey consumerist just thought I’d let you and every other customer out there know that Wal-mart sucks at making cakes! It was my daughter’s 3rd birthday yesterday (06.17.07) and my wife ordered a cake a week ago to be made for this date. When we picked it up with a little less than an hour until the party started, we were extremely disappointed to say the least. We complained and they gave us 20% off but that wasn’t enough as far as we were concerned. I told customer service “We shouldn’t have to pay more than half for a half-assed cake” (I just couldn’t resist making a pun haha). All they said was “twenty percent is the most we can give you”. We didn’t have time to get another cake and just went ahead and bought it but we will never buy another cake from Wal-Mart again that’s for damn sure. I mean look at at it, it looks hardly anything like the advertisement! That strip with black lines on it, yeah that’s supposed to look like a film strip. Oh and to boot my wife ordered butter cream filling and they put strawberry instead. Is it really that hard to follow directions and deliver a worthy product? Apparently.
Indeed, that cake is pretty weak. They should probably get rid of the picture if they can’t actually make that cake.
Hey, let’s look on the bright side: Happy birthday to Miranda! Yaaay! —MEGHANN MARCO
UPDATE: For added value, our expert play-by-play cake analysis inside.
meghannmarco: It looks like they were missing pieces that were supposed to go on the cake.
meghannmarco: but I don’t really know anything about cakes.
benpopken: yeah those little squiggles are supposed to be streamers
benpopken: Walmart’s looks like dead worms
meghannmarco: and is the child really supposed to guess the black stuff is film
meghannmarco: it looks like teeth
benpopken: I thought it looked like a board game
benpopken: disney version star has nice dots. walmart’s is just a straight splooge line
meghannmarco: this cake is tragic.
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Wal-Mart doesn’t deliver a satisfactory product (or service for that matter). END OF STORY. I don’t know why people can’t get that.
@EtherealStrife: Are you me? I used to work at BR too and nothing ever looked like the picture. I actually think it looks pretty cute but I understand being pissed about the filling.
At BR, we only had one decorator because the boss was a cheapskate. During my first summer, I worked day shift with her and she taught me a few basics – writing, leaves for the premade sugar flowers, borders, balloons, the brownie, fudge and whipped cream combo…
She was also a huge flake. I cannot tell you how many times people came to pick up an undecorated cake. I would say “I will take off $10 if you’ll take this cake decorated with balloons, flowers, or brownies.” 98% of people would say “As long as it says his/her name, I’m happy.”
Also, as a high school cheerleader, I ordered a DQ cake for a good luck treat to the volleyball team. I picked it up, glanced it, said it looked good. And of course, the biggest bitch on the team noticed they wrote “Good Luck Titan Vollyball!”
This is funny and brings up a great story from my childhood.
My older brothers hebrew name is ‘Shimon’ and back when we were very young, that’s what we went by.
My dad ordered a kosher cake and when he brought it home, he couldn’t wait to unbox it.
When he did, he saw that it proudly read:
“Happy Birthday Sherman”.
Eh. Maybe not so funny to other people.
Cake making is an art. WalMart may not be the best place to go.
Sorry your cake looks crappy compared to the photo.
Next time avoid walmart and find a local bakery.
You’ll get a tastier, healthier cake and it will look way better.
Happy Birthday Miranda!
I decorated cakes professionally for 10+ years throughout high school and college. I worked for independent bakeries as well as grocery store bakery departments. When it comes to the final appearance of the cake, your MAIN variable is the person decorating said product.
Some people are just naturally more artistic than others. I have seen people working in family bakeries who didn’t have a creative bone in their bodies earning their living as (crappy) cake decorators. I have also seen people working at grocery stores who could teach master classes.
Another variable is the customer. Some people will accept any cake, even if it’s been hit by an ugly stick. Others will yell and scream if one leaf appears to be out of place.
In my opinion, the top cake is just ehh. The decorator was either in too much of a hurry (or too lazy) to make it look like the example cake, or they just plain weren’t very creative. If they were in a hurry, the least they could have done was airbrush some color onto the icing so it would be yellow. Where I used to work, I’d say there would be about a 50% chance the customer would be unimpressed, and probably only a 25% chance they would have the guts to complain about it.
Bottom line, if the appearance of a cake you’re ordering is important to you, do your homework and scout out bakeries with skilled decorators. If you find a good one, get that person’s name so you can request that he/she do your cakes. Otherwise, you are taking a shot in the dark.
My other thought is the human factor. I went to the nicest, most reputable bakery in town for my wedding cake. The head decorator had won plenty of nationsawards. I paid $700 for it (and I know I will catch hell for that but it was honestly within our budget, promise) and I had a picture.
My cake did not look exactly like the picture. Now, granted, it was beautiful but it’s almost impossible for humans to exactly replicate something like a decorated cake without machinery.
Another addition to the analysis: The red trim frosting should have white mickey sprinkles. The black mickey sprinkles are misplaced and wrong-colored.
@superlayne: well YEAH to the above – but was I the only one who couldn’t read Miranda’s name without Consumerist’s help? (I read it as MICANDA. And I Can Read!)
A homemade cake really isn’t hard; I’m not the best cook in the world, and I can make a really good one. To bake from a mix, one only needs to be able to read.
Hrm.
I don’t see what’s wrong with the cake?
I don’t see what’s wrong with the cake(s)? Can someone please point out the mistakes? It looks ten times better than the cake my gf baked this past weekend for her son!
@morsteen: Your points are totally valid. While we all tend to hate Wal Mart/Sam’s Club and wouldn’t go their anyway, that cake is clearly not what was advertised. The cake in the photo had much different ingredients: the frosting looked like it was whipped and the film strip looked like a piece of fondant (coloring aside). Maybe they should have a giant disclaimer: “our cakes look nothing like this”.
It actually looks suspiciously like a “stock cake” that they tried to “dress up” because they had screwed up your order. The one time I ordered a cake from a Sam’s Club, that is exactly what happened. The difference was that at least they told me that (when they handed it to me) and took half off.
I also really doubt that they are hiring bakers who really know what they are doing… I mean, they are probably trained right there.
@ jurgis: I know I am the one who sent this in, my post was in reply to the bashing I was getting for complaining about this such as the suburban high class dad complaining, and why did you go to wal-mart, and bla bla bla. So if you don’t have a lot of money and can’t shop at the highest quality joints then you’re just supposed to take it up the wazoo? I think not. If you are a company offering something at whatever price then you are expected to deliver. Like the graphic artist pointed out if he delivered a sub-par product, as per advertisement then he would get a rash of sh*t for it, if he’s charging 10 bucks, or 100 bucks. Making something affordable should NOT result in lack of quality, and with enough people seeing that corporations refuse to deliver satisfactory products might help to put a dent in their business for certain items. Quality will win out in the end I’m sure.
Hold on…you asked for a free cake before you had paid for it? Now how is that acceptable? I get that it was the wrong flavor and all that…but if that’s the case, just don’t buy it…
@Raanne: “you buy fast food for how it tastes, you buy a cake for how it looks. that is the number one difference here.”
… I might not speak for all consumerist readers, but I eat cake.
@MichaelBrazell: Actually, I eat cake and enjoy how it looks.
This is why I make cupcakes for people….to save them from things like this.
Here’s my two cents. I work as a cake decorator at a large national grocery chain. If I had decorated that cake, the customer would’ve gotten it free with an extensive apology from which ever manager is on the clock while I’d get a reaming from that manager after the customer has left.
1. Smooth corners like the demo are entirely possible and quite easy to do with a spatula. I can do that with buttercream, Whipped, fondant or what have you. In fact, I did it today and the cakes I made.
2. The lack of yellow colouring really catches the eye. There are two ways to colour frosting. Either a food dye mixed in to the frosting before application or airbrushing the colour on after application. From the picture, i would say it’s airbrush from the way the yellow fades to white at the bottom.
3. What in God’s name are those purple polka dots doing on the cake? That’s extra work there you don’t need. The surface of the cake itself is too busy overall between the extra streamers, so cut those down as well.
4. The sprinkles that come with the cake clearly go on the border. While I’ve never run across any customer that’s been offended if the sprinkles are positioned exactly on the border like they are in the picture, I think that’s because I actually put them on the border. Which brings me to…
5. The border, that’s clearly the wrong tip. That looks like a #22 star tip. The picture calls for a round shell. For that, just use a round tip or the coupler if you don’t have any.
6. Filmstrip/Name. Why the single colour for the writing? There’s obviously more than just purple mixed up, so the alternation of the colouring of the letters shouldn’t have been that hard. And how hard is it to stuff a writing bag with white frosting of whatever frosting and make the white stripes on the border of the filmstrip? Not hard at all.
7. The star around Mickey’s head is made up of smooth shells, not just a thick, vaguely disconcerting outline. While you can’t use just the tip coupler like you can with the border, if you lack a small round tip, use a disposable writing bag and cut it so the frosting coming out is large enough to do those shells.
Yeah, no one’s is expecting a perfect cake from a chain bakery but people do expect cakes to at least closely resemble the example. True, those cakes are demoed on Styrofoam(huh, spellcheck doesn’t like it when Styrofoam is not capitalized properly.) 1/4 sheets or 1/2 sheets, the change from styrofoam to cake isn’t going to change the look of the cake. Styrofoam is used because it’s reusable in this case. you decorate the Styrofoam, take the pretty pictures and then wipe all the frosting off and move to the next cake demo.
As to the training of the cake decorator that decorated this cake, he or she has had at least a small amount of training. The bordering, while hurried has the shell aspect. It ain’t pretty but it’s there. So the decorator should have known better.
@morsteen, like others have suggested before, pick up cakes earlier in the day or late the previous day. This leaves you time to do some serious complaining when you end up with what you did without the pressure of no time for anything else.
@everyone saying that’s not a bad cake, hush now. That’s a really s****y cake. I can do that cake in less than thirty minutes. That’s an easy kit to decorate. Try doing the Tinkerbell dangler or the Four princesses.
@morsteen: Right… I think if you read my comment, I was agreeing with you and pointing out all the flaws in the cake. Yes, many of us hate Wal Mart; the poor quality is one reason why, but it shouldn’t prevent you from complaining or expecting more at all.
@smashville We bought the cake because the party was going to start soon and didn’t have the time to fuss with getting a new one.
@jurgis Yup I agree, like I said before enough people demand quality and don’t put up with this crap eventually (i hope) it will be better, or is that just too optimistic? lol
At least there was no diethelyene glycol in the cake…
H
Hmm
Oops. Sorry.
That was: Hmm, the cake looks fine, and a 3 year old would never notice. The ingredients however are something to complain about. But that happens every day and should never make it to the pages of The Consumerist.
It’s as useless as the post on “How to take a photo in a store without being caught” – wtf? – and “a glass of juice and ice is actually a glass of juice” – moronic.
I don’t see the problem, those cakes looks beautiful.
If you need a birthday cake but can’t make it to a local bakery, you’ll probably do better at a supermarket. Most of the regional chains in my area have actual samples of the cakes they offer, and I’ve had many types of cakes from there for birthday parties and other occasions. The theme party cakes look a great deal closer in finishing to the bottom photo than the Walmart cake.
As others have said, I did a better job decorating cakes when I was in grade school. It’s one thing when a product doesn’t live up to the glued and airbrushed version in the photograph, but it’s another matter entirely when it barely resembles the advertised product and doesn’t even have the right filling!
Why not just rent a cake?
I just hope W-Mart’s frosting wasn’t made in China with poison sweeteners.
funny, but when i first looked at the pix i thought, ‘hey, that cake looks pretty good.’ it was only after reading the story and taking a closer look, that i could see they don’t match. but come on…for a three year old? i think it’s fine. and with all the horror stories we read about Walmart? they should have known better. if someone was that good at decorating cakes? they’re not going to work at a Walmart.
what i’m more concerned about is that they named their daughter after the lesbian on Sex and the City.
@factotum: hahahahahahaha!!!!
You want some REAL fun? Find one of those Nazi T-shirts and ask the Wal-Mart bakery to reproduce THAT image on the top of a cake!
129 comments related to a story about a cake that does’t look like the one in the promo picture.
THAT is funny…
Lots of strong feelings about cake around here…
Lol.
@LAGirl:
i thought it was after the aunt in Rebecca of Sunnybrook Farm.
They couldn’t even bother to use the yellow frosting shown in the picture? The fact they couldn’t even get the color right for the base frosting is just pure laziness. They should all be fired for such ineptitude.
@LAGirl: I didn’t know there was a character on Sex and the City named ‘Micanda’…
She was a lesbian? Was she hot? Did she like cake?
If you happen to live in Florida, get a Publix Cake! Publix consistently beats professional bakers in both flavor and decoration! We used Publix for our wedding cake! Unlike the professional baker, the cake looked AND tasted good! You will find most bakers sacrifice flavor for appearance and vice versa.
hmm…you get what you pay for if you are buying at Walmart. WTH knew that they sold cakes anyway? I do not shop there.
I used to decorate ice cream cakes at Carvel. We used a machine to trace pictures with the gel piping or just copy it free hand. Why would anyone in their right mind want to buy a cake from Wal Mart?
maybe they were trying to pull off a Pollock
You know, I’m divided on this one. Partially I agree with and understand the comments saying yes we’re perfectionist and spoiled these days and absolutely there are bigger things to worry about.
The other part of me agrees with the consumer here. The advertised “before” picture most certainly misleads us to the appearance of the final result. If Wal-Mart started advertising the “after” picture presented here, I thin that would be much fairer. And further, why can’t walmart premake those cakes based on the picture and have pre-made letters ready to add?
No the kid won’t care, but there’s a quality principle here at stake for Wal-Mart, assuming they care…which they obviously don’t, but obviously should. How’s this for an analogy – you go buy a car and you’ve seen pictures of what it looks like. You then go to drive it away after “prepping” and the hood is crumpled, old tires, scratched windows, and it’s not exactly the model you were told it was…wouldn’t you be upset?
While “everyone does it” in the industry as far as taking pictures of rapturously fake, plumped-up moist plastic food replicas, and the reality, if photographed would get laughs at best, that doesn’t mean that practice is good, right failr, or even legal. Technically I would say the consumer here is justified in a lawsuit based on false advertising, unless the picture had fine print saying “this cake is a fake false representation of our actual in-store product. Actual product may be made by crack-infested staff unconcerned about much less equipped with automatic spell checking for accuracy of iced letters and terms.”
This happened to me a few years ago…
I ordered a birthday cake from Safeway; For my own birthday. The day it was supposed to be ready for (the day before my birthday) I stopped in to pick it up. No cake. The order form is still pinned to their bulletin board. I complain to an assistant manager, and am assured it will be fixed. On my birthday I show up to pick up my cake at the time the manager gave me. No cake. Order form has vanished from bulletin board. No manager either. Luckily I am a passable cook, and was able to put on my own rush baking project before my guests arrived.
A week after my birthday, I get a call from Safeway. My cake is ready. What the HECK?!? By the time I get there, someone has helpfully boxed up my cake, set it out on a table, and sold it. Store manager promises to fix it, and won’t listen to me that my birthday was the previous week.
Two weeks after my birthday, and no cake yet. I was in the store to pick up some minor odds and ends, and the store manager asked me how I had liked my cake. I told him I had never received one. He looked pissed off, and stormed into the back room.
The week after that, when I came in to do my weekly grocery shopping, there was the manager, cake box in hand. Three weeks after my birthday, I finally got my birthday cake. Free of charge for the trouble, but still.
The same thing has happened to me with every special order I’ve had Safeway do since then, and I no longer do special orders from them. The alternatives are more expensive and further away, but actually having a birthday cake on your birthday more than outweighs the extra hassle.
I completely disagree. It shouldn’t be expected to look exactly like the picture, but the fact is she placed her order well in advance and they clearly half-assed it the night before. She paid for an advertised service and, regardless of what she paid, has every right to expect that service provided as she wants it.
Wal-mart is the reason I began baking my own cakes. It wasn’t just the design, it was the flavor… the freezer burnt flavor. Some are. They baked elsewhere, frozen and shipped.. I recommend bakeries that are not a chain
I’ve ordered 1 or 2 cakes from Wal-Mart before and they came out so hideous! I don’t think anyone in the bakery knows how to write or make cakes. I think the nice looking ones on display are ordered. Anytime I get a cake with writing it looks as though my 2 y/o colored the letters on. My 11 y/o wants the Star Wars cake they have there, but I just don’t want to take the chance of them ruining it
They NEVER make them according to the picture. Stop & Shop does the same thing…
I know this is old..but im looking for ideas for my sons 9th birthday and this came up. Im just 25 but im sure some of the ones who left comments on here are older. Yeah can you say mean!! Walmart gives people jobs and maybe not the highest qulity of people. The cake if made the same stuff would have been used with that fondue, which by the way isnt that good. So for a three year old i would say she wouldnt have ate the cake. And people are you guys really that hateful . I mean if you want cheap expexted it. In this case im sure they would do every cake the same because the have guidelines. If you want to pay 100 for a cake for a 3yr old just to eat be my guest. But why down people who work there because they do what there told. At the ones near me they have you write down what kind and what to say. I would have been upset about the filling if someone had an allergy but other wise hey its a cake and you paid what maybe 10. For people who sounds so up there and you cant part with 10. It looked like a great cake!