I needed a special birthday cake for my mother-in-law's 88th birthday. After reading Yelp reviews,…read moreI chose Sugar Chef. I cannot agree with the other reviewers, and am posting this negative review in hopes of helping others. The whole reason I picked Sugar Chef was how they had decorated the cake I offered for inspiration. What they gave me was NOTHING like the inspiration.
The only things they got right were the fondant color and chocolate cake. When I pointed this out to the rude person who brought out the cake, she took no responsibility for the errors, and no offer to try to fix the decoration. She only offered to refund the cost and I could leave without a cake...right before we were to bring it for the birthday dinner. This woman had the nerve to place blame on me, saying I wasn't specific in my order. Not only did I discuss what I wanted with Marie, but I put in an email exactly what I wanted, AND provided previous Sugar Chef photos I found online, as to how to decorate and another showing the ganache color. I even discussed dietary concern with buttercream icing as my reason for choosing jam filling.
The cake decoration was so pedestrian and could have been done by any reasonably talented grocery store. It had a bunch of same sized roses ringing the bottom of the cake, not around the middle of the cake (as in the inspiration photo). To add insult to injury, there was a lot of buttercream icing in between the layers and very little jam flavor, and although the chocolate cake had a nice flavor, the crumb was very dry.
Here is my original email specifying what I was ordering (edited for brevity):
6" chocolate cake
Seedless raspberry or strawberry filling
Fondant - the pretty blue color, as shown.
Due to father-in-laws digestion, he needs to limit his dairy intake, so a lot of buttercream icing would be bad for him.
Please use the Sugar Chef image as a reference for putting a decorated band of flowers around the perimeter of the cake, in colors that go with the fondant.
Decorate the top with or without additional flowers, with or without "Happy 88th Birthday," or a combo.
Most of all, the cake must be delicious.
I was so upset, I ended up sending two emails during the celebratory dinner, sharing my dissatisfaction regarding the ordinary decoration that wasn't even placed where I requested, and again when we cut into the cake and I saw the large amount of buttercream. I felt in my rights to ask for compensation on such an expensive cake, solely on those order details not being followed. I didn't even let them know the cake was dry. It's been a week and I've not received an email reply, a call, or simply a credit card refund. Their lack of following specific order details, execution, and taking responsibility has forced this poor review. Shame on them.