House of Cake, Wedding Cake Review

Overall Rating

These two women were nice and polite. They had many pictures of previous wedding cakes they had made, and they were pretty willing to do anything we wanted.

Prices were too high. Refused to negotiate. Canceled contract (and refunded deposit) when changes were made in writing, though they agreed to changes on the phone. Falsely advertised free delivery within 25 miles.

House of Cake did not discuss their prices until the end, which ended up being over $600 for a three-tier yellow cake with strawberry filling and fondant icing, only decorated with a couple of bands of plain ribbon icing on each tier and 6 sugar flowers. We called back later to ask for an itemized receipt to understand how the cake had gotten so expensive. We realized that we should have talked prices all along, rather than just discussing what we wanted then having them give us the price.

However, we called them and asked how we could reduce the price. They said that removing the sugar flowers would remove about $100 from the price, and this would be an acceptable option. They did not want us to put silk flowers on the cake because it would ruin their piece of art, and we understood that-we agreed. They agreed to change our contract and remove sugar flowers from the design for a reduction in $100 on the phone. However, we first had to ask for them to send us an itemized receipt.

When we got the itemized receipt, we realized they were also charging us for deliver. They falsely advertised free delivery then refused to follow through. Our wedding location was within 25 miles of their homes, yet they refused to follow through with the stated "Free Deliver Within 25 Miles" stated on their brochure. They never even mentioned this when we met with them, and when we went home and looked at the brochure again, we realized this had been mistakenly added to our cost. We wrote back that the delivery charge should be removed from the contract. Then, when we returned the itemized receipt with the changes we had already discussed on the phone, these women said we had "voided our contract" because of the changes.

These women are nice and polite upfront, but don't let the British accent and friendliness lull you in. They are talented, but their prices are too high. We did not void our contract-we made only one change-the removal of the sugar flowers for a $100 deduction. The delivery charge should have never been included-this was false advertising. They pulled out because we called them on their false advertising and wanted to remove the sugar flowers, though they said this was okay.

Wedding Date: 08/06/2005

Members' Comments ongdesider's Review

• Thehouseofcake on 25th Sep 2006

  Hello,
  I am Lisa Wallace Co-owner of The House of Cake. I would like to take this time to comment on the positive/negative review left by Gina. Conveniently, she failed to tell the entire truth. I will explain. A year prior to her wedding we received a phone call from her mother requesting our services for her daughters wedding. She said we came HIGHLY RECOMMENDED to her from a dear friend that we were doing a wedding cake for. Sight unseen she sent a nonrefundable deposit to hold the day of her daughters wedding. For close to one year we turned down wedding cake orders for that day as it was reserved for Gina's wedding. Closer to her wedding date Gina and her mother came in for a consultation. Gina was set on a particular cake and brought us a photo to see if we could duplicate it. The photo came with a price tag from another bakery that had previously done this cake. The price of the cake from the other bakery Gina picked out was $1,300.00. We told her we could indeed duplicate the cake and the price would be less than half of the cost from the other bakery. The cake had peony flowers which would be completely hand sculpted out of sugar, which is our trademark. Each flower would consist of approximately 50 individual petals all hand sculpted. At the end of the consultation we handed Gina's mother the contract and insisted she take it home, look over it and if they decided to use The House of Cake to send back the signed contract with the 25% deposit. Gina's mother insisted on signing the contract in front of myself and my business partner and stated she was positive she wanted The House of Cake to design and bake Gina's wedding cake. It was approximately 35 minutes later when I received a phone call from Gina's mother explaining to me that she was not prepared to pay $600.00 for her daughters wedding cake and where could we cut in order to bring the price of the wedding cake to $350.00. We explained to her that removing the flowers would only reduce the cost by $100.00. She still was not satisfied. We told her we could not reduce a $1,300.00 wedding cake lower than $500.00. At that point with no other options insight we then offered to refund her NONREFUNDABLE deposit out of good faith. Gina's mothers final comments to The House of Cake was a vow to run our business into the ground, hence the negative comment. We have been in business for 5 years now and going strong. We realize our prices are not for everyone but we are talented in our craft, as Gina reluctantly admitted and we strive to make all our clients as happy as possible. Please feel free to phone us and we will be more than happy to supply you with a list of references from our past wedding cakes clients. Thank you for your time and we hope to hear from you as a potential client.
  # 302-423-0059

• gdesider on 26th Sep 2006

  I wanted to follow-up on Lisa Wallace's comment. All we wanted was a 100 deduction for not doing the sugared flowers--which they agreed to on the phone that same day. We decided we didn't need them. Furthermore, we wanted the delivery charge removed since they advertised free delivery from the moment my mother paid the initial deposit. We were happy with the option to remove the flowers for 100, reducing the total price to 500, plus the delivery charge. At this point, a year and a half after this debacle, I can't remember what the delivery charge was, but that is the only other charge we wanted changed, based on their previous advertising of free delivery.
  
  What threw us was the fact that they called us back later and canceled the contract, AFTER agreeing to remove the flowers from the design and reduce the price for 100, plus the fact that they were not upholding their free delivery ad claim.
  
  We went on to have our cake, designed exactly like the magazine cover I had found, using fresh flowers instead of sugared flowers, by Cakes by Kim in Wilmington, Delaware, http://www.cakesbykim.com/, 1.302.252.9995. Kim was absolutely WONDERFUL to work with, and she made and delivered our cake for $400. The cake was the exact same as the magazine cover I had found, and it tasted delicious, that day, as well as one year later on our anniversary. In the end, everything worked out, but we were disturbed by House of Cake's failure to remain true to their word to provide free delivery and to remove the flowers from the design and price.

• katharrison on 7th Jul 2008

  I disagree with this review because... some people are hard to please. I had a wonderful experience with these two ladies and will use them again. It is a shame that some people are so negative and do not see past their pockets. You go ladies, keep up the wonderful work that you do.