I actually had it happen once where the customer absolutely ruined the cake before we got it and didn’t know it. The cake had some weird multicolor/jellyish topping. And when I opened the box, all of that topping was was all dripping down one side. Clearly the cake had been tipped at an angle for some time, probably during the car ride. I know it wasn’t on our end, cause I personally took the cake from them when they came in, and hid it in a back walk in.

Anyways, when I opened the box and saw that pile of shit cake, I felt bad for the birthday person. So I enlisted the help of our dessert guy, and we scraped the jelly stuff off, smoothed out the frosting, redecorated with some whipped cream around the edges, and I personally wrote “Happy birthday” on the top.

I brought the cake out, did the birthday thing, and then whispered to the host what had happened when I saw his clearly upset face. He said “Oh, ok”. Then when they left they stiffed me on the tip and wrote “for ruining our cake” on the credit card slip. They even had the fucking balls to write a shitty review and call to complain to a manager (who, lucky for them, was me).

Now every cake that comes in gets opened and inspected in front of the guests. I wish we just didn’t allow cakes, but that’s the owner’s call.