It was my little ladies 5th birthday this week, so what better timing could there be to review 2 Baker Days letterbox cakes?
Hmm whats a letterbox cake I hear you ask? Well as you may guess, it is a small personalised real cake that is packaged especially to be sent by post and is small enough to come straight through your letterbox and amazingly it stays in tact and still looks complete when it arrives with you and I literally did watch mine come through the letterbox and slam on the floor.
As you can see, the cake arrives in a beautiful keepsake tin, the sticker which keeps it closed removed easily and then my girls have decided to use their tins as jewellery boxes - great idea!
These cakes which are sold as being suitable for for 4-5 portions ( 12cm diameter and 2.5" thick cake) retails for £14.99 including delivery for a traditional Madeira cake. You can change the cake to carrot, lemon, double chocolate chip, fruit or even gluten and wheat free for an additional £1.20 - £2.00. The site says that each letterbox cake comes with a party pack included - candles, gift card, party horn and balloons but I have to say none of the 4 cakes I received did.
On the plus side the Madeira cake did taste excellent, my girls were super excited to have a cake with their photo on and it was extra special that it was small and they could take the knife and carve it up themselves. However, I personally feel that £14.99 is more expensive than I could afford.
On the plus side the Madeira cake did taste excellent, my girls were super excited to have a cake with their photo on and it was extra special that it was small and they could take the knife and carve it up themselves. However, I personally feel that £14.99 is more expensive than I could afford.
The cakes arrived quickly after order, which in one way was good but in another it meant I had to keep them for 5 days before my girls birthday, but I suppose it is a toss up of whether they should be there early or risk them not arriving on time.
Here are the girls cakes as they arrived -
As you can see from the photo below, the longer you keep the cake the more the colouring on the icing deteriorates. The photo on the left is as the cake arrived and on the right is when it was served 5 days later, having been stored in its postal wrapping in a cool and dark cupboard. The photo does deteriorate in quality and the Princess becomes more plastic and blow-up doll like but it could have been a lot worse...
Left - as the cake arrived, right 5 days later |
As the cake looks and is advertised on the Baker days site, quite a colour difference, I'm sure you'll agree! |
....and talking of worse, the cakes I have shown you above were the second batch of cakes that we received. As the first ones the postman did not put through the door, so they spent the weekend in the sorting office and the photos below show how they arrived with me. As you can imagine I was seriously unimpressed. I contacted Baker Days straight away and their customer service was excellent, they have a 100% satisfaction commitment and they were happy to send me more cakes, which of course you can see from above were far, far better. I was also pleased to see that they had added stickers to the front of these boxes to say the packaging has been designed to go through a letterbox, so please post them. It is always good when customer feedback is listened to.
The first batch of cakes that arrived were in poor quality after being stored at the post office depot |
Whilst the second cakes that arrived were perfectly acceptable and my girls were very happy, I have to say that I was not blown away and for £14.99 I want to be blown away. Also for me there is just too much uncertainty of when the cakes would be delivered, how they have been stored in delivery and what condition they would be when they arrived.
I do think the idea is a lovely one but just not for me.
Right of Reply
I received an email from the Mangaing Director at Baker Days in reponse to my review and I felt it was only fair to share their feedback with you. I do like a company that take customer comments on board.
Here is what she said -
We really appreciate your feedback and valid points that you have made. We are now working on changes to our website to inform people that the colours and print out will be different to what they see on the website as the dpi quality is different to website then to printing on the icing . And you will be able to see it on www.bakerdays.com very soon. So thank you for pointing it out.
With regards to your points on your blog please find enclosed notes from me ( I have highlighted your text in purple)
’’The site says that each letterbox cake comes with a party pack included - candles, gift card, party horn and balloons but I have to say none of the 4 cakes I received did’’
All of our cakes come with party packs ( not only letterbox cakes), Letterbox cakes are the ones that come in the tin but all of our cakes come with balloons , candles and party horn
With regards to both of your order we have agreed with (our search company) that we will be sending cakes to review not the party extras. We have clarified that with (our search company) and you should have been informed. Please accept our apology if you were expecting the extras.
‘’The cakes arrived quickly after order, which in one way was good but in another it meant I had to keep them for 5 days before my girls birthday, but I suppose it is a toss up of whether they should be there early or risk them not arriving on time.’’
Just to let you know we do offer a dispatch date option on our website so customers can choose the dispatch date so if you are ordering from the website you can simply fill that info in . And we always deliver on time ( well royal mail and TNT do).
Also for me there is just too much uncertainty of when the cakes would be delivered, how they have been stored in delivery and what condition they would be when they arrived.
As I have mentioned in my previous comment we do give our customer a choice when the cakes will be despatched.
Disclosure: I received these cakes free of charge for the purposes of this review. I have not been instructed what to write and I remain honest.
I'm really impressed with not only the honesty and constructive criticism in your review, but also the fact you've given the company the right to reply. Helpful and informative review, thank you.
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