Every so often, TikTok blesses us with a drama that gets our blood pumping and reminds us why we enjoy living.
On April 7, 2023 small bakery owner @Kylieraeallen posted a TikTok storytime about what she describes as her "worst customer experience ever." The only problem is that she was in the one in the wrong. Who's the real Karen here?
In the video Kylie is making a rainbow cake similar to the one she’s describing.
She says her rainbow cake has a signature style, but it’s not a unique cake design. It’s a six layer rainbow cake with vanilla buttercream covered in sprinkles (which are also known as jimmies in the baking world.)
Kylie says that the client was surprised that there were sprinkles and got “super rude and defensive at the price of the cake.”
She says the customer then bashed the bakery on her Facebook page. Kylie gave a reminder that they didn’t individually put the sprinkles on the cake so they look different every time.
It should be noted that in the example video Kylie made, she didn’t put any writing on the top like the client ordered.
The rainbow cake she made in the complaint video didn’t look like the best rainbow cake ever made, but if I only saw this video I would have felt for her.
The full story paints a completely different picture.
The customer, who goes by @afreebird on TikTok posted what the cake she received looked like.
Despite the time and effort that went into the cake, the end result was not worth the $80 price tag in my opinion. It did not look professionally done at all, mostly because of the writing on the top. “Happy Birthday Trilby" was off center and praticably illegible.
The sprinkles also looked much more haphazard than the cake Kylie made on her explanation video.
In the DMs shared, she sent Kylie a photo of the cake, stating that this was her problem with it, which triggered Kylie to go into defense mode about the time and work she put into the cake. She claimed that the client should have stated that she wanted the cake to look a different way.
But it wasn’t the style of the cake that was the issue, it was the execution. The client, who has experience making cakes herself, ended up making her take in the same style of cake with rainbow layers, sprinkles, and writing on the top, but it turned out looking much more professional than the one sold by Kylie’s bakery.
Kylie uploaded a video of some of her other cakes after the story started going viral. Many of them looked fine, but some of her examples also lacked professionalism.
The patchy ears on this Mickey Mouse cake look concerning.
And while the lettering on this birthday cake is better than the Trilby Rainbow cake, the flowers are lopsided and melting.
This is another example of sloppy piping. I think it's meant to look asymmetrical and rustic, but the aesthetics are still off for this.
This three-tier wedding cake is beautiful, but it's fairly simple. Even though it's simple, it's executed well and worth giving to a client.
This is probably the best example Kylie shared as it showcases a lot of detailed fondant sculpting that's pretty impressive. It still has some issues, but in general it's decent art.
Here's another questionable outcome from her Facebook page, though. The flowers look lovely, but the eyes are off-center, the snout is misshapen, and the choice of piping on the hair for what I assume to be a cow, isn't working for me personally.
All the photos on her website and socials advertising her creations are from her shop, but it has come out that she has used photos from other bakeries to advertise her cake-making classes.
Most recently, Kylie posted a defensive video where she went after some of her critic's appearances and then dueted Cake Boss Bobby Valastro making a similar rainbow cake. Instead of dumping the sprinkles on top and then wiping them off, which is Kylie's technique, he was scooping them up with his hand to place them on the frosting.
Kylie invited Bobby to make a rainbow cake with her in an obvious attempt to turn all the negative attention she’s getting into major clout. She’s also done an interview about the fiasco with The Insider.