Cupcake Paradise — Restaurant in Toronto

Original review follows my update

[Update: Apr 28, 9:40 pm]

Received new cupcakes tonight, which perhaps suggests my original order wasn't up to usual standards (?)

Cupcakes arrived with what appear to be the toppings I expected. Adding second pic as illustration.

A little late for the intended event, but have to appreciate the extra effort on their part. I assume my initial experience was an outlier and will definitely give them another go.

Thank you cupcake paradise for the gesture - it was unexpected, but it is appreciated!

[Original review]

Have to say I'm a little underwhelmed by the cupcakes I ordered. They appeared nothing like the pics on the website, and couldn't really discern the flavours I had ordered.

I ordered 2 of each of the following vegan cupcakes:

Black Forest Salted Caramel Chocolate Lover Peanut Butter Jam Lemon Newtella

Every cupcake starts as a plain chocolate or vanilla cupcake -- which were moist and quite nice on their own.

The flavours were left to the icing, and with no sign of hazelnuts, salt, caramel, jam or peanuts, we honestly could not tell which flavors were which. There was a chocolate(?) drizzle on a few, but that's about it.

Only the chocolate lover, lemon and black forest were discernable from appearance. The rest were all just "chocolate adjacent with maybe a hint of nut".

Did I mention there was zero hint of jam alluded to in the site pics? Maybe it's the speckled chocolate one? Or was that the salted caramel? 8 of us putting our heads together couldn't figure it out.

So honestly, for the price, it's hard to justify -- especially considering you're getting pretty plain cupcakes and not the pleasant looking ones pictured...

UPDATE: The owner is texting and calling us saying she still doesn’t understand what the problem is. She still will not acknowledge the poor customer service, the poor quality cake that fell apart and the fact that we were forced to take a premade cake off the shelf that we still had to pay for. She is only upset that we are telling others the truth on Google reviews. I’m extremely disappointed and appalled by the service and quality at Cupcake Paradise. We ordered a vegan cake, and as soon as we got to the car, we noticed the color was completely wrong, and the cake had started falling apart. We immediately returned to the shop to show the owner, but she was unapologetic, dismissive, annoyed and completely unprofessional. Instead of offering any form of apology or solution, she said, “Well, what do you want me to do?”

Her attitude was unacceptable – zero accountability, zero customer service, and absolutely no effort to make things right. She blamed the poor quality on the fact that it was a vegan cake, which is ridiculous if you’re advertising and selling them. If you can’t deliver, don’t offer it.

The cake was unpresentable, and despite that, I was denied a refund and forced to take a premade cake off the shelf. For a $185 cake, this level of service is beyond disappointing – it’s unacceptable and appalling. I will never return, and I highly recommend others...

Imagine paying $185 for this disaster. This is the condition the cake was in at the time of pick-up. If you’re looking for terrible customer service, this is the place for you! There was no apology, no attempt to fix the issue, and plenty of attitude—as if it was our fault. We provided reference photos, including the requested olive-green color, but the final product looked completely off and they blamed the discrepancy on the vegan ingredients. Maybe instead of making up excuses, try communicating with your customers beforehand and letting them know that you might not be able to meet their expectations versus delivering a subpar product and charging an outrageous price. After nearly an hour of back-and-forth, we were told we’d receive a partial refund. Since our friend’s birthday was that same night, we had no choice but to settle for a premade vegan cake from this establishment, priced at $60, and get refunded the difference. Had there been transparency from the beginning and a genuine attempt to find a solution, the outcome could have been different. Instead, this experience left a bad taste in our mouths—and not just from the lack of flavour in their cakes.

I fully expect them to comment on this review with more excuses instead of taking...