A Cake Life — Restaurant in Honolulu

Let me start off by saying that we have been a fan of A Cake Life. We got our wedding cake from them, and we bought their cookie decorating kits. We wanted to support this small local business. However, our most recent experience was just HORRIBLE.

It started about two weeks ago, when I sent A Cake Life an email and DM through IG asking if they could make a vegan cake for my wife's birthday. I got an email back pretty quickly letting me know it could be done. I'm thinking - GREAT! I immediately emailed back asking about the price, flavor of the cake and providing the info they requested. I also requested a pick up a day before my wife's birthday.

I didn't get a response. So, I sent a follow up email. No response.

I wait a few days. Still, no response. So, I contact them on Instagram, and I get a message informing me that I will be getting an email shortly.

A few days before my requested pick up date, and I still didn't receive the email response I was told I would get. No email confirmation, no confirmation on the price of the cake - NOTHING. Through this all, I'm relying on their initial response that it could be done.

I AGAIN reached out to them via Instagram, and I FINALLY received an invoice - this is after multiple follow ups by both email and IG.

For the vegan option they added on an extra 20 dollars (1/3 the price of the cake). I was not told this from the start - even though I was clear from the start that I wanted a vegan cake.

When I brought this to their attention, the response I received was that they were "very busy" and that I should place orders "3 weeks to 30 days in advance". I asked them from the start if they could make the cake, and I was told yes. At no point was I told it couldn't be done.

What upset me even more was:

1. A Cake Life is advertising and posting on IG all the speciality cakes they can make. There is no mention to order 3 weeks to 30 days in advance.
2. I asked if they could make the cake up front in my initial email. At no point did they tell me it was too short a timeframe.
3. I had to continually follow up on IG and email.
4. I relied on our initial contact that it could be done - when, I would've understood if they were too busy or it was too quick a turnaround. Now, I'm without a cake for my wife's birthday.

It felt like A Cake Life was shifting the blame to me by responding that I should've ordered the cake "3 weeks to 30 days in advance."

Well, A Cake Life, you should've been more responsive. Their IG account is full of posts (sometimes multiple posts in a day!) But, they can't seem to follow up on emails and respond to customer inquiries???

It's absolutely unacceptable to put the blame on the customer for the lack of responsiveness and dropping the ball. I am beyond disappointed in the customer service that I received - especially, since we have been loyal...

We had our wedding cake & dessert table catered through A Cake Life back in May 2022. The positive: communication for inquiries and ordering went smoothly. We picked up our cake tasting bento without a problem and even had some helpful tips from the bakery when deciding what colors to choose for our cupcakes. Everything tasted amazing and came exactly how we ordered (especially our wedding cake) the design, flavor, and little details we requested were all in place. The negative - a few reasons for the 3-star review. The biggest reason: our dessert table was not set up at the pre-determined time. This was a big problem and irritant for me as we had discussed with the bakery several times before (and it was included in our order summary/receipt) that EVERYTHING must be setup and completed before 11AM as that is the time guests were arriving and our wedding party grand entrance was at 11:30am. By 11am the bakery had not yet shown up at the venue. After calling we confirmed the were at least en route. They arrived at 11:15am and were setting up for about 20-30 minutes. Unfortunately all the guest had already been seated and the dessert table was still not completed. During our grand entrance past the dessert table it was still being setup and we even have some of the employees in the background of our entrance photos setting up - lol. The other reason for the 3 star review is that we paid a deposit (somewhere around $300-400) to rent the cupcake stands/plates. The policy is that these rentals must be cleaned and returned within 72 hours after the wedding to get your deposit back. The wedding was on a Saturday, the rentals were returned clean on Monday morning. When requesting the refund we were told that it would take 3-5 business days to mail a check (strange you wouldnʻt have a refund check ready). After 1 week of no mail we followed up and were told nothing had been mailed yet. Altogether it took almost 3 weeks to get a refund. Overall they nailed the dessert, they just need to work out some...

Our wedding cake & cupcakes were done beautifully & were delicious! However, I have to knock down 2 stars due to Kristin Kato’s unprofessionalism during the process of ordering it.

After carefully picking out the design & flavors of our cake & cupcake, I submitted an order request in October 2022. My then fiancé & I were out of state, & our parents kindly agreed to give her the moneys for the order on our behalf (as cash & Venmo were the only options, unless you're ok with paying the minimum 3% processing fee for credit & debit card use). I stated that the payment should be paid in full by the end of November 2022.

Long story short - a slew of personal life events happened, & I was not notified that the payment was not actually received. My Aunt/Wedding Coordinator followed up in the beginning of January 2023. My cousins were meaning to add some surprises to my order as their wedding gift to us. However, Kristin was unfortunately snide in her replies. I understand that she never got the payment, but there was no form of follow up whatsoever until my Aunt inquired. I even sent an apology over the miscommunication, & she did not respond until we brought up the topic of payment again. After convincing Kristin to not increase the delivery fee (per website it’s $50), we finally paid the invoice in full.

So, “thanks” Kristin for not only being rude and incapable of decent communication, but also ruining the surprise. It’s a shame knowing that you were so sweet & easy to work with in the beginning. Also, we would expect better service coming from the owner of this establishment. Oh well, everyone was happy on our wedding day.

For those of you reading my experience, I just want to clarify that I still recommend A Cake Life to cater your cake, cupcakes, & other sweets for your special event. However, I would not recommend doing business personally/directly with...