Photo: TikTok
She claims that she ordered it in advance, but some people believe that it is her own fault.
By Megan Quinn — Written on Apr 27, 2023
A mother was surprised after she picked up her son’s birthday cake from Costco only to discover that none of her decorating requests had been met. Instead, she was left to decorate it herself with a few tubes of colored frosting and some sprinkles.
In preparation for her son’s second birthday party, Katelynn Ross decided on a “Sesame Street” theme. She turned to Costco to purchase most of the food she would be providing at the party, including the Sesame Street customized cake she ordered in advance.
The night before her son Teddy’s party, Ross stopped at the Costco bakery counter to pick up the cake. However, the one she was presented with was not the one she ordered.
In a TikTok video, the mother displays the blank white sheet cake from Costco that she has to decorate herself.
“No decorators work in the evening which was when I came to pick this up, so no one knows why it was blank,” Ross says. She assumes that the cake was left undecorated possibly because it was Sesame Street themed, and some bakeries are not permitted to add licensed decorations.
Although Ross claims that all she asked for was a green street sign similar to the ones depicted in Sesame Street, with her son’s name and age written onto it. “I asked for some one, two, threes, A, B, Cs, on it and a top border and a bottom border,” she says.
The mother was left with no choice but to decorate the cake on her own. “The person there gave me a couple of colors to take home,” she says, showing off the pipettes filled with yellow, red, and green frosting. Additionally, the manager offered Ross $5 off the cake for the inconvenience, which she says she didn’t bother using when she checked out.
While she shares that she has decorated cakes in the past before, she is not thrilled with her handwriting. However, we must admit the mother nailed this cake! The end results include a green and yellow street sign, a yellow border, a green bottom border, various colored sprinkles, and the words “Happy Birthday Teddy” written across the top. Still, the fact that she was given a completely blank cake, to begin with, is what is difficult for Ross to grasp.
“What confuses me the most is why they couldn’t do the bare minimum of at least ‘Happy Birthday Teddy’ and the border colors,” she says.
In the caption of her video, Ross adds that Costco’s decision to leave the cake blank was a “horribly petty plan.” While she admits that she still loves the store, it will be the last time she orders a customized cake from them since she “didn’t need the added stress of changing plans.”
Some TikTok users agreed with Ross and praised her on her cake-decorating skills. “You did an amazing job, Mama,” one user complimented. “I'm a decorator. if I can't do the order that SOMEONE else took. I'll call the customer if no answer u get a blank cake. It's better than NO cake,” another user shared.
However, many users argued that it was the mother’s own fault since Costco does not decorate customized cakes.
“I work at Costco, the reason why is because they don’t do custom cakes, you must pick from already approved designs,” one user pointed out. “As far as I know Costco just does the pre-selected decor in their book. There are like five choices and sesame street ain't one,” another user wrote.
According to Costco's website, customers can pick a cake design from a list of pre-selected designs, however, they cannot order a customized cake.
Megan Quinn is a writer at YourTango who covers entertainment and news, self, love, and relationships.