Questions & Answers

1. What is the best way to begin ordering a cake from you?
Please email info@thewhiteombre.com with

• The date of your event.
• The estimated number of servings required.
• Any designs or themes you have in mind. Would be great if you could send us some pictures.
• If you wish for us to design a cake for you based on a given theme, please let us know an expected budget.

2. Why do you prefer to handle order queries through email?
Having a single channel for order queries allows us to respond better. It allows us to keep track of our communications to avoid miscommunication. Emails allows us time to digest what you want, plan something and then respond.

3. Why can't I just give you a call about my order?
Phone calls are the worst mode of communication because there are no records. Also, only our senior chefs and bosses are in a position to answer complicated queries regarding prices and designs, and they might not always be around or free to take your call. Afterall, they have to bake the cakes. As a small business, we do rely on part-timers to assist with store front duties. Our part timers may be able to assist you with simple questions but nothing too complicated. A customized order is unique and sometimes complex. We will have to verify with you through email after the call whatever that has been communicated. So even though passing instructions over the phone is fast for you, it is actually to your disadvantage as sometimes information may get lost along the way. 

4. How far in advance should I contact you about an order? What if I have a last minute order?
You should tell us about your order the moment your party plans are firm so that we can check our availability for that date. Whether we can accept your order or not depends on our schedule, whether we still have available slots for that day. As our schedule typically fills up 1-2 weeks in advance (earlier during peak periods like school holidays or special occasions), we recommend confirming any order as soon as possible to avoid disappointments. For last minute orders, please contact us immediately as we may sometimes be able to squeeze something in for you depending on how busy we are. We can't guarantee that we will take your order but you'll never know without asking.

5. Will you email/text us progress shots or pictures of the cake before collection/delivery? Can we come by the store the day before to see the half completed cake?
No. We do not send out any work-in-progress or completed cake images to customers before their cake is collected/delivered. 

6. What cake flavors do you offer?
Please refer to our Customized Cake Flavor Guide (Scroll down to next section).

7. Do we need to work out every last detail of a design with you or can we just give you an general idea of what we want? (themes, colors, etc)
From experience, leaving some room for the cake artist's creativity always produces a nicer cake in the end. You are of course free to specify as much detail as you want, be it colors, placement of objects, etc... but what seems like a good idea in theory may not always turn out looking great on a real cake. We recommend that you give our cake artists a measure of trust and freedom to work on your cake. Afterall, you came to us and are paying for of our skills, why not make full use of them? When you are too specific, we will usually only go as far as your requirements for your cake. Given some creative freedom, we will always strive to make your cake look the best that it can be.

8. I want to order a customized cake but I have no idea what I want...
You may refer to our albums for ideas. We have done hundreds of cakes of various themes. You do not have to limit your choices to the cakes in our albums though, it is not meant to be a menu. It is merely a collection of all the cakes we have done so far for our customers. You may pick and choose various elements that you like from different cakes and request to have them combined on one cake. You may also send us images from magazines or from google searches for quotations. Alternatively, you can give us some information about the cake receipient's likes, hobbies, etcs, along with a rough budget, so that we may propose some ideas as well.

9. Do you provide sketches of cakes? Will you sketch for me until I'm completely happy with the design?
On occasion, when WE feel that a sketch is necessary to properly convey an intended design across, we may decide to do so for free ONCE, but only AFTER a deposit or payment has been made. We do not provide any form of sketch prior to payment confirmation as sketches take a lot of time and thought and our sketches have been taken in the past by customers to "shop" around for cheaper quotations. We will never do a sketch of obvious designs (eg. if you ask us to make a 3D car or a 3D bag of a particular make, that's exactly what it'll look like and we're not going to sketch it...). Should you ever insist on having a sketch of your cake for any reason outside of our recommendation, you may purchase them from us at $50 per sketch.

10. I only have a small party, but I want a big, spectacular cake without the left overs….
Your cake can be as big and spectacular as you want it to be. We do not need to make the whole item with edible cake inside. Maybe only a small portion is edible cake, the rest may be constructed with styrofoam or other materials. Please note that the majority of the cake's price is not in the edible cake, but in the whole ensemble, with craftsmanship and complexity of the design contributing to the majority of the price.

11. I have a limited budget, but I still want to order something special and unique...
Let us know what kind of budget you have in mind. Very often, we may be able to create something to fit your budget as long as it's something reasonable. Nothing that is customized and handmade is cheap, but there are often many ways to achieve a particular theme or look as long as you are not too picky.

12. Why do you ask for serving sizes while some other bakeries sell their cakes by weight?
As what we do are generally unique cakes, very often we ourselves do not know how heavy the end product is going to be. However, we do know for example that for 10 people, we will suggest a design that has an equivalent 6" round cake inside. However, the design might result in a cake that is 2kg or 10kg, depending on the decoration. Also different cakes with different fillings and densities may weigh vastly different even if they have the same physical dimensions. We typically use butter cakes with buttercream or chocolate fudge cakes with ganache inside our fondant cakes, which are much denser and heavier than fresh cream sponge cakes. Customers who have not ordered fondant cakes before will have no idea the relative weight against fresh cream sponge cakes. You may find more information by refering to our Cake Serving Guide (Scroll down to next section).

13. Why do I need to tell you my budget before you will design or propose a cake for me?
There are an infinite number of ways to execute a particular theme when customizing cakes. Just like how you'd tell a housing agent that you are looking for a house in a particular price range, we also need to know what kind of price range you are comfortable with so we know where to draw the line when proposing a suitable design.

14. Can you customize characters like Hello Kitty, Disney, Marvel or Minions on your cakes?
No. We are unable to customize popular copyrighted cartoon characters as it is illegal to do so without a license and both the seller and the buyer are at risk of a lawsuit. What we can do is create a base cake in a matching theme and customers may purchase and place their own plastic toys upon collection of the cake from us. For more information regarding copyright character cake, please refer to our Copyrighted Cakes FAQ (Scroll down to next section).

15. What is the best way to store excess cake and how long can I keep them?
Uneaten cake should be kept covered or wrapped, in the refrigerator and not longer than 1 week (2-3 days for cakes containing fruits or fresh fillings). When you take the cake out of the refrigerator, either microwave it for 15 seconds or let it sit for 30 minutes before eating it. Cold cakes are usually very hard and may taste dry, but once it warms up if will return to it's original soft and moist state. Should you wish to follow the tradition of freezing the top tier of a cake for a future anniversary, please let us know so we can make the necessary recommendations and preperations.

16. What kind of environment is best to display my fondant cake?
Fondant cakes are always best displayed at a cool aircon temperature (22C and below). At such a temperature, most fondant cakes (except those with fresh or perishable fillings) can easily stand for 2-3 days without any major problems.

17. How long can my fondant cake last if the party is under shelter without air conditioning?
The chocolate ganache or butter creams that the cakes are covered with melts at about 30 degrees celsius. While fondant itself melts at much higher temperature, if the ganache or buttercream under it starts melting, the fondant surface will begin to droop and sag and generally look bad. The general rule is if your party location is without air conditioning, keep a look out for the cake… if it starts to look wet and sticky on the surface or if decorations start bending and falling off, it's time to gather everyone for the cake cutting! Things like the weather, humidity and temperature can greatly affect the length of time you have with your cake at room temperature.

18. What should I do if a cake gets damaged after collection?
Once a cake is inspected by you and leaves our shop (for self collection) or is handed over by our delivery personel (for deliveries), we are no longer responsible for any damage that may occur. You are advised to keep your cake at the recommended temperature and handle with extreme care as there are often fragile pieces involved. Remember, your cake will often have already survived a number of hours at our shop before being collected or delivered. If any defects were going to occur, we would have already spotted and fixed them during that time.

19. What should I do if a cake arrives damaged from your delivery?
It is your duty to inspect the cake before receiving it from our delivery personel. If there are any damges, please inform us immediately. Upon accessing the damage, we will recommend a suitable course of action. Accidents do happen, and should a cake be seriously damaged while in our care, we will take full responsibility for it.

20. What is your minimum order?

• For fondant and signature cakes, our smallest is a 6" round.
• For cupcakes, the minimum is 8pc.
• For mini cakes, the minimum is 6pc.
• For cookies, the minimum is 10pc.
• For macarons, the minimum is 20pc.
• For cakepops, the minimum is 10pc.
• For all other items, please enquire with us.

21. Do you do deliveries?
Yes. Please refer to our Delivery FAQ (Scroll down to next section) for more information and a breakdown of pricings and timings.

22. How do I confirm an order?
An order is only confirmed AFTER we send you a CONFIRMATION EMAIL, after either a receipt of payment in full or a 50% deposit. You may refer to our Payment FAQ (Scroll down to next section). for detailed payment information. Note that we will inform on-going discussions of a filled date only as a reply to the email thread - that means we do not initiate informing on-going, unconfirmed discussions that their particular date is filled. Do check with us if you are only going to place your deposit several days after we have finalized the outline of your order in case the date is already filled. We will fully refund deposits if it is placed after slots are filled.

23. Can I sample your cakes before ordering a customized cake?
Yes. Please refer to our Cake Consultation FAQ (Scroll down to next section). for more information about booking a face to face consultation which includes cake tasting, with one of our staff. Please not that we do not entertain walk-in consultations as it is very inefficient and very disruptive to our work.

24. What if I don't like the taste of your cake after eating it? (i.e too sweet, too dry, etc) 
If you did not opt for a cake tasting session before booking your order and you think that we have genuinely made a mistake in the making of your cake, please return as much of the uneaten cake to us for examination. We will not entertain any requests for compensation if you simply don't like our cake without any evidence. Everyone is entitled to have different tastes, but unless it was a genuine mistake on our part, we will not entertain such claims. That being said, we endeavour to adjust our cakes to suit the majority. If you have a special dietery requirement or preference, please let us know during the ordering stage.