Cake order terms and conditions: a template you can copy

A custom cake contract needs six clauses: what the deposit secures and when the balance is due, what you keep if the customer cancels or postpones, what the customer must tell you about allergies, how late the design can change and what an inspiration photo means, when responsibility passes at handover, and the rules for hired stands. The sample wording below is a starting point you can copy and adapt. Have a local adviser read your final version once, because consumer law limits some of it.

Get it signed, not just sent

Terms at the bottom of a quote are easy to dispute: the argument becomes whether the customer ever saw them. A signature settles that. You do not need one for a box of cupcakes. You want one when the order is large, booked months ahead, involves a venue or carries a non-refundable fee.

1. Deposit and balance

Booking fee and deposit. When you accept this quote, you pay a non-refundable booking fee of [$100], which secures your date, and a deposit that brings the total paid to [50]% of the order. No date is held until both are paid. If you cancel, what we keep is set out in the cancellation terms below.

Balance. The balance is due [14] days before your event date. If it is not paid by then, we may release your date and keep the deposit.

Orders under [$100] are paid in full when you book.

Splitting a small non-refundable booking fee from the rest of the deposit keeps the terms on the right side of UK and Australian consumer law (see below). Put "non-refundable" in the same sentence as the amount. A customer who first meets the word on the day they cancel argues about the word. Sizing the deposit is covered in how much deposit to take for a custom cake.

2. Cancellation and postponement

Cancellation. If you cancel:

• more than [60] days before the event, we keep the booking fee of [$100] and refund the rest of what you have paid;
• [14] to [60] days before, we keep the deposit;
• fewer than [14] days before, or once work on your cake has started, the full order total is payable.

Postponement. You may move your order once, to a date within [12] months, subject to availability, at no charge. Payments already made transfer to the new date. A second change is treated as a cancellation.

If we have to cancel, for illness or an event outside our control, we will refund everything you have paid.

3. Allergens and dietary requirements

Allergies. You must tell us in writing, when you order, about every allergy or dietary requirement among the people eating the cake.

Our kitchen handles [wheat, milk, egg, soy, tree nuts, peanuts and sesame]. We will tell you which allergens are in your cake's recipe and which may be present through shared equipment. We cannot guarantee any product is free from an allergen our kitchen handles.

Changes to allergy information after you order must be made in writing.

Never write "allergen free" unless you can prove it. Keep what the customer told you with the order.

4. Design changes and inspiration photos

Changes. Changes to design, flavour or size can be made up to [21] days before the event. After that, the cake is made as agreed. Later changes may be possible at extra cost, at our discretion.

Inspiration photos. Photos you share are a guide to style, not a copy. We do not reproduce another maker's work or trademarked characters. Colours are matched as closely as the medium allows and may look different under different lighting. Hand-finished work varies from any photo.

Items you supply. If you supply fresh flowers, toppers or ornaments, you are responsible for them being safe to place on food.

5. Delivery, set-up and handover

Collection. Responsibility for the cake passes to you when it is handed over. Please check it before you leave; we photograph every cake at handover.

Delivery. Responsibility passes when the cake is set up at the venue and the delivery is signed for. We photograph the finished set-up.

After set-up we are not responsible for damage caused by the venue's conditions (heat, direct sun, an unstable table) or by anyone moving the cake.

Access. If the venue is not open at the agreed time, waiting time or a second trip may be charged at [$40] per half hour.

The handover photo is your best evidence. Take it at every collection and delivery, with the cake in its box or in position, and note the name of the person who received it.

6. Hire items

Stands and equipment. Hired stands and equipment must be returned clean by [date]. A refundable deposit of [$80] is payable on hire and returned when the item comes back undamaged. Unreturned or damaged items are charged at replacement cost.

Set the deposit at least at what a replacement costs you today.

What consumer law will not let you enforce

Terms you write still sit under consumer law, which a signature cannot remove.

United Kingdom. The CMA's guidance on unfair terms under the Consumer Rights Act 2015 says a genuine deposit that works as a reservation can be kept in full, but "will not normally be more than a small percentage of the price", and a larger prepayment kept on cancellation may be a disguised penalty. Beyond that small booking fee, what you keep should match your unavoidable costs and lost profit, such as bespoke materials already bought and a date you can no longer fill. If the event cannot happen at all for reasons outside both your control, even a "non-refundable" deposit should normally be refunded. For UK terms, make the non-refundable part a modest booking fee and keep the rest of the deposit against costs actually incurred.

Australia. Under the Australian Consumer Law, a term in standard-form consumer terms is unfair if it causes a significant imbalance, is not reasonably necessary to protect your legitimate interests and would cause the customer detriment. Unfair terms are void, and penalties have applied since November 2023. Keeping payments well beyond your likely loss, or penalising only the customer, risks failing that test.

The fix in both places is the ladder above: what you keep rises with how close the event is, because that is when your real loss rises too.

Keep the whole thing to one or two pages, in the order the customer will meet it, and review it once a year and after any dispute.

Getting it signed

ibakepro includes e-sign on every plan, with no per-document fee. Upload your terms to the Vault, place the signature and date fields once, and send the same contract for every wedding. Your customer signs on any device, and the signed copy, with a certificate showing who signed and when, is filed on that customer's record. Pickup and delivery proof, with a photo and a signature, is taken at handover.