"They Lit the Candles and Everything" — Walmart Baker Says Woman Bought Display Cake

Sometimes the display cakes at a bakery just look good enough to eat. Like, literally, they look like they could be the real thing. And one TikTok user, @cardcaptor_s, whose real name is Charlie and who works at Walmart, explains in a video how a woman bought a Styrofoam cake by accident. According to Charlie, the woman bought a display Barbie cake and later called to report the mistake.

In a way, this should be seen as a compliment to the Walmart bakery. If the display cake looked that good, then it means the bakers on staff did a pretty solid job of decorating it. I mean, maybe the customer should have noticed something was amiss when she picked up the cake and felt a lack of weight that you usually feel with a thick cake and buttercream frosting. But this is a Walmart return at its finest.

Charlie explains in the video that the woman who accidentally bought the Styrofoam cake called soon after to explain what happened. According to the customer, the cake didn't have a price tag on it, so they took it to an employee, who had a label printed so they could purchase the cake.

The woman also claimed she spoke with someone in the bakery, but it could have been an employee inexperienced in the department, which would further explain the mistake.

"Imagine the shock and panic that flowed through my body when I got a call [that said], 'Hey, I just bought a cake from you guys and, um, it's Styrofoam,'" Charlie says in the TikTok.

She also says that the customer "lit the candles and everything" on the Barbie cake before someone apparently realized it was not, in fact, a real cake meant for celebrating a child's birthday. Hey, at least no one tried to eat it first.

The moral of the story here is to always ask the actual baker behind the counter how to purchase a cake you see on display. Because yes, there are Walmart cakes that are packaged and ready to go and it could be easy to mistake a display cake for one of those. But when you don't see a price tag, that should set off those alarm bells for you.

Even though not buying a Styrofoam cake should be a no-brainer, apparently, it's a thing. And according to comments under the TikTok video, it has happened to other people. One user commented, "I've been on the customer end of this before. Being sold the display is… I don't even have words."

Another person shared their experience: "This happened to one of my middle school teachers. They bought the cake for a class party and cut into Styrofoam."

And someone who also used to work in a Walmart bakery has seen a similar incident happen. "That almost happened to me when I was a cake decorator for Walmart," they said. "Lucky for me I had the display sticker on the container."

Of course there are also plenty of people who just can't understand how this mishap could occur. But if I was desperate for a last minute birthday cake and I found one on display that no one stopped me from grabbing, I might be in the same boat. I mean, the whole light-as-a-feather thing might make me pause. But in a way, I get it.