Baker Admits Using $7 Grocery Store Cakes in Orders Selling for Up to $180

An Australian home baker accused of dressing up inexpensive supermarket cakes and selling the finished creations for as much as $180 has acknowledged using Woolworths mud cakes in some customer orders.

Nadine Walters, who runs Mrs Walters Wonderful Cakes in Morwell, Victoria, told A Current Affair that an oven malfunction led her to buy pre-made cake layers when she still had orders to fill.

The explanation came after customers began questioning what was underneath the elaborate icing. One customer peeled back the outer layer of a cake and found the distinctive chocolate frosting and white swirl associated with a Woolworths mud cake still underneath.

Walters said using the supermarket cakes was not her usual practice and later acknowledged she should have told customers what had happened.

Under The Icing

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Walters has operated her home cake business for about five years, producing cakes for birthdays, anniversaries, weddings and other celebrations.

The controversy centered on Woolworths mud cakes that sell for roughly $7 to $10 in Australia. Customers can pay Walters as much as $180 for one of her decorated cakes.

When A Current Affair asked whether she had used a Woolworths mud cake, Walters confirmed that she had.

“My oven had a malfunction,” she said. “I bought layers for a few cakes. That was the end of it.”

The program pressed Walters on the difference between the supermarket price and what customers paid for the finished cakes. Walters emphasized that she was still decorating the cakes rather than simply reselling them unchanged.

Using Woolworths mud cakes as the starting point for elaborate desserts is itself hardly unusual. Videos showing people stacking, trimming and redecorating the supermarket cakes have become a popular online cake-hack genre.

The dispute surrounding Walters was instead about whether customers knew that was what they were buying.

A Familiar Swirl

One customer identified by A Current Affair as Sarah said the discovery was particularly obvious because the original Woolworths icing had apparently been left on the cake.

“The biggest shock is she didn’t even wipe the icing off,” Sarah said.

Sarah had previously ordered from Mrs Walters Wonderful Cakes and also accused the business of delivering another cake with cat hair on it. That allegation has not been independently verified.

A separate News.com.au report said other customers came forward after the Woolworths cake complaint circulated online, while some past customers defended Walters and shared positive experiences with her work.

A Current Affair also stressed that it was not suggesting every cake Walters had sold came from Woolworths. The report showed examples of other cakes she had produced and said there was evidence that she made cakes herself.

Her Response

Walters later provided the program with a statement accepting responsibility for not disclosing the substitution.

“I am fully responsible for not being more forthcoming,” she said. “It was never my intention to deceive anyone.”

She also said she was properly registered and had completed relevant food-safety requirements.

Walters said she had refunded some customers who received cakes made with the supermarket layers.

For customers who paid premium prices expecting a cake baked by Walters, however, the explanation came only after someone looked beneath the icing.