A dispute over an $84, sprinkled-covered rainbow birthday cake spiraled into a viral frenzy on TikTok

• A dispute over a small-town baker's rainbow cake became a viral sensation on TikTok.
• The customer was upset after paying $84 for the cake from Kylie Kakes in Princeton, West Virginia.

A baker on TikTok described how a dispute with a customer over a sprinkle-covered rainbow cake spiraled out of control and led to angry strangers review-bombing her business.

Kylie Allen, who runs Kylie Kakes in Princeton, West Virginia, posted about a run-in with a woman who was unhappy with the cake she bought for her mom's birthday in April.

The customer, Ashleigh Freeman, paid $83.97 for the cake, which she ordered via Facebook chat to come with a message for her mom, per screenshots reviewed by Insider.

Both Allen and Freeman spoke with Insider not long after about what happened.

Freeman complained after picking the cake up, first in a phone call and private messages, and later on her own Facebook page.

Allen responded with a TikTok post, which caught fire and put the dispute in front of millions of people.

"Today I had one of the worst client experiences I've ever had since opening the storefront," said Allen in her initial post, which has amassed more than 3.1 million views.

She described being asked for an 8-inch, 6-layer rainbow cake with vanilla buttercream and the words "Happy Birthday Trilby" on top, which Insider verified via the screenshots.

She didn't name Freeman in the post, but Freeman later said in a message that everyone in their town would have known it was her.

"Upon arrival, she seemed to be really surprised the cake was covered in sprinkles," Allen said in her TikTok. "We explained to her that all of our signature rainbow cakes are decorated this way and covered in sprinkles."

Allen said Freeman got "super defensive and very rude about the price of the cake," and "bashed us and put us on her Facebook page."

Freeman responded by posting her own TikTok, including pictures of the cake, which she argued was sub-standard.

Freeman said the cake was not worth the $84 price tag, citing the uneven sprinkles and messy writing. The majority of viewers of her video agreed with her.

Freeman later deleted the video, saying she didn't want Allen to get harassed online, and asked Allen to take down her post too. But Allen left her post up, and Freeman re-uploaded her video.

Since then, dozens of TikToks have popped up following the drama, racking up hundreds of thousands, sometimes millions, of views, with many people agreeing with Freeman that the cake was overpriced

"I've bought $40 cakes that look 1000x better," one person commented. Some accused Allen of having unclean hands or fingernails while she was placing the sprinkles on the cake, which Allen told Insider was not true.

Allen said the attention led to people sending nasty messages to her husband and daughter. Some accused her of trying to pass off other bakers' cakes as her own, which she denied.

"I wasn't expecting it to be quite honest with you," Allen told Insider of the blowback.

'It was not a quality cake for $84'

Allen, speaking with Insider in April, said she wasn't at the store when Freeman picked up her cake, but that her husband received a complaint call about half an hour later.

"She said that she wasn't aware that it was covered in sprinkles and that her family didn't like sprinkles," Allen said, paraphrasing what her husband told her. "Nothing was mentioned about the writing that was on top."

Freeman told Insider that "obviously, sprinkles were not the issue."

"It was not a quality cake for $84," said Freeman, who also took issue with Allen not being there when she picked the cake up.

Allen showed Insider screenshots of the Facebook Messenger conversation where they continued to argue. In one message, Allen asked Freeman to call if she had an issue with the cake.

"Look at it," Freeman responded, with a photo of the cake. "That's the problem."

Freeman said that she would have happily paid $90 for "quality work," but "if it looks like shit, no ma'am."

Allen responded, calling Freeman "rude" and "disrespectful," and said she was no longer welcome at the bakery.

"It's not disrespectful to expect quality," Freeman said. "It's disrespectful to serve your reliable customers something like this."

Allen said she would have made changes to the cake if Freeman had asked.

Freeman didn't seek a refund, and later messages show that she ate the cake, calling it "very tasty" in a post seeking a ceasefire.

But Allen didn't back down, criticizing Freeman for complaining in public and using disrespectful language.

In return, Freeman told Allen she hoped she would "go outta business," and said their hometown deserved better than a "subpar boxed cake from an unprofessional, dirty finger nailed 'baker.'"

Freeman admitted to Insider she said "something mean" in the heat of the moment.

"I was a bit rude after I tried to call a truce and she said no," she said.

Freeman then started baking her own cakes and posting the results on TikTok.

Flooded with negative reviews

Meanwhile, strangers on TikTok were making their own minds up about the situation.

Allen said her bakery's profiles on Facebook and Google were being flooded with one-star reviews referencing the dispute, until she turned the review function off.

On Yelp, 18 one-star reviews were left over a period of one week from people who watched Freeman's videos, accusing Allen of "overpriced" cakes, "horrible customer service," and being a "nasty person." Posting on the page was temporarily disabled.

Allen said that she turned off comments on her videos, but that people then found personal pages for her, her husband, and her daughter.

Some people found photos on Allen's Facebook page that she reposted from Pinterest and other bakeries, and accused her of stealing other people's work.

Allen said she's never claimed these photos show her own cakes. She told Insider they are part of a baking class she runs with her mom where they use photos by other bakers for inspiration. One such post marks the photo used as being "for reference."

Allen said the reviews and TikToks didn't actually seem the be affecting her business, for the most part. Overall, she said she's got thick skin and she's "over it."

"People in the town, honestly they think it's cool that I went viral," she said. "Which is weird because I'm, quite frankly, annoyed with it."