A baker said she 'ruined' an expectant mother's gender reveal by mistakenly icing the outside of the cake blue — then thought fast to mitigate the 'traumatizing' error

• A TikTok baker recounted the "traumatizing" moment she accidentally spoiled an expectant mom's gender reveal.
• Abi Caswell iced the exterior — and not the interior — of the cake blue.
• Caswell turned it into a teachable moment for her staff, and offered the baby-to-be free birthday cakes for life.

A 27-year-old small business owner and TikToker recounted what she called the "biggest mistake of her career thus far" by unintentionally ruining an expectant mother's gender reveal. She then showed viewers how she tried to right her wrongs — and TikTokers are empathizing and rallying support around her.

Caswell, who started TikToking when she launched her business, the Louisiana-based bakery called Batter, last November, shared a day-in-the-life video earlier this month chronicling the moment. It's received 1.7 million views.

Roughly halfway through the vlog, Caswell can be seen scraping blue icing off of a cake's exterior that reads "Coming February 2024." Caswell says in a voiceover: "The blue was supposed to be only on the inside. And who picked up the cake? None other than the mom-to-be. So we 100% ruined the gender reveal for her."

Caswell told Insider the miscommunication occurred when a friend of the expectant mom called in the order, noting that it was a gender reveal cake but without explicitly stating that the blue icing should be on the inside. 

"She assumed that it was going to a gender reveal party," Caswell said of her employee who took the order, "not necessarily that it was going to be revealing the gender."

Caswell added that customers are typically explicit in placing their gender reveal orders, and have even given them envelopes containing their sonograms. Nevertheless, she took full responsibility for the miscommunication, saying her staff should have asked more questions to clarify. 

According to the creator, when the expectant mom came in to pick up her cake, she was crying and in shock — but not angry. Caswell immediately asked if she could fix it. "She was like, 'Well, it's already ruined for me,'" Caswell said of the customer. "'Can we fix it for my husband?'"

After having a "full panic attack" in the back of the bakery as she re-iced the cake white, Caswell told Insider she decided to use it as a teachable moment, bringing her employee out with her to apologize and humanize the error. Caswell also offered the woman complementary birthday cakes for her children for the rest of their lives. 

"I said how sorry we were, and she cried with us," Caswell said. "And she was very, very gracious. She understood. She's like, 'It'll be a story.'"

Caswell told Insider that she sees TikTok as a marketing vehicle for her burgeoning business, which she launched in 2022. But ironically, her "most traumatic days are the videos that do the best on TikTok," she said.

Commenters shared her shock about the mishap, but the overwhelming majority of responses were supportive.

"I gasped. poor mama. but you did your best to make it right," one viewer wrote; "Oh nooo!!!" another added. "As a mom myself, I'm sure she will laugh about it later. That's tough though!!"

"Aww don't beat yourself for it!" another rallied. "It was a miscommunication! Glad everything turned out well tho!"