Case Study · Bakery · Evansville, IN
Piece of Cake Has Been Open 25 Years — And Their Order Form Is Broken
Piece of Cake Bakery — Evansville, IN · Est. 1998
A family institution founded by two sisters in 1998. The order form shows raw HTML markup, labels a field “FirstLast” with no space, and uses a text placeholder where a date picker should be. Every custom cake order is at risk.
Live right now
The Evidence
Live on their homepage right now: the testimonials carousel loops its content and renders the same two reviews twice without a break. Anna's review and E. Fox's review each appear verbatim a second time in the same continuous scroll block — the placeholder template loop was never removed.
Piece of Cake at pieceofcakebakery.com has been a cornerstone of the Evansville custom cake market for over 25 years. Founded in 1998 by two sisters, the bakery has built its reputation on word of mouth, repeat customers, and the kind of community trust that takes decades to earn. Their website should protect that trust. Instead, it actively undermines it — with a broken order form that signals to every customer trying to place a custom cake order that something has gone wrong.
The Business
Piece of Cake is a custom bakery specializing in cakes, cupcakes, and desserts for weddings, birthdays, and special events. Founded in 1998 by two sisters, the bakery has served Evansville for over 25 years — the kind of multi-generational presence that makes it part of the city's fabric. Their customer base is loyal and referral-driven. Most orders come through word of mouth or the website order form.
That order form is the single most important piece of infrastructure on the site. Custom cake orders require event dates, flavor selections, serving counts, and design requests. A broken form doesn't just create friction — it creates confusion that ends orders before they start.
What We Found
Five documented failures — each one visible to every customer who tries to order.
Raw Markup Renders as Visible Text on the Order Form
The contact and order form displays literal unprocessed markup to every visitor. Instead of rendering a visual indicator for required fields, the site outputs the raw instruction string directly:
“* indicates required fields”
— Visible as literal text on the live order form at pieceofcakebakery.com
This is a broken template field — the markup was never configured to render properly. To a customer, it looks like the site is glitching. That's not a first impression a 25-year bakery should be making.
Date Field Placeholder Reads “MM slash DD slash YYYY” — Literally
The order form's date field is supposed to prompt customers to enter their event date. Instead of displaying a standard date picker or a cleanly formatted hint, the placeholder text shows the literal string:
MM slash DD slash YYYY
— Live placeholder text on the order form date field
A customer trying to order a wedding cake — one of the most important purchases they'll make — sees this and has no idea how to proceed. The form was configured incorrectly and never tested.
Form Field Label Reads “FirstLast” — One Word, No Space
A name field on the order form has a broken label configuration. The first name and last name field identifiers were merged without a separator, producing a label that reads:
FirstLast
— Live field label on the contact form
A minor detail on its own — but paired with the other form errors, it signals that this form has never been QA'd or reviewed after setup.
Duplicate Testimonials — Same Reviews Repeated Verbatim
The testimonials section on the site displays customer reviews in duplicate. Anna's review and E. Fox's review each appear twice — the same text, back to back. A customer reading through the social proof section sees every positive review twice, which makes the page look like it was set up by copying and pasting instead of curating. Credibility earned over 25 years gets undermined by a presentation that looks careless.
Product Images Hosted on a Third-Party Server — One Outage Takes the Site Dark
The cake and product photos across the site load from an external domain:
poc.vickersphoto.com
— External image host serving product photos on pieceofcakebakery.com
This is a single point of failure outside the bakery's control. If that third-party server goes down — maintenance, expiration, a billing lapse — every product photo on Piece of Cake's site disappears instantly. No warning, no fallback, no way to fix it without full image migration.
What We'd Fix
An order experience that works — and a site that earns the trust the bakery has built over 25 years.
Rebuilt Order Form — Tested, Clean, Ready for Custom Cake Orders
A properly configured order form with a real date picker, correctly labeled fields, and no raw markup visible to customers. The form should work on the first try — especially for someone ordering a $400 wedding cake.
Testimonials Curated and Deduplicated
One review, displayed once. The testimonials section should feel like a curated wall of real customer voices — not a copy-paste job. A 25-year bakery has more than enough genuine reviews to fill a compelling social proof section without repeating any of them.
Product Images Migrated and Self-Hosted
Every product photo moved to hosting the bakery controls directly — no dependency on a third-party photography server. One less single point of failure that can take the site offline without warning.
The Founding Story Told Properly
Two sisters, 1998, 25+ years in Evansville — that's a real story with real staying power. The homepage should lead with that origin and the community trust behind it, not bury it. Legacy is a differentiator in a market full of new entrants.
Spec Redesign Deliverables
- ✓Order form rebuilt — correct date picker, clean field labels, no raw markup
- ✓Form QA pass — every field tested end-to-end before launch
- ✓Testimonials deduplicated — each review appears once, curated for impact
- ✓Product images migrated to self-hosted storage — no third-party dependency
- ✓Founding story featured — 25 years, two sisters, Evansville community anchor
- ✓Mobile-optimized layout — custom cake shoppers browse on their phones
- ✓Evansville local SEO — structured for “custom cakes Evansville” searches
The Opportunity
Piece of Cake has done the hard part — 25 years of building a reputation that keeps customers coming back. Their order form is the single point where that reputation either converts to revenue or leaks it. Right now, every customer who tries to place a custom order hits a form that looks broken before they even fill it out.
Custom cake orders are high-value, high-intent purchases. A customer planning a wedding cake or a milestone birthday order is ready to spend. A broken date field and raw markup text create doubt at exactly the wrong moment — and doubt kills high-consideration purchases.
We've built the spec redesign. Piece of Cake can see what a properly functioning order experience looks like — clean form, curated social proof, self-hosted images — before committing to anything.
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