20/08/2026
Some lovely words disappeared from our Google page recently, but we didn’t want them to disappear without saying this. ❤️
If you recently left us a Google review and noticed that it has disappeared, we wanted to explain why…
A few weeks ago, we invited customers who had bought cakes from us, visited our shop or used our services over the years to share their honest feedback. We said that everyone who left a review would be entered into a draw to win one of three Afternoon Teas for Two.
We suggested Google as one of the places people could leave their feedback, alongside Facebook and TripAdvisor.
What we didn’t know — and perhaps some other small businesses won’t know either — is that offering any incentive for leaving a Google review is against Google’s policy. It doesn’t matter whether the reviewer is a genuine customer, whether their feedback is completely honest, or whether you welcome good, bad and everything in between. The fact that entry into our prize draw was linked to leaving a review meant we broke the rules.
We genuinely didn’t know. We do now, and obviously we won’t do it again.
As a result, Google removed the reviews left during those few days.
And that’s really why we wanted to share this.
Behind those reviews were real people and real experiences with our little business. Some were regulars from the shop. Some had ordered cakes from us over the years. Some shared photographs of wedding cakes we’d made and memories from days that were incredibly special to them.
So although the reviews themselves have disappeared, we wanted the people who wrote them to know that we saw them.
We read your words, we saw your photographs, and we appreciated every single person who took the time to share their experience with us.
We made a mistake with the way we asked for those reviews, and we completely accept that.
But your words still meant an enormous amount to us — and having them taken down doesn’t remove the lovely memories, stories and photographs you shared with us.
Thank you ❤️
