Woman is left baffled by London pubs £140 cakeage fee

A woman has been left baffled after a London pub tried to charge her £140 to bring a shop-bought cake to her girlfriend’s birthday celebration.

Comedian Helena Moody, 30, revealed she was quoted to extortionate ‘cakeage‘ fee after reserving a table for 20 people at an unnamed bar last weekend.

Prior to the event, she emailed the pub to ask if she could bring her own basic cake from Sainsbury’s. She was told it was ‘absolutely fine’, but that she would have to pay £7 per person.

‘Cakeage‘ fees, a play on the word corkage, have become more common in recent years as restaurants look to make up for the shortfall in revenue when customers don’t order desserts.

Helena said she was left so upset she was considering ‘moving out of London’.

‘I was expecting it to be like maybe £20, £30 for the table, which already is a little bit expensive given I was going to spend a tenner (on the cake),’ she continued.

While she didn’t name the pub, various restaurants across the UK charge cakeage fees including Darjeeling Express, run by TV chef Asma Khan, where it costs £25 to bring your own.

London-based TV writer Ivor Baddiel previously revealed he was asked to pay £10 per head at an unnamed restaurant to eat his own birthday cake.

Helena explained that the ‘the cakeage fee (was) £7 per person.

‘I gave them the benefit of the doubt and I’m sure they don’t realise there’s 20 of us coming and that would be an insane ask.

‘I went back to the pub and said, “Excuse me ladies and gentlemen, just to clarify, there are 20 people. This will then be £140 to bring in a Sainsbury’s basic cake”.’

Helena added: ‘They turned around and had the audacity to reply, “I can confirm that is correct”.’

Not one to be deterred, the comedian said she was as ‘stubborn as a turmeric stain on a worktop’ and decided she would bring the cake anyway.

However, she said she would wait until the party was over and they were outside the pub before serving it to her girlfriend with candles and singing happy birthday.

‘The minute that our booking had ended and we went and stood outside of the pub, I got my candles out and I got the whole group to sing “Happy Birthday” as we gave the cake to my girlfriend,’ she said.

But the saga did not end there. Helena revealed that while the group were in the middle of singing the birthday song to her girlfriend, they were interrupted by a member of staff.

The pub staff requested that they stand on the opposite side of the road from the venue to continue their celebration.

‘One of the staff members comes out and says, “Oh, I’m really sorry, you can’t do that here, you’re going to have stand just across the road”.

‘Why? Why? There you go, cakegate and this capitalist controversy has been concluded,’ Helena said at the end of her video.

‘You know what, there’s no place like living in London because it will bankrupt you and ruin your lungs and for some reason, we’re all going to want to stay in it, because I don’t know, it’s quite fun I guess.’

Cakeage fees have become common across eateries throughout the country.

Last year, the Daily Mail reported that some restaurants charge a flat rate to bring a cake while others may charge up to £10 per person.

Helena’s video drew nearly 1,000 comments, with many declaring that even £7 per person is too much to pay for cakeage.

‘I get they want a little cost to cover washing plates, knives and forks etc… But £7 is daylight robbery,’ one person wrote.

Another added: ‘I can’t get over the use of the word “cakeage”. I can understand charging a small fee (£1.50 per person, max) but £7 per is crazy work, and I say this as someone who has lived in NYC for nearly 20 years, so I’ve seen my fair share of outrageous prices and fees.’

A third declared: ‘£7 per person for bringing out a cake is diabolical.’

However, a number of people defended the pub and said it was ‘fair’ to charge a cakeage fee.

‘From their point of view, that’s 20 people who would have potentially paid upwards of £10 each for a pudding from their menu who are now eating Sainsbury’s cake instead of spending money with them,’ one commenter reasoned.

Another, who said they were a hospitality business owner, explained that the fee would make up for ‘lost dessert sales because of said cake’.

‘They will need to wash the plates, forks, whatever of your cake. You will all hang around at the table to eat the cake whereas if you left to go have cake elsewhere we could potentially make some more money off the table again.

‘It’s a sad reality that running these places costs an absolute fortune these days and we’re all living on the edge of closure all the time. Even the busy-looking places.’

Others took issue with the pub asking Helena and her group to move to the other side of the road while they were singing the birthday song.

‘That is mad. It’s a public road, you can sing happy birthday wherever you like,’ a commenter said.

Another wrote: ‘What on earth!!! They don’t own the land/pavement outside the pub so you should’ve stood and carried on.’

A number of people asked Helena to reveal the name of the pub, but in a follow-up video, she declined to do so.

Explaining her decision, the content creator claimed that ‘one pub a week is closing in the UK’.

However, the figures from the British Beer and Pub Association (BBPA) suggest that the rate of pub closures is much higher.

Earlier this month, it warned that that England could lose around six pubs a day, putting at least 12,000 jobs at risk.

Helena continued and said the figures were ‘really f***ing depressing’ and the causes behind the pub closures ranged from ‘billionaires and politicians’ to soaring operational costs and falling profits that are hitting the pub industry.

‘Do I think that £140 for a cakeage fee is ridiculous, of course I do,’ she added.

‘But do I think that pub deserves a f***ing review pile on which is going to massively hit their finances? No, I don’t.

‘My hope for for posting that video, apart from being mildly humoured myself, was that the pub might indirectly see it and decide, “Alright, let’s not have this ridiculous cakeage fee”.

‘I think we have to meet the pubs halfway and the pubs have to meet us halfway. Fair enough, we’ll pay a little bit for a cakeage fee because you’re having a s*** time but also, don’t charge me £140.

‘Because, to be honest, if I have to weigh up going on holiday or having a cake, I think I know which one I’ll choose.’

The Daily Mail has contacted Helena for comment.