Baker slams the influencer for requesting a FREE £1,250 cake she designed to raise money for Save the Children’s Emergency Gaza Appeal (and they wanted £650 worth of extra details!)

A professional baker has criticized influencers for requesting a free cake she designed to raise money for children involved in the Gaza conflict.

Reshmi Bennett, 40, is a children’s author and baker from Surrey and runs luxury cake shop Anges de Sucre.

Last month the former investment banker started selling watermelon-inspired cakes – with prices starting from £140 – to raise money for charity.

The mother pledged to donate £11 from every sale to Save the Children’s Gaza Emergency Appeal, which provides bottled water to families caught up in the conflict.

Earlier this week, Reshmi received an email from an influencer — who she wanted to keep anonymous — requesting a free cake for her birthday party in March.

The email said, “I just came across your Instagram profile and the trending watermelon cake. I love it, really cool!

‘Then I saw your website and I am so impressed. I’m looking for a trendy cake for my birthday in March (we will confirm the date soon).

“There will be 80-100 guests. Me and my best friend are planning it together (girl power lol) and we have a combined 68,600 followers on Instagram and just started our joint TikTok account which is already getting a lot of views and followers.”

Elsewhere in the email, the social media star described how her birthday party will have an “exotic, sexy and glamorous” atmosphere.

She then asked if Reshmi could make the watermelon seeds gold to match the dress she’ll be wearing – but she felt the need to point out that they didn’t have to be real gold.

The anonymous influencer assured the small business owner that they would tag her in photos of the cake and put her business cards in party bags to “guarantee lots of business.”

The star – who made no mention of paying for the cake – then signed the email by telling Reshmi that her bakery was her ‘first choice’.

Reshmi shared screenshots of the email with her 57,000 Instagram followers and referenced a similar incident where influencers asked her for another free cake in January 2023.

She captioned the post, “Is it something about this time of year?! This is literally Cooler Cake…but even better. I’d like an order for €2,000, but I’m not holding my breath…’

In her response, Reshmi informed the influencer that she made the cake to raise money for charity.

She explained, “I’m so happy to hear I’m your first choice. The watermelon cake is indeed cool, if I say so myself.

“I’m not sure if you know that A, I made the watermelon pie as a fundraiser for Gaza (there’s a bit of a humanitarian crisis going on there… not very sexy or glamorous) and B, I don’t want to work for cards and party bags.’

The business owner then told the influencer that a cake large enough to feed her guests would cost over £1,250.

Furthermore, hand-painting gold seeds would add £650 to the final figure as it is a ‘tedious job’ – and he joked that real gold seeds would pose a ‘choking hazard’.

Reshmi then signed off with, “If you would like to place the order, I will donate from the proceeds to Save the Children Gaza Emergency Appeal.

“But somehow I doubt you will. In that case, I wish your second choice all the best.’

In the caption of the post, Reshmi joked, “If anyone wants to volunteer to paint a thousand little seeds gold, holllllaaaaaaa.”

The post has amassed more than 3,100 likes and sparked outrage among Reshmi’s followers.

One replied: “I like the irony that you have more followers than them but they think they are more influential than you and you need the free publicity.

“Let’s not even get started on the tone-deafness of wanting to turn the black seeds into gold.”

Another added: ‘That whole email was like watching an accident in slow motion. Do people really still do this?’

Meanwhile, a third raged: ‘SO sassy and entitled!! Who says anything about your 68,000 followers to be honest? Why don’t people think they should pay more for services! Makes my blood boil!’

A fourth wrote: ‘On this cake… for this cause… they want it for free?! They clearly don’t even know you.’

In December 2022, Reshmi received an email from London-based influencer Anna Kurtoglyan – who had 243,000 Instagram followers – asking if she could make her a cake for her friend’s birthday in exchange for social media coverage.

In response, Reshmi told her to “Just buy a cake somewhere and stop being so cringe,” but had her post removed from Instagram for violating the community guidelines about being “respectful” to other users.

A screenshot of Anna’s email – which Reshi posted to her Instagram – read: ‘I’ve been a big fan of your brand for a while now. I love the quality of your products and the amazing designs and I always love supporting you on my social channels xx

‘I wanted to reach out and see if you would like to work together? My best friend’s birthday is coming up soon and it would be great to order a cake from Anges de Sucre as my friend is also a big fan and this would be a perfect surprise!’

She then ends the email by offering to “create some content in exchange for the cake.”

Later that day, Reshmi responded to Anna and declined her offer before accusing the influencer of “begging for a free gift.”