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Walmart apologizes after family's graduation cake turned out to be Styrofoam

Well, at least the festive dessert certainly looked the part.
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/ Source: TODAY

Graduating is a big deal and having the right dessert to honor the occasion is usually an important party staple.

Last week, a mother in Texas wanted to celebrate her daughter's high school graduation with something special, so she ordered a custom confection from Walmart.

Unfortunately, not only did Walmart mess up the order, the bakery provided the family with a surprise that was anything but sweet.

In May, Marcy Flores ordered a two-tier cake from the bakery at her local Walmart in Pasadena, Texas.

"This is my baby, and she was graduating, so it was very important to me," Flores told KPRC2 Houston.

But when Flores went to pick up her daughter's cake, the staff had no order in her name and there was nothing ready for the family's special day.

To make up for the mistake, an employee at the store reportedly offered Flores the option to choose a ready-made cake free of charge. Flores chose a smaller, single-layer blue-and-white frosted cake (her daughter's school colors) and was told that the Walmart bakers would be able to make some additional customizations including "a couple of graduation things ... and her picture."

Happy to have a replacement, Flores took the cake home and thought everything would be fine for the party that evening. She was wrong.

When it was time for dessert, Flores and her family received a disappointing surprise as they tried to cut into the blue-and-white cake.

"I go to cut the cake and it was not budging," Flores said.

Instead of gliding through moist cake, the knife crunched through a block of white styrofoam instead.

"I was in complete shock," Flores' sister told KPRC2.

Once photos of the cake went viral on Twitter, several people chimed in, saying that the family was overreacting.

Others seized on the opportunity for a little wisdom on eating your cake.

Some tweeters were a bit more critical of the large chain.

On Monday, Flores could not be reached for comment, but KPRC2 reported that she received a $60 Walmart gift card from the local store as an apology.

When reached via email, a Walmart spokesperson confirmed that the incident occurred and said the team had been looking into the issue with the local store.

"We apologize for our mistake. This is never a something we want to take place," a Walmart spokesperson told TODAY Food. "Our store manager has made their best effort to make the situation right and will continue to work with the bakery team to understand what happened and ensure it doesn't happen again."

But for Flores, the damage has been done.

"They can't replace the moment that we lost. It’s a special moment, and this is what we got for it, a Styrofoam cake," Flores said. "Not only did they mess up one time, they did it twice."