Archive note — January 2023: This is Reshmi’s first-person account of a public social-media dispute that began after an influencer collaboration request. Screenshots from the exchange and subsequent public posts were part of the original article. Where intentions, identities behind reviews or motives were disputed, this revision describes what we observed and believed at the time rather than presenting those interpretations as independently proven facts.
How a free-cake request turned into a very public argument
On 12 December 2022, influencer Anna Kurtoglyan contacted me about a cake for her friend Alina Rafikova’s birthday in exchange for social-media content. I declined. Anges de Sucre had already been very public about not treating exposure as payment, so my reply was characteristically direct.
At the time, I also checked the accounts and did not see the kind of prior food content or existing relationship with the bakery that would have changed my view. That was my judgement as the business owner; it was not a claim about anybody’s wider professional value.
Our policy and attitude to gifted collaborations at that time were already explained in our collaborations article.
The argument resurfaced publicly
Several weeks later, comments appeared on an unrelated Instagram post criticising the tone of my original reply. I replied publicly. The two sides then posted about the disagreement and polls were shared with followers. The screenshots below preserve that chronology.
The review dispute
The following day, one-star reviews appeared that I believed were connected to the dispute. I said so publicly and posted screenshots. That was my understanding at the time; the article should not turn that belief into a broader factual claim about who created every review or why.
I then posted about the situation on Instagram. Instagram initially removed the post after reports and later restored it following review. That sequence formed part of why the argument attracted wider attention.
Press coverage
The dispute was subsequently covered by the Daily Mail, which included the other side’s account as well as mine. Readers can use that contemporary report and the screenshots above to understand how each side presented the events.
What I still believe about collaborations
The useful business lesson survived the drama: a collaboration only makes sense when both sides genuinely value the exchange. A small bakery is allowed to say no to working for exposure, and an influencer is allowed to ask. The trouble starts when a commercial disagreement becomes personal.
I remain very grateful to the customers and followers who supported the bakery during those two noisy days. I would now rather keep the archive as a record of what happened than continue the insults forever.
Lots of love,
Reshmi xoxo
The entitlement of these influencers is mind blowing. Good on you for exposing their unprofessional and frankly, immature practices!
The thing that made me laugh most was the “cooler cake”, straight from a supermarket shelf…
If you can’t afford £100 for an amazing cake from Reshmi, then let her help you make your own amazing cake from the recipes she publishes for free! Personally, I’d rather have a home made cake than a blagged one, but maybe that’s an “influencer” thing.
Yeah and not being funny do influencers ever approach people like me that work in the NHS and say things like if you collaborate with me on a hip replacement I’ll create content and exposure. No. And why? Because that would not be ethical and neither is this. It’s just a way to get things free and the rest of us have to pay. And I’d always pay because your cakes are delish and your responses show you value us, your paying customers over these people who are just outright blaggers!!!
What is even worse about this whole thing… there followers are FAKE! There likes on posts are FAKE, they are literally praying on small businesses which may see this amazing ‘600K’ combined following a great opportunity to get exposure when in fact, it’s all smoke and mirrors and it isn’t real, pretty much scammers! I love that Instagram allows stuff like this to happen and people can have fake followers / likes to look good and yet a post calling them out, its taken down within an hour because it goes against there terms and conditions… nothing makes sense 😅
May I just point out also, their initials put together… ANAL
Lol you couldn’t make it up if you tried!
Anyways, I hope they see the error of their ways, which I doubt, but hey ho! I’m so happy Reshmi stands up to these people, I wish more people would do it.