You know your mom is cheap when...
June 26, 2008 
you have to share your own birthday cake. With a boy.
(Yeah, I'm taking Ashley's side. Why? Because a) she likes Disney stuff, b) she's enduring what I'm assuming must be a sports logo on her birthday cake, and c) she's a girl. But mostly the Disney thing.)
I like the unintentional irony of having Eeyore on the cake, though. A glum donkey for a glum-ass cake - it's quite appropriate. Still, I have a few questions:
1) Since the "Eagles" logo is blue, why is the icing green?
2) Can anyone see the colors green & purple together and NOT think of either Mardi Gras or the Joker?
3) How come Glen gets his name capitalized, but not Ashley?
4) Did anyone else first read this as "Happy ashley Birthday Glen"?
5) Doesn't Glen's side look bigger? Hey, I think it IS bigger. Mo-oooommm!!!
Reader Comments (89)
Personally, I thought it was a computer mistake at first. Like they just run cakes through a machine on a conveyor belt and this one was put in improperly, which would explain why they need a computer to do all the icing if the decorator couldn't handle that one small task.
1) The part of the logo that is blue is usually black, and the Eagles team color is teal (like the background on the logo). So maybe mixing the icing color with the logo color would be about right.
2) Yes.
3) A cursive capital 'A' is a lot like a lowercase capital 'A'. Give them the benefit of a doubt!
4) I didn't.
5) That's funny. Maybe I'm just seeing this from a male point of view, but the first thing I saw was that both "Happy" and "Ashley" were encroaching on Glen's side of the cake. Five yard penalty, repeat first down.
that's hilarious!!
OK, I'm going to be a killjoy, here.
I am sure they are twins, & that the boy's favorite color is green - he doesn't have to like the same color his team uses, right? And the "sizes" of the halves have to do with the sizes of the images used. Mom wasn't being cheap - she was trying not to have a huge amount of cake leftover.
Seriously, this isn't half as bad as some of the other ones I've seen, here or elsewhere.
The Eagles team colors are green and white. The icing colors on that side are one thing NOT wrong with the cake.
The Eagles' colors are green (as in a deep emerald) white and black.
That decal is way off...the icing is much closer to the "official' green.
My first thought was that it was a cake to someone sad because the Eagles suck. ;)
Cheap is one thing, but scarring the twins for life is another. Sure Mummy dearest didn't want leftover cake, but why not just get two smaller cakes of equal size?
I have boy/girl twins, and I vow never to do this to them when they are old enough to eat cake.
Thanks for noticing me
Yes, but why is the word "Happy" written in blue? Alll by it's lonesome. Tales of things to come for our dear lower er...case ashley? And I am NOT fooled by that side trim trying to make it look like Glen only got half! Liar...LI-AR!
I read it as, "Happy Birthday Ashley Glen." So I figured, Ashley Glen is a Girl Boy. :)
This is a sad, sad cake. Much more sad than Eeyore could ever be.
Maybe Ashley and Glen are best friends and they wanted to share a cake. Requested it specifically, even.
Maybe.
My brother and sister have the same birthday (4 years apart)... Too bad my mom never thought of this!
Oh, man. I just wanted to say that I actually did think "Joker" first thing.
The boys side is WAY bigger!
This is a typical Eagles fan cake. No surprise here. Screwed up beyond belief. That poor little girl that not only had to SHARE the cake, with what I hope is a sibling, but had to have an Eagles Logo on half of her cake. That's adding insult to injury
Your's Truly,
-A Redskins Fan
I had to put Hannah Montana and Spiderman on the same cake recently... I think this cake is worse.
By the icing border, the cake is divided evenly, but the pictures are different sizes. The mother likely just brought in a couple pictures and the cake decorator, as a halfway decent customer service person, said "Okay, I will do exactly what you ask" and thought "Even if it will look like $#!}." A better customer service person would have talked to the mother and suggested that the images be arranged so as to divide the cake more evenly, and perhaps obtain a better picture of the eagles logo so as to show team colours. An excellent customer service person would have asked if there was any one single thing both children liked so they could still share a cake, but one that didn't look like, well, this.
Conjoined twins methinks. I can't believe your lack of sensitivity ;)
No wonder Eeyore is her favorite character. ;)
This post was hilarious. It made me laugh so hard. I don't think some people understand the purpose of the site though. It's not to find logical excuses for why these cakes are so ugly. It's to make fun and pity the people the cakes were intended for! I don't care if the kids were twins; it's just cheap and ugly!
why does nobody feel sorry for the poor little boy? how do we know that ashley isn't the one stealing some of his cake?
just curious...not sure where the cake sources come from
I second Andrew's comment---it's really just a condolence cake for an Eagles fan.
That's our normal expression at the end of every season!!!
Poor kids are probably twins. I'm lucky I also share my gender with my twin.... The mother of these poor kiddo's probably decided to save money by buying only one cake. Was their birthday Eeyore/Eagles themed, too?
The 4th and 5th questions cracked me up! HAHAHAHA!
Yup, I bet they were twins. That's sad and Glen's side IS bigger. SOOOOOOOOOOOO umfair. Hehe...
I think it's a cursive A. My mother writes our last name like that, but it's awfully tiny here. I heard that logos and stuff like that, especially blue icing, makes you sick. It happened to our neighbor - he puked it ALL up.
All I can say is thank you for the laughs today!!
Although these cakes are cute and funny, they really are not that great to look at - i think they are rather sloppy looking - I've seen much better. Keep trying.
Considering how much Eagles fans suffer (year after year) I find it quite appropriate for sad, pessimistic Eeyore to be paired with the Eagles logo. E-A-G-L --- oh never mind-- there's always next year. Go Phils!
I wonder how much they saved getting this rather than 2 smaller cakes
The icing green looks more like the Kelly green of the previous team logo/uniforms...the current team color is 'midnight green'
"Although these cakes are cute and funny, they really are not that great to look at - i think they are rather sloppy looking - I've seen much better. Keep trying."
uh, that's the point of this blog...to show what is being passed off as professionally produced cakes
My mom did this one year. My birthday is in July, my brother's was in August. NATURALLY we could celebrate them on the same day in August, since....well, it's only 32 days apart, right? Practically the same MONTH.
My half was done in pink icing, his in blue.
It was my 16th birthday, his 19th.
We had never felt so LOVED.
Unfortunately, as one of those grocery store cake decorators, I had to do several of these "split cakes".
My favorite was when a customer wanted "My Little Pony" on one half (picture rolling hills, flowers, and a rainbow) and Harley Davison on the other (motorcyle and gigantic orange flames). It looked like Pony was about to thrust into Hell.
A friend of mine just told me about your site... I'm laughing, and almost crying at other times. I was a cake decorator for many years, and I kid you not, I had many orders of parents doubling up on one cake. In at least once case, I have had to split them 3 or more ways! I knew some of these folks and it usually isn't just a monetary deal... it's because they're being that cheap.
I could tell you horror stories about customers. And coworkers. Believe me.. there is nothing more horrifying than when you come back from the weekend, and find out the most illiterate bakery employee has been playing with your equipment.
Keep up the good work! This site is great ;)
I just found this blog, but I am hooked! I was surfing the net after finding out the Harry Potter movie is pushed back by a year and needed a laugh. I have laughed so hard I had tears coming from my eyes!
My brothers and I all have birthdays within 14 days of each other. We have shared parties, but not cakes. THANK YOU MOM! I think poor little ashley (No caps for her!) could use a new home.
Anyone feel sorry for Eeyore - he looks really embarrassed being on the cake?!
Okay I have to share my two cents!
This cake is pretty bad.
I have two girls. They are exactly seven years and two days apart. The older one is a tomboy. The younger one is as girlie as can be.
I ALWAYS get them their own cake. ALWAYS! If they had birthdays MONTHS apart wouldn't they have their own cake?
So yeah... I say the parents are being cheap. UNLESS the kids actually asked for a cake to share.
Uh, who here believes the kids asked to share a birthday cake? Anyone? Yeah, me either. ;D
Having been born on the same day as my brother (5 years difference), I know all about sharing cakes, so that was never a big deal for me. However, my mom never tried to do anything like this. We usually had some kind of "ordinary" cake with our names in pink and blue icing.
Poor kids, though :p
Would it have really been that much more expensive to just get 2 smaller cakes? Classic...
With regard to the Mardi Gras wiki link:
While I'm sure Alabamans just love their Fat Tuesday celebration, Mobile isn't exactly the first place that pops to mind when someone mentions Mardi Gras. Of course, as a New Orleans native, I'm a bit biased...
I don't particularly see anything wrong with sharing a cake, whether it's for financial reasons, or to cut down on leftovers, or whatever.
But why, why, WHY would you do it like this? I'm horrified that so many people have responded saying they've gotten similar requests. Why not choose a single design that would be appropriate for both children?
(Alternatively, would it really have cost that much more to get two cakes each half the size of that one?)
The execution was poor, but don't knock the concept. I completely get how it happened. The commenter who suggested that a single compromise theme be used can't possibly have kids the age of these. Moreover, why should they have to compromise just because they have the same birthday? Kids have a pretty high tackiness threshold. In fact, tacky very frequently makes them happier than aesthetic excellence.
And budget conscious mom was only going to buy one cake and wasn't going to break the bank on that one. So good Mom! You may try something else next time, but you did fine.
As far as getting a smaller cake, cakes cannot be sold smaller than a 1/4 sheet at most grocery stores. if the mom had opted for two 8" round cakes, though, the difference in price would have been a little less than $5, or if she'd gotten two single-layer round cakes, it would have been about the same price for the same number of servings, though admittedly less cake overall.
I wouldn't blame the decorator for any of the things you mentioned. For all we know, the customer could have requested green for the writing/piping to complement the colors of the team. Also, in true cursive, the upper case A looks like just a bigger version of the lower case, so yes, her name is capitalized. And finally, the "boy" side is bigger due to the proportions of the logo. If you made them the same size, one of the images would be distored. I'm all for making fun of bad cakes, but don't blame the decorator for mistakes they didn't have any control over.
2) Can anyone see the colors green & purple together and NOT think of either Mardi Gras or the Joker?
Personally, I think of Barney. And shudder convulsively.
As a twin, I have to add my two cents: We got our own cakes! Smaller cakes, of course, so there weren't massive amounts left....but we DID get our own! And we're twin girls (well, women now).
It's kinda sad when parents resort to this kind of cake ordering. I have made cakes like this at my work and it looks generally tacky with two different designs on one cake.
One example of mine is a gambling design on one side and a Tinkerbell design on the other.
yes, i read it the same way you did. (happy ashley birthday glen)
Aww... I used to have to put up with these birthday cake shenanigans when I was a kid because my brothers birthday was 2 days after mine. Cuz it was so hard or expensive to just make a second cake and bring it out on his birthday?
Hrmph...
I am still traumatized by the birthday cake my brother and I shared one year. My side was white with pink accents and a beautiful ballerina on it. His half was brown and green with G.I.Joe on it. Our birthdays are a day apart, so we ate his half one day and mine the next. Not only did I have to have green and brown traces left on my cake-mine was a day old! I still tease my mother about 23 years later.