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What's a Wreck?

A Cake Wreck is any cake that is unintentionally sad, silly, creepy, inappropriate - you name it. A Wreck is not necessarily a poorly-made cake; it's simply one I find funny, for any of a number of reasons. Anyone who has ever smeared frosting on a baked good has made a Wreck at one time or another, so I'm not here to vilify decorators: Cake Wrecks is just about finding the funny in unexpected, sugar-filled places.

Now, don't you have a photo you want to send me? ;)

- Jen
Monday
Nov162009

Foiled Foliage

"Hello, Miss? I wish to make a complaint about this cake I purchased not half an hour ago from this very bakery."

[looking cake over] "Oh, yes, that's our Norwegian Leaves design. What's wrong with it?"

"I'll tell you what's wrong with it: these are real leaves, that's what's wrong with it."


"No, of course not! Those are just icing. Look!" [shuffling leaves]

"Look, Miss, I know real dead leaves when I see them, and I'm looking at some right now."

"No, they're icing. Remarkable leaves, the Norwegian ones, aren't they? Beautiful foliage."

"The foliage don't enter into it! You put real leaves on my cake!"

"No, they're not real, they're just shining in accords."

"Shining in accords? What does that even mean?"

"I dunno; I'm just trying to stick to this Monty Python sketch as closely as possible."

Emily E., it's like a pun. Or a, what you call it, palindrome. Yeah.

NOTE: Yes, folks, they really are real leaves. Kinda gives a new meaning to "all natural ingredients," doesn't it?

- Related Wreckage: The Word "Holy" DID Come to Mind...


« What's Black & White & Wrecked All Over? | Main | Sunday Sweets: Tour De Force, Pt 3 »

Reader Comments (127)

This takes wreckage to a new level, although I would like to have heard the customer order the cake.

November 16, 2009 | Unregistered CommenterNatalie

Well, at least the real leaves are very artfully arranged!

Or not so much....

November 16, 2009 | Unregistered CommenterRebecca F.

I totally got that it was the parrot sketch before I read the end, so I am now very proud of myself. Now you need to do the Fish Slapping Dance somehow, with cakes.

November 16, 2009 | Unregistered CommenterI Love Baby Quilts!

For serious? Who would even THINK to do such a thing, let alone GO THROUGH with it.

Mind. Boggled.

WV scrovell: put down your forks/spoons, you need a scrovell to eat this cake.

November 16, 2009 | Unregistered CommenterR.

Taylor@myolderbrothers:

Go here.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=npjOSLCR2hE

November 16, 2009 | Unregistered CommenterAnonymous

wow.
Kinda reminds me of the attacking butterflies/rose petals cake.

WV: Britenwa - something on a cake that is NOT supposed to be there!

November 16, 2009 | Unregistered CommenterJayme

Maybe Bryan Milton someone doesn't know how old he is, or else he's not telling. Could be 77, could be 80. And don't peek under the leaves, in case any chihuahuas have been by to... leave more icing.

November 16, 2009 | Unregistered CommenterJoe

Gumby cake decorating....

November 16, 2009 | Unregistered Commenterdiddleymaz

Too bad about those leaves having "gone to join the Choir Invisible." Someone should've banged the whole cake against the bakery counter, though.

November 16, 2009 | Unregistered CommenterJimmy

Pineing for the fields!

November 16, 2009 | Unregistered CommenterAnonymous

Hooray for MP! But the leaves on this cake are SOOOO wrong. I've ordered bags of edible flowers, but never leaves, and certainly not brown dried ones...

November 16, 2009 | Unregistered CommenterChristina M.

How unsanitary! Mold. Slug trails. Bird poop. Ecchhh.

If those leaves had not been nailed to the cake with frosting, they'd be pushing up the daisies!

wv ousnoide- I would have shot off some ousnoide remarks to that wreckerator.

November 16, 2009 | Unregistered Commenteramanda

okay, that MP skit was pee-in-my-pants hi-lar-ious! thanks for the link!

all i can say is, poor bryan. poor milton. sad cake, and even sadder that they had to share a birthday cake!

November 16, 2009 | Unregistered CommenterTerry Lee

Ewwwwwww...

But I love your Dead Parrot Sketch references. A true classic!

WV: Galli. Galli, do those leaves look nasty!

November 16, 2009 | Unregistered CommenterLauren

It'll make the cake a bit...crunchy...

Blargh! I know that edible flowers sometimes end up on a cake but this takes that idea a bit too far.

WV: Disti--These don't look like icing leaves, even from a disti!

November 16, 2009 | Unregistered CommenterMelissa (& Billy)

Pining for the fiords, I believe.

November 16, 2009 | Unregistered CommenterAnonymous

oh yum, i love leaves

November 16, 2009 | Unregistered Commentermindflex

Whoa! lol Trying again, this time with caffeine:

Maybe someone didn't know how old Bryan Milton is, or else he's not telling. Could be 77, could be 80. And don't peek under the leaves, in case any chihuahuas have been by to... leave more icing.

I'm sure no one cares but me. Still...

November 16, 2009 | Unregistered CommenterJoe

Python! I <3 you even more.

I can see putting fresh flowers on a cake (as long as you're not shoving the stems into the icing) - they've presumably been grown in a greenhouse, been washed, and many varieties are edible anyway. Leaves? Covered in squirrel pee, sat on the ground, and THEY'RE ROTTING. And then thrown onto the cake in a way that does NOTHING to attract the eye. Yuck!

November 16, 2009 | Unregistered CommenterAnonymous

We just wanted to thank you for brightening up our day at work! We have figured out how to get up to four people around a single computer at a time to look at (and sometimes even to comment on!) your site before management gets suspicious.

That is, unless the laughter is uncontrollably loud at the sight of a particular day's posts, or in the case of today, if no one goes to youtube looking for Monty Python.

Thanks, Cake Wrecks!

-- The Office

November 16, 2009 | Unregistered CommenterAnonymous

The people who ordered the cake may have wanted it maple flavored...but you can't get flavoring from maple leaves that way!

November 16, 2009 | Unregistered CommenterKevin

Did they *wash* the leaves first? You never know where the things landed when they fell! YUK!

~Amy B-H

November 16, 2009 | Unregistered CommenterAmy

Yuck. I didn't even use real leaves in my wedding decor because of sanitary issues (plus I figured the venue wouldn't be keen). I can see using (specially chosen) real flowers but come on...

November 16, 2009 | Unregistered CommenterAmber

Ew! I wonder if they even bothered to wash the leaves first. They could have POO on them! *GAG*

November 16, 2009 | Unregistered CommenterSurfie

What makes this especially funny for me is that those leaves are Norwegian Maple tree leaves. This is the tree that was planted as a shade tree in my neighborhood a very long time ago and now grows everywhere (local nickname: God's Dandelions). Which makes you wonder if they just picked those leaves up off the street. Euw.

November 16, 2009 | Unregistered CommenterTrish

YUCK!

November 16, 2009 | Unregistered CommenterSabrina

@Anony.1:09-- I actually thought the squirrel-pee covered, rotting leaves did a LOT to attract the eye; it's just that I then recoiled in horror. In fact, I'm having trouble not nervously staring at them!

@Anony.kate-- I agree that the US doesn't value the elderly, but not that this couldn't happen in Japan, if the cookie story I just read here is true.

I wonder if Jen knows of some cakes made with SPAM?

November 16, 2009 | Unregistered CommenterJiminycricket

Reminds me more of the http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Dy6uLfermPU" rel="nofollow">"Trade Description Act" sketch.

November 16, 2009 | Unregistered CommenterDarla

Oh man, the worst part about this wreck is it isn't even an edible one!

November 16, 2009 | Unregistered CommenterkaeRock

Yup, as others have said, I believe it is "Pining for the Fjords."

So funny. Love me some Python.

November 16, 2009 | Unregistered CommenterSara

EEEEEUUUUUWWWW!! Gross. What if the tree was sprayed with something? What if a squirrel pooped on the leaf? Or used it for little squirrely-butt toilet paper? What if a bird crapped on it or a worm crawled on it? Gross! Gross! Gross! I live in Michigan, where we value our beautiful autumn, but not THIS much!

November 16, 2009 | Unregistered CommenterLorraine

PINING FOR THE FJORDS!!

(There -- it moved!)

Laura R

November 16, 2009 | Unregistered CommenterAnonymous

yay for monty python! i think i'm going to request a monty python themed cake for my birthday this year...

November 16, 2009 | Unregistered CommenterAnonymous

Thanks Jen - the parrot sketch is a fabulous way to start out a Monday!
You always make me smile.

November 16, 2009 | Unregistered Commenterredraven

Maybe Bryan and Milton were lumberjacks-- hence the dead tree matter cake theme. :D

"He cuts down trees, he skips and jumps, he likes to press wildflowers..."

November 16, 2009 | Unregistered CommenterAnonymous

Those leaves are dead-- if they weren't stuck in icing, they'd be pushing up daisies. Those are EX-LEAVES!

November 16, 2009 | Unregistered CommenterMeredith

I love you, you did the Dead Parrot Sketch!! Beautiful!

November 16, 2009 | Unregistered CommenterJuno

I have to say, I assumed the numbers were birth years and not ages--who the heck named their kid "Bryan" in 1934?

November 16, 2009 | Unregistered CommenterCatherine

Hope the recipients of this cake weren't "stunned" by it. I won't go any further with that, except to say I have an urge to go watch "Weekend at Bernie's" now...

wv: "mortifi"-- really? no kidding!

November 16, 2009 | Unregistered CommenterAnonymous

@Catherine--

Brian Keith? Brian Wilson?

I've heard it on a few older gents. It's one of those names that caught fire in the 1970s, to be sure, just like "Emma" and "Jacob" had been lying dormant for decades, but now there are 5 in every first grade class.

esist: I think it'd be esist if we just name everyone "Pat" or "Chris."

November 16, 2009 | Unregistered CommenterAnonymous

P.S. I only know one young "Milton," but who's to say? :)

November 16, 2009 | Unregistered CommenterAnonymous

I just gagged. A whole lot.

November 16, 2009 | Unregistered CommenterJoelle

Horrifying, germy, real leaves on cake + Monty Python reference = awesome Cakewreck!

November 16, 2009 | Unregistered Commenterturtlepeep

I bet those leaves make the cake taste more natural.

No? No? I got nothing. That's weird.

November 16, 2009 | Unregistered Commenterfeathergirl

All-natural ingredients indeed... I think I'll pass on this one.

November 16, 2009 | Unregistered CommenterStephanie

Ewww....but the Monty Python sketch ftw!

November 16, 2009 | Unregistered CommenterQ

Did you see you on the Washington Post?! http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2009/11/16/AR2009111602187.html near the end, topping off the whole subject.

November 16, 2009 | Unregistered CommenterAlisonH

I think those leaves have kicked the bucket.
They're pushing up daisies.
They are "ex" leaves.

(Not to be confused with ex-lax which you might need after eating this cake.)

WV: "sovely" as in, "This cake is not s' ovely"

November 16, 2009 | Unregistered CommenterRed Wolf

I just hope the cake isn't Crunchy Frog-flavored...

November 16, 2009 | Unregistered Commenterladycrim

But you missed the part where the cake is stuffed with "crunchy dead frogs", which were first "dew picked and flown from Iraq, cleansed in finest quality spring water, lightly killed, and then sealed in a succulent Swiss quintuple smooth treble cream milk chocolate envelope and lovingly frosted with glucose."

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Dy6uLfermPU

:) Thanks for another winner!

November 16, 2009 | Unregistered CommenterArtemis

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