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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
Sep142009

A Whale of a Tale

[shining flashlight spookily in face] Come gather 'round to hear a tale of a Wreck.

And not just any Wreck, either.

A wreck [dramatic pause] to the third power.

Er, or something like that.

Last week a local news website in DC ordered a cake for their fifth anniversary. The site is named DCist, and Sommer, who sent this in, asked the bakery to just write their name across the whole cake.

Here's what they got instead:

Bringing a whole new meaning to the Fail Whale?

You've got to admire the tenacity of this decorator. Even while operating under the assumption that the customer wanted something written "on a whale cake", he still went ahead and just wrote those instructions out instead. The fact that the baker actually made more work for himself (by writing the extra text) while trying to make less work for himself (by avoiding drawing or carving a whale cake) is what makes this such a gem. Ah, good stuff.

Thanks to Sommer and to DCist.com, which also posted it (under the same clever title, I might add - great minds and all that) here.

- Related Wreckage: Wreck Creators

« I'm This Many | Main | Sunday Sweets: Ribbons and Lace »

Reader Comments (67)

I don't know, writing "on a whale cake" is probably less work than making a whale-shaped cake.

September 15, 2009 | Unregistered CommenterShelley

I think this decorator stumbled upon a totally NEW kind of cake design. The cake gives you the concept and then you can create your own version IN YOUR MIND. It's cake decoration on a whole new level. Genius! Or maybe not.

http://www.adnoxious.blogspot.com/" rel="nofollow">adnoxious.blogspot.com
Taking aim at lousy advertising

September 15, 2009 | Unregistered CommenterAdnoxious

Jen, I love you.

September 15, 2009 | Unregistered CommenterJulie

http://superbnoveltycakes.blogspot.com/

Thought you might find these cakes cute/interesting/inventive.

September 15, 2009 | Unregistered CommenterAleisha

Unrelated: I just woke up from a Cake Wrecks dream. My husband and I were in some grocery store laughing at the cakes, and I commented that due to this website, cakes were now always funny. Alas, I did not have a camera in the dream; and even worse, I don't remember what the Hell was so funny about them. But I thought I might mention that you are now invading the sleeping minds of innocents. So, you know, I hope you don't desire to kill us in our dreams. That would be less than amusing.

September 15, 2009 | Unregistered CommenterVivian

I think the black-and-white color scheme probably came from the name "DCist". They must've thought it was a fancy spelling of "Deceased".

September 15, 2009 | Unregistered CommenterPelotard

Aaaaand thus, she had the Newsboys' "In the Belly of the Whale" stuck in her head for the rest of the day.

September 15, 2009 | Unregistered CommenterRuthie

OK, people...yes, we KNOW it is supposed to say WhOLE CAKE...that is part of why it is so funny! It LOOKS like WHALE...I cannot believe some of the comments here, saying that "oh, I see a loop at the top of the word...they were writing an O..not an A." Gee, ya think?? Get with the program! FUNNY...Ha Ha Ha!!!

September 15, 2009 | Unregistered CommenterAnonymous

Okay as a DC resident I DEMAND to know what bakery did this. DCites should know which bakeries we can trust.

September 15, 2009 | Unregistered CommenterNewsCat

She is 20 years old- "Twentieth"!

September 15, 2009 | Unregistered CommenterAnonymous

I'm an avid reader of DCist (mostly for the comments, because they aren't really a "news" site but more a "news blog" site instead) and found this first on their site and found CW through them! Happy that their ruined cake brought me here to the hilarity of this site!

According to the article that they wrote, they verbally told the bakery they wanted "DCist" on the whole cake, and in the meantime, got "DCIST on a whale/whole cake". It doesn't seem to me they did that on purpose to get on the CW website, but it's now an inside joke on DCist now. Happy to see that they made it here, was waiting to see if they did!

September 16, 2009 | Unregistered CommenterLucyInTheSky

Good grief. I wonder how that decorator even dresses themselves of a morning....

One thing I also wonder every time I see a wreck like this - nobody actually pays for them, right? I assume they refuse, or get their money back?

September 17, 2009 | Unregistered CommenterTania

Don't you just hate it when baker's play "telephone" Let's see how many steps it might have taken, shall we?

"DCist in big letter across the whole cake"

"DCIST across the whole cake"

"DCIST on a whole cake"

"DCIST on a whale cake"

September 17, 2009 | Unregistered CommenterVeggieT

This is funny on so many levels.

This is my favorite category.

"UnderNeat That" :)

September 17, 2009 | Unregistered Commenterblueiguana42

Wow. Whale fail.

September 19, 2009 | Unregistered CommenterMichelle

That totally cracked me up, even though it's so, so sad!

September 23, 2009 | Unregistered CommenterACDC

Epic fail whale.

October 15, 2009 | Unregistered CommenterAngie

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