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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
Tuesday
Mar152011

What We Have Here is a Failure to Communicate

I'm always fascinated by the breakdown in communication that can occur when you order a cake. I love figuring out what went wrong just by looking at the cake; it beats any crossword puzzle or word jumble.

Sometimes the explanation is pretty straight forward:

As you can see, there is in fact a "Coca Cola can/bottle" on this cake.

Other times there's a severe misunderstanding from the get-go:

I like to think that if they'd spelled "capital" correctly they might have figured it out.

Sometimes you specifically ask for little plastic "Happy Birthday sticks" stuck in your order of cupcakes:

Other times you're just not specific enough:

And sometimes, on wonderful, rare occasions, you get an amazingly talented baker. A baker with mad piping skills, a steady hand, and perfect spelling. A baker who, incidentally, is also a little hard of hearing. So, when you get this baker, and you want to order a giant Gerber daisy on your cake, just be sure you enunciate really, really well.

Because otherwise...


You might get the Gerber Baby.

(Yes, really. Scout's honor.)

A big "thanks" in all caps to Heather F., Brianne H., Jessie B., Kristina R., & Kelly Y., who had some 'splaining to do on her last birthday.

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Reader Comments (95)

The cupcakes were for a drummer -- what's your problem?

;-)

Thanks, as always, for my morning laugh!

wv - enessigh

Enessigh escapes from my lips, as I reluctantly leave Cake Wrecks . . .

March 15, 2011 | Unregistered CommenterEllen

Forgot to say -- you wouldn't want "Sticks" Mandalay to get bupkes for his birthday, would you?

Because it would be an impossible mission to make that up to him!

;-)

March 15, 2011 | Unregistered CommenterEllen

Mistakes like these "whatever" cakes make them good for any occasion so there might be a method to the madness after all...

March 15, 2011 | Unregistered CommenterDJ Twisted Sister

I love the Gerber Baby, (still have my Gerber baby doll from the 70's!) but they meant "Gerbera Daisy". Should have asked for a Montauk Daisy, would have saved a lot of grief. (:
wv; corma... "Happy Birthday corma Love corma Mom."

March 15, 2011 | Unregistered CommenterAmanda

That Gerber baby is actually cute.

Cuter than a giant Gerber daisy, perhaps.

March 15, 2011 | Unregistered CommenterSilverRain

The Gerber cake is a crying shame, actually -- obviously a very talented decorator...who has an unfortunately hard-of-hearing order taker.

I think this is the only Wreck I've seen that I'd consider hiring the decorator....but not until I had a written order with visual aids to show them what I really wanted!

LOL at the WV: crasho
The sound a customer's jaw makes upon impact with the floor when they see the Wreck they just showed up to pick up.

March 15, 2011 | Unregistered CommenterAnonymous

Hysterical. Really.

simplysweeter.blogspot.com

March 15, 2011 | Unregistered CommenterSimplySweeter

As a hard-of-hearing individual, I am extremely offended that you might possibly poke a bit of well-intentioned fun in my direction!!!

(Just kidding! :) Love the wrecks today.)

WV: mingu; You mingu AREN'T supposed to spell it "captial"? Darn.

March 15, 2011 | Unregistered CommenterNancy McGill

Cake 1, nice try at the logo though...*sigh*

Cake 2, ROTFLOL - those are my initials! Funny how they put a period after the "L", but not the "V" - L.V

Cake 3, reminds me of Willow and one of my favorite lines: "Her name is not Sticks! She's Elora Dannen, the future empress of Tir Asleen and the last thing she's gonna want is a hairy chest!"

Cake 4, LOL at least they wrote something nice! Thank goodness they didn't ask for something nicely written!

Cake 5, WOW, that is some mad pipin' skillz! Shame.

March 15, 2011 | Unregistered CommenterLoo-E Loo-I

Amanda said "Should have asked for a Montauk Daisy, would have saved a lot of grief."

Then they might have got the Monatauk monster instead! {{shudder}}

:-D

March 15, 2011 | Unregistered CommenterLoo-E Loo-I

The last picture is fantastic. Best post ever.

These literal LOL's are always my FAVORITE cakes. Like the "Nothing" beauty on the front of the CW calendar. :)

March 15, 2011 | Unregistered CommenterShannon

ahehehehe I think those are the perfect explanations

March 15, 2011 | Unregistered CommenterAnonymous

I could have totally made the Gerber mistake (although not the cake since I do not have such mad piping skills, not even close!).

If I ever start a business (and I have no plans to), I think I'll make clients submit stuff in writing and then make it part of the protocol that I or one of my wonks calls them to confirm for sure that everybody is on the same page. It's tragic that such a lovely job wasn't what was wanted!

WV: catue:
1) a very still feline.
2) Gesundheit.

March 15, 2011 | Unregistered CommenterKimberly Chapman

Maybe Sticks is the birthday boy's nickname?

March 15, 2011 | Unregistered CommenterDangGina

I just have to say that I love this blog. I don't read many blogs regularly... just yours in fact(Cake Wrecks and E-bot), and they never fails to bring a smile to my face. So thank you for a daily smile. :)

March 15, 2011 | Unregistered CommenterSamantha

If people could understand that they're actually gerbera daisies, with an A, this kind of confusion might not happen.

March 15, 2011 | Unregistered CommenterValerya Baker

Maybe it would have help to say Gerbera. If you google Gerbera Babies you get a real nice picture of flowers. http://www.dailypainters.com/paintings/42374/Gerbera-Babies/

March 15, 2011 | Unregistered CommenterAnonymous

Wow. That last cake is fantastically well done, and the decorator is extremely talented. I don't even want to think about how long it must have taken them to perfectly execute the WRONG picture on that cake. And the amount of stiff drinks it would take to regain composure after hearing all the customer wanted was a daisy.

March 15, 2011 | Unregistered CommenterKittyKat

What is wv? I can see that maybe it's a variation on words but would like the "official" definition of what's going on here so I can get in on the fun.

Poor Gerber baby. Such an awesome picture. Such a huge wreck. lol

March 15, 2011 | Unregistered CommenterPandora

ROFLMAO... Maybe the baby's name is "Daisy"? (blinkblink)

WV - sedin: Always remember... What's sedin the phone is not necessarily what you'll getin your cake.

March 15, 2011 | Unregistered CommenterBADKarma!

lol @ KittyKat- no kidding! I can see the tears and freaking out of just trying to get it perfect and then they were like "oh no hon, I just wanted a flower" For some reason I just wrote that with the voice of that guy from the family guy. If you're cool you know who I mean.

I can't believe all the people that think everyone should know the correct names of flowers are. They just went to order a cake guys. Especially if it was a manly man, he's just going to be like put a freakin flower on it and call it a day.

March 15, 2011 | Unregistered CommenterPandora

Hey Kimberly! I worked at the HEB bakery for a short while and they have a form that has to be filled out with exactly what you want the cake to say and where (there's even a little diagram for placement). That hasn't stopped some wrecks from getting through... even when the customer signs the paper stating it's correct only to find out later that they didn't bother to spellcheck what they wrote themselves. So while usually the decorator--sometimes it's the customer.

March 15, 2011 | Unregistered Commentersnarkygurl

Didn't like the last cake

http://a-lookbook.blogspot.com/

March 15, 2011 | Unregistered CommenterRuby

The 'Captial' cake was a lost cause before they started writing on it....

March 15, 2011 | Unregistered CommenterCaroline B

*Puts on her "gerbera daisy" Epcot helmet* *jumps into trench* *covers head* *kisses butt goodbye*

March 15, 2011 | Unregistered CommenterBrooke

Just wanted to say that this title is one of our family's favorite lines, and these cakes couldn't exemplify it better!

March 15, 2011 | Unregistered CommenterAnne-with-an-e

well despite being deaf the gerber baby was quite cute...

March 15, 2011 | Unregistered CommenterAnonymous

As a former cake decorator, the Gerber baby story and cake made me groan...can't imagine doing all that work for naught.

wv-rebod: What I'm going to be trying to do at the gym this year.

March 15, 2011 | Unregistered CommenterMelanie

Been reading Cake Wrecks for a while and felt I was getting immune to the hilarity...until I got to the Gerber baby cake and had to suppress an uncontrollable snort. Wish I had mad piping skills like that, because, as someone named Daisy with decent hearing, I happen to know the difference between a gerbera daisy and a Gerber baby!

March 15, 2011 | Unregistered CommenterDaisy

At least the Gerber Baby didn't totally turn the meaning into something totally wrong and sinister...Wait! That could have been funny! :)

March 15, 2011 | Unregistered CommenterDonna

@ Pandora

The WV is the word verification you type in in order to comment.

Mine is 'puzli'

wv: Puzli

These cakes are puzli to me...

March 15, 2011 | Unregistered CommenterTheLandlubberWife

That last cake absolutely made me laugh out loud! It's actually a really cute cake aside from the misunderstanding. Oops!

March 15, 2011 | Unregistered CommenterThe Lunar Fox

Not sure if this is an "epcot" moment or not...but it's actually a Gerbera daisy...could explain /some/ but not all of the mistake.

WV: The baker Suriz not a horticulturalist

March 15, 2011 | Unregistered CommenterBecky

With all the wrecks out there, it's always pleasant to see "something nice" on a cake...LOL Gotta love this site!Thanks so much for writing it!

to Pandora: wv (word verification) is the set of letters you have to enter to post a comment. People just have fun with them. My word verification for this comment is below.

wv: entskude - What kind of insect could ruin a picnic? entskude

March 15, 2011 | Unregistered Commentermel

These are far and away my favorite type of cake wrecks. Thanks for making my day oh so much better!

March 15, 2011 | Unregistered Commentermin

I love the Gerber Baby cake. At least it's a birthday cake, which is in celebration of someone's birth, which means that they were a cute little baby once...right?

@KittyKat, 11:29am
I'm laughing so hard imagining the baker's realization that she/he just worked 3 more hours than he/she needed to. But I'm also feeling sorry for the baker for how embarrassed she/he must have felt when they learned what the customer had actually asked for.

Thanks for the laughs, Jen. You always start my day out right! (can you tell I'm a late sleeper?)

March 15, 2011 | Unregistered CommenterKatiMomKat

I love the Gerber Baby cake. At least it's a birthday cake, which is in celebration of someone's birth, which means that they were a cute little baby once...right?

@KittyKat, 11:29am
I'm laughing so hard imagining the baker's realization that she/he just worked 3 more hours than he/she needed to. But I'm also feeling sorry for the baker for how embarrassed she/he must have felt when they learned what the customer had actually asked for.

Thanks for the laughs, Jen. You always start my day out right! (can you tell I'm a late sleeper?)

March 15, 2011 | Unregistered CommenterKatiMomKat

My mom actually wrote on a cake order form that she wanted it in "manly colors" and they ended up getting it right (blue and green, and everything spelled correctly). That baker makes up for these poor dears.

March 15, 2011 | Unregistered CommenterMichelle

What is up with the shiny icing on a lot of cakes? Like on the LV wreck...it looks gross, as if it's sweating and going to slide off. Do people find this appetizing?

March 15, 2011 | Unregistered CommenterBadCookie

Well, if they'd asked for a "Gerbera" daisy, they might have gotten what they wanted. Gerber is not a daisy, it's a baby food!

March 15, 2011 | Unregistered CommenterTheresa

I had to read the last one twice to figure out what the problem was.
It was suprisingly not as ugly as most people/babies on cakes usually are.

March 15, 2011 | Unregistered CommenterAnnie

I guess the first one is a creative way to get around trademark and copyright issues, eh? LOL

March 15, 2011 | Unregistered CommenterAnonymous

I'd like to give kudos to the 'sticks' wreckerator for at least:
a) spelling birthday correctly, and
b) knowing how to seperate the two syllables, and
c) knowing where to put the hyphen!

The second two points seem to be a lost art these days, even in publishing.

March 15, 2011 | Unregistered CommenterTheOneOnTheRight

That baby is adorable! Better than some stinky ol' daisy any day! :)

March 15, 2011 | Unregistered CommenterJoeKnee

It never ceases to amaze me that the decorator didn't stop to question the order taker. It boggles the mind.

March 15, 2011 | Unregistered CommenterAnonymous

*Cautiously edging towards the Epcot bunker in anticipation of a possible impending "Gerbera" disaster*

Sorry, but after the Marti Gras fiasco I am on edge around the comment section :)

March 15, 2011 | Unregistered CommenterChantelle

For those of you pointing out that it's a Gerbera Daisy:

Unless I'm wrong, the Gerber Daisy is of the genus Gerbera in the same way the Rose is of the genus Rosa. And I know about Daisies.

Here's just one of many sites on which I found this info. (not Wikipedia)

http://www.denverplants.com/flower/html/gerber.htm

Peace out, yo.

john

March 15, 2011 | Unregistered Commenterjohn (the hubby of JEN)

I would like to point out that the Gerber baby is bald. Other than that, it's actually a really well-done design. If only that was what they wanted.

March 15, 2011 | Unregistered CommenterLeigh Ann

At least the Gerber Baby came out well!

March 15, 2011 | Unregistered CommenterAnonymous

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