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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

Entries in Best Of The Best (314)

Sunday
May132018

Sunday Sweets For My Mom

I'm not sure when it happened, exactly - maybe sometime in middle school? - but I'll always remember the day Mom told me I was skipping school, and we were going shopping instead.

(By Bake Me A Cake)

AW YEAH.

 

We spent the morning driving around to Goodwill and various thrift shops, trying on clothes, singing along to the car radio, and later stopping at Subway for lunch - which I remember being a treat, because we got the cookies for dessert.

(By Mor Di Da Mor Di Da)

(This is me around chocolate chip cookies. ALWAYS.)

 

We didn't talk about school. We didn't talk about my friends or grades or any of those awkward teenage "body-changing" topics. We just told each other which tops looked best, chatted about nothing, laughed, and had fun.

It was the first time I realized Mom wasn't just my mom, she was also my friend.

(By Silvia Mancini)

 

Mom was an RN while I was growing up, which meant my brother and I got zero sympathy for our scraped knees and boo-boos. Don't get me wrong; Mom was an expert at patching us up - but if we wanted a hearty "You poor thing!", then Dad was the place to go.

(By Karolyn's Kakes)

 

I later learned Mom was working nights in the ICU then, and routinely saw the kind of pain and grief I can't even fathom, because she came home and smiled and hugged us just the same.

(By Hazel Wong Cake Design)

 

Once, on another hooky day with Mom, she and I went to the matinee of Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles - you know, the live-action one?

(By Suganana)

It was terrible. But Mom loves terrible kid movies, and to this day she'll request we see whatever the latest animated or G-rated flick is, no matter how ominous the reviews, and then she'll laugh and gasp and have so much fun that you'll wind up loving it, too.

 

In my teens Mom was in a car accident that prevented her from ever working as a nurse again. She had to wear a neck brace for ages, and later had a surgery to wire her jaw shut for a while. Then she got braces... at the same time *I* had braces.

(By Sweet Sugarbelle)

 

People kept mistaking us for sisters, which Mom REALLY liked, but I just found embarrassing - especially that time an older friend of mine hit on her... with me standing right there.

(By Imaginup)

 

Today my folks live in a different state, but I'm happy to say they are still my friends. We visit often, and even go to Dragon Con together, where Mom loves dressing up steampunk - with outfits she still puts together from the thrift store.

(By Sweetlake Cakes)

 

Lately Mom likes to video chat and show me all the crafts she's teaching during her volunteer work at the local retirement home. And now she and Dad have joined a Harley Davidson group/club/gang(?), so they spend weekends taking long rides together decked out in the most, um, fascinating fashions.

(By House of the Rising Cake)

(I could have gone my whole life without seeing my mother in leather chaps, you guys. MY WHOLE LIFE.)

 

Mom's the most servant-hearted person I know, and has seen and endured a lot of pain, though you'd never know it. Somehow she's managed to keep a sense of wonder and whimsy through life - something I try hard to emulate. She raised me to love reading and Star Trek and fantasy and fun, and taught me that when the going gets rough, you turn up the music and sing along extra loud - and off-key. ;)

For my folks' 40th anniversary a few years back, we sent them to Disney World - mostly for Mom - and I'll never forget her delight.

(By Mutlu Dükkan)

She's the big kid who makes you remember how great life really is sometimes - even when life really isn't so great. The best moms are like that. And days like today help us remember to thank our moms, and be grateful for the things we just didn't know how to appreciate when we were younger.

 

So happy Mother's Day, Mom. Thanks for showing me that when I thought you were being the most embarrassing, you were really showing me how to be the best adult. I love you, I'm proud of you, and I hope we can go shopping again someday soon.

 

*****

Thank you for using our Amazon links to shop! USA, UK, Canada.

 

PS - This is a first-time-ever cross-post from my other blog, Epbot. Same text, different pictures. So if you'd like to see the version with pics of my mom in steampunk costumes & on motorcycles & hugging awkward young Jen, click here.

And from my other blog, Epbot:

Friday
May112018

Come On Barbie, Let's Go Party

It all started with those kitschy toilet-paper cover dolls:

I think every grandmother was required by law to make enough of these things for her family to cover a mountain of TP. (My personal favorite was our red-dressed flamenco dancer. You?) After this was done, those dear crafty souls had to come up with new ways to use their stockpile of doll torsos.

 

Enter: the doll cake!

It was understandable when at first children assumed they were being served yarn and TP. Here Jenn L. is saying, "How about you put that over there and go fetch me my real cake, before someone throws a hissy, Ok?"

 

Fast forward 30 years or so, and doll cakes have come a long way. Why, just look at all the diverse styles they come in now!

The "Hawaiian Shaving Brush":

 

The "Easy-Chair-Under-Her-Dress":

("My lap! My lap! My lap is on FI-YUR!")

 

The "I'm-a-Little-Teapot":

 

The "Girls-Shouldn't-Have-ALL-the-Fun":

 

And the ever popular "Climb Every Mountain":

 

Cherie, Andrea M., Sanne, & Cattie P., all together now: "Life in plastic - it's fantastic!"

*****

Thank you for using our Amazon links to shop! USA, UK, Canada.

And from my other blog, Epbot: