Is This a Wreck? You Decide.
September 11, 2008 Today we Americans and our friends around the world should pause and remember those lost in the attacks on 9/11/01. We each do this in our own way, and some people commemorate the day a little differently. Some people, for example, make a cake:
I've received several different pictures of this cake - each taken from a different angle - so it's obviously getting a lot of attention from passers-by. Some believe this is just the baker's way of using his unique skills to make a tribute. Others think it's disrespectful: halfway through serving those towers the cake is going to look pretty darn macabre. Personally, I'm on the fence. I see the skill involved, and I think the baker's motives are pure, but in execution I can see why so many are offended.
Your thoughts?
Thanks to Anna B., Patrick C., Dubi K., and Marc Felion, who took the original photo.
Reader Comments (320)
BEYOND tacky and insensitive. Horrible, horrible cake. Anything to make a buck makes me sick.
It is a bit tastless. It would be like honoring a miscarriage with one of those belly cakes...
A large sheet cake with plastic towers would have been more appropriate. That way you're not eating through the towers in a way reminiscent of that terrible day.
-Julie
Maybe the intention was never to cut into the cake? And if it was meant to be cut into, then you just carefully remove the "towers" and slice. I think that would make it less macabre.
I see it as a tribute. Cake is a form of art.
as long as they would never actually SELL that cake to be eaten, then I don't see much of a problem with it, honestly. It's the baker's way of showing they care. But to serve it and eat it would be very disrespectful.
Just a Marine wife's opinion.
Total wreck. You're right, there's no doubt that the creators of this cake had good intentions...but like so many of the other items in this blog, they completely forgot that this thing is cut up and served to people. -Alex B
Hmm, could go either way.
Maybe it will only be a cake if it is served. But at the same, simply throwing it away would also make it a wreck... Dilemma.
I don't think it's offensive. I mean, plenty of people plumb forgot about it this year; at least this person remembered and tried to do something in respect to it using their job skills.
I think you're right. If left unserved it's a nice tribute. Once you cut it, it's just bad form.
I see it as a tribute. A tribute that shouldn't be eaten.
Oh dear. I'm sure the intention was good, but that is a really bad idea.
But hey, at least it's in better taste than the limited edition coins that claim to use "real silver found in the wreckage of the WTC".
How can eating a cake be disrespectful? We're all sorry for those involved in 9/11. So, let's be trusting that the baker meant his or her very best, did a fine job, and let it go at that. I'd eat a piece of this cake, no problem.
Deven
Nashville
Let them eat cake!
It's a beautiful cake and a yummy tribute.
At least there was no plastic plane on it.
Leaves a bad taste in my mouth.
I guess it just depends if the baker was trying to sell the cake, or simply providing an appropriate tribute to put in a bakery window. I wouldn't really want to buy the cake and start cutting it up.
At best, I would suggest the cutting take place off-site, out of view of anyone, or simply do not serve the towers, serve the base only. I think the intentions are simply to commemorate and not to offend, but in light of the situation, and what occurred, maybe the baker lacked a little foresight as to what the cake would look like in the process.
Wreck, no. Slightly misguided, probably.
I'm hoping it's only one of those "Decorative" cakes, that are only designed to look good, not be consumed. Or at least that the towers aren't meant to be eaten, because, short of being really REALLY morbid, I can't imagine people willingly hacking into the towers to eat them.
I am sure the baker had good intentions, however... I think your use of the word "macabre" is appropriate.
I'm not sure if I'd go so far as to say "disrespectful" (though it depends on where it's being served. What town was it taken in?), but I do know that I would feel very, very uncomfortable cutting into one of those towers.
On the lighter side, it reminds me of http://www.theonion.com/content/node/28148" REL="nofollow">this article from The Onion.
I think it's a nice and well-meaning thought, but a bad idea. I don't think I'd really want to commemorate the day with a cake ...
That is incredibly, massively, horribly tasteless.
I don't find this offensive, but I guess I can see where someone might. I think we honor those who died by remembering the day and marking what happened with moments of silence, prayers, candle-light vigils, etc. This cake is a personal expression of the memory and I think they had every intention of honoring the memory, not dessicrating it. Perhaps its not even meant to be eaten.
Wow am I going to be first.I might have to dance if I am so I will type fast.LOL
I am sure a lot of emotion and thought went in to creating this cake.I do not think it is disrespectful but I deffinately would not be able to eat any of it.
I like it.Good job to the baker.May we NEVER FORGET.No matter how we deal with it as long as we don't forget!
I think that the baker did a good job and had good intentions. Everyone is different, different things offend different people, and my suggestion would be if a tribute like this is something a person feels is in poor taste, they shouldn't buy it. But just because they think it's in poor taste doesn't mean others out there might not think of it in good taste, and want to buy it because of that.
(How's that for convoluted?)
As art, maybe.
As food, no.
It is delicious cake.
I don't really think the baker was thinking this through. I understand that they were trying to make a tribute to those lost, but my God! Did no one tell them that maybe cake was the wrong medium. As you said those towers are going to look a mess once they are cut into. To me, a lifelong NYC resident, this is incredibly disrespectful. Cake is supposed to be happy, this cake makes me want to cry.
I don't think the cake is a wreck...and I get your point. In my opinion cake is normally used for celebration. (At funerals you usually see pie) It seems weird to me that you would have cake and ice cream today to remember 9/11.
I agree that the talent is there, but it is a little crude to make a cake out of a symbol of such sorrow, especially since slicing the pieces will make it resemble the fall of the buildings as the cake-fest progresses. How is that honoring the lives taken? You can't honor a tragedy by eating cake.
Thanks for posting a cake of such a topical nature, I love this blog.
I would not be comfortable eating any part of the World Trade Center. At all.
Why be offended? Too much work. Someone put alot of thought into that cake with the best of intentions.
The baker should have left the towers off. It would have been a nice cake then
Do you ... eat the towers?
The cake in itself is bizarre. The fact that it's intended to be demolished by gnashing teeth is ... um ... dude.
This is a wreck! Can you imagine what will happen when you start cutting into those towers? They will fall. Too much like the real thing-it would be awful. Who needs/wants to relive those moments again? If they had put the towers flat on the cake like a picture, I could deal with it much better.
I can understand the hesitancy see, but like you, I see the skill and tribute as well. It's not like it's showing the actual attack. We all make tributes to this day in our own way: through our blogs, photographs, music, so why not in a cake?
It seems that with this cake, as with the face-in-a-helmet-so-have-a-slice-of-brains red velvet cake, cake and icing have become more an artistic medium, and less a tasty treat.
Is this wrong? I say that's a no-no. Delicious confections are meant to be eaten and enjoyed; they are not meant to make political statements.
So, if the flour/egg/sugar combination known as cake is used strictly as a sculptural medium, I have a suggested name: "cake". Its not cake.
Thank you for allowing me to use too much punctuation!
Oh dear! It's awful.
Huh. That's interesting. How much worse is that cake than rewatching all the footage on tv, over, and over, and over again.
I don't think there is anything wrong with a Sept 11th cake, but this one in particular is a little over-done. For me, the towers on the cake make it too literal. Way, WAY too literal.
It does look nice, and I can understand the spirit in which it was made, but you're right about how it's going to look when it is served. It will look like the twin towers are coming down again. Kind of twisted if you think about it...
When something dramatic happens, we pay tribute in the best way we know how, utilizing our individual talents. Some do it through music, or writing, or painting, or just by simple, quiet personal reflection. This cake is a tribute made in the way the person knows best, which is beautiful in its own way.
How it will look when eaten, however, is a little macabre, you're right.
We could always pray that the towers themselves are not edible and thusly not going to be dessimated...
Gina
I think it would be way more offensive if the buildings were crumbling.
Well, here's another item to consider in the same vein: Top Design on Bravo tv last night (the night before the anniversary of 9/11) had its competing interior designers decorate bomb-shelter bunkers - part of the winning criteria was "cheerfulness" and whether one would want to spend fifty years in them....Ugh...
Nice Work. I think it is a tribute, not an item for sale.
The first question that popped into my mind (well the second actually, the first was WTF?) was, "how do you serve the towers?" I see two equally tasteless options. The first is you simply slice pieces out of the towers as you serve, creating a slow motion replay of the real life events. The second would be to take one of the towers off the base, lay it horizontal, slice and serve.
Could a group of people not feel uncomfortable during either option?
Well intentioned, well executed, but kind of a wreck nevertheless, in my personal opinion.
Edible memorials are just rarely ever a good idea, as half way through, it is going to look fairly awful.
Some cakes seem to be just for looking at... I can't see anyone actually serving it.... Or at least remove the towers before cutting into it.... just my 2 cents...
I think it's a pretty nice tribute, but like so many of the wrecks on this site, people don't have the foresight to consider what will happen once it's served.
- Cynthia