Tuesday
Jan132009
OR...
January 13, 2009 
Only two options, but three "or"s.
Nice one, Melanie & Danny. Or Danny & Melanie. Or...
January 13, 2009 
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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
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January 13, 2009 
Reader Comments (81)
I don't think those are 8's as some do. If you look at the O in the name it's written with the same little loop at the top. It's an O with a loop and a lowercase r connected, written in cursive.
Alli said "I don't think this is what they meant. Maybe I should call to make sure before I put the words in icing on this beautiful cake".
Wait, where do you see a beautiful cake?
Hello, my name is Joanna and my ex-boyfriend's name is Ernie. Although our birthdays are at opposite ends of the year and we haven't dated in about ten years (in fact, he's married and expecting his first child in three weeks), at least five people from our old circle have messaged me about this page. Too funny!
Now that I know the "or" is actually a botched ampersand, I'm finding its resemblance to "or" even funnier, because the ampersand sign comes from "et," the Latin word for "and."
OK, maybe that's only funny for someone who's spent way too much time reading dead languages.
And once again why we see that you should never give kids (or cake decorators) choices.
Decision making is not part of the job description. And in some cases neither is talent.
ET! ET! ET! ET! Put ET on it!
Maybe those aren't "or"s, they're just really terrible attempts at ampersands?
Even if they are supposed to be ampersands, why "Joanna, Ernie & Ernie & Joanna"? Are there two Joannas and two Ernies? And there is still the mystery of the extra amersand (or whatever it is) floating off to the right side.
I agree, "Joanna & Ernie or Ernie & Joanna" could be a joke about which name in a couple gets precedence. That may have been the intent. Which somehow got grossly misinterpreted, of course. I really don't think we can argue that SOME of those squiggles are ampersands and others, the word "or" -- especially when one of them is quite clearly a comma.
does this really happen
OH....so the squiggle things say "or." Huh.
Some people shouldn't decorate cakes.
Can we just call the bakery and ask what on earth they had in mind on this cake?
Or for the meaning of life?
Or something?
wv cough=that little hacking sound made when looking at this cake
Hehehe! This is just too good. It took me a moment to find the far right side "or." That little bugger looks to be trying to escape the mess. I'm guessing the person who ordered the cake kept repeating the names to be on it and couldn't decide who'd get top billing, so the decorator did their best to comply. Like others have mentioned: At least there are sprinkles.
Joanna, Ernie, or, or Ernie or Joanna.
WHUH??
I'm pretty sure OR should be removed from this cake maker's vocabulary. Clearly s/he is confused about what it means, or at the very least, when to use it.
*******
Found you through the Weblog Awards. Congrats on kicking booTAY! (I read up on the controversy thing. I agree with you guys, I think maybe in a different category people would have responded better to the number of votes you received. ...Or probably not.)
maybe the middle "or" (see i'm politically correct- i put quotes) is supposed to say 87.
WV- brimos
what these decorators are called.
I keep reading "Joanna, Ernie or or Errie or JBanna" Maybe the wrecker wasn't sure on the name spellings and put in a couple of alternatives, along with a surplus of ors, just to be sure.
Word verification: tachr - one who teaches the fine art of tacky cake decoration.
Holy penmanship, Batman! --all this controversy!!
Are those ampersands, or "or"s?
"or"s or "87"s?
I say, WHO CARES?!
That cake is butt-ugly, and should only be served from the bottom of a deep, dark dumpster. At night. After borrowing blindfolds from that other cakewrecker (see previous cake)to hand out to the guests...
Poor, poor, Jo and/or Ernie!!
Maybe it's not "or" but some little flowers or a plus sign or something. Still plenty enough to make it a wreck, but maybe we can forgive at least the abundance of or.
I started developing microsoft word cake decorating software which includes spell check, if only I could have acted faster I could have saved this poor sap the pain of being crucified in front of such a large forum
Once upon a time I actually thought that people wouldn't be so stupid as to make mistakes like this. Since finding this site, I have discovered that I was very foolish to think that way...sad for humanity, but great for entertainment!
Ha! I didn't even see that little rogue "or" off to the left at first!!
*still giggling*
WV-shern. Those shern-ough look like "or"s to me :)
I could only think of a seal clapping, "or, or, or"
I'm going to say it's "or", based on an analysis of the other handwriting on the cake. Look at the "o" in "Joanna". It has that big loop on the top. And the "r" in "Ernie" resembles the form of the "r" in "or". I do think it says "or". Why, oh why, I don't know.
But even if it was a squiggle, an ampersand, an "87" or whatever, that would not explain the repetition of the names.
I thought those were little 87s at first...
Could that actually be an 87, for their birth year??
The "ors" look like 87's
P.S. Jen, if I'm using the quotation marks wrong I apologize, I can never tell when or where I put them, which is why I would never decorate cakes.
The "ors" could easily be mistaken for flying hershey kisses....
i'd like to know if the people at the bakery do this on purpose or if it's a competition between the people who decorate it.
These cake wrecks are my favorite kind. It takes a special kind of ignorance to put something like that on a cake and not realize it's wrong. Too funny!
Those look like years to me. 87 and 89 to be exact.
You'd be really surprised at how easy it is to make these kinds of mistakes. I was a cake decorator for nearly 6 years (a damn good one), and when you're stressed out and trying to read someone else's random scribbles on an order form, the brain does weird things. I once made a graduation cake and wrote exactly what was on the order form: "Cong Eric Class of '07." Silly me didn't even think that "Cong" could be short for "Congratulations." The customer was NOT amused, nor very understanding.