Friday, January 16, 2009
Big Day, Big Wrecks
Friday, January 16, 2009
What was ordered:
What was received:
(Fortunately Christine C. reports the the bride and family had a great sense of humor about this Wreck, and even dubbed it the "bamPOO" cake. Heheh.)
Ordered:
And received:
Uh, since the cake itself leaves me speechless, I'm going to comment on the background. Hey Jessica M., is that Chewbacca through the window? I mean, given the Han Solo & Leia topper, I was wondering if Chewie was the ring-bearer or something.
And lastly, ordered:
Aaaand received:
You have to wonder if that swipe was a result of the bride fainting at the sight of it, don't you? Still, I guess she should count her blessings: imagine if the wreckerator had been asked to write something on it!
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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.
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208 comments | Post a Comment
«Oldest ‹Older 1 – 200 of 208 Newer› Newest»I think that's Han and Leia, not Luke. Unless they felt incest was best. :D
What a mess!! It's like they can't even see what they are supposed to be making.
I love these kind of posts. I can't believe how that bamboo cake turned out. The original cake clearly used fondant for the bamboo to mold it to look realistic. Did they REALLY think a line of brown icing would cut it? Man!
Where are these people ordering their wedding cakes from, anyway? Don't they see look at photos of cakes that the bakery has actually done? Don't they see samples? I just don't get how this can happen...
I think the last wreck here would make any bride take a swipe at the cake to put it out of its misery.
I'm sure you realize you meant "HAN and Leia" cake topper - if Luke and Leia were up there, it would be a whole different kind of party...
That's Han and Leia on the cake... Luke never wore a vest.
I'm sure someone has already mentioned this by now (I'm rarely first to anything!) but that's not Luke and Leia, it's Han and Leia. Luke and Leia are twins, I think it would be weird to have them as a wedding cake topper ^^;;
Actually it's a Han & Leia topper "o) and that last one? WTF?
WV: inessee. Inessee how dem wreckerators thot those were anything close!
I knew I should be afraid of scrolling to the last one!!!! Hilarious!!
WV- Micise... you should be more micise when you order your cake.
Buttercream vs. Fondant...hmmm.
I just kept yelling Shut Up!, wreck after wreck. Whoa. Can't imagine The Wedding Cake wrecked.
That last one? Yikes. Not. Even. Close.
Well, technically, it's Han Solo and Leia. Luke and Leia would have been too gross. My daughter just called me a geek. ;)
Hey, Jen, I love you and I think you are awesome, but that is Han and Leia, not Luke and Leia. Luke and Leia are brother and sister!
Wow! All I can think is wow...
And you call yourself a sci-fi fan??!! That's not *Luke* and Leia, it's *Han* and Leia. Brother and sister on a wedding cake would NOT be good! Thanks for (unintentional) extra laugh. Best wishes!
Wow. Those are horrible. I think I would've cried to see my wedding cake turn out so badly.
Um, wow. the last one is certainly the worst. WHen I saw the original I thought "never ask for horizontal things." Sure enough, I was right. I'll admit, they're hard to do, and most people don't realize it, but the decorator.... argh.
Psst...that's Han Solo, not Luke. A Luke and Leia cake topper would be incestuous and kinda creepy.
That's actually a Han Solo and Leia topper.
Also, a Luke and Leia topper would be very creepy given that they're brother and sister.
I've been reading this blog for a while now and each wreck I see pertaining to a wedding adds one more wrinkle to my forehead -- being that I am getting married in a year and a half, is there any way that you would be able to list the bakeries responsible for these supremely wrecky cakes? I unfortunately wouldn't have enough sense of humor to laugh at my abomination of a cake, should I be a bride unfortunate enough to receive some hideous creation.
Thanks,
Joanna
Hilarious entries. One correction, though - that's Han Solo and Leia on the cake, not Luke and Leia - the latter would be quite disturbing.
Now now... Give the decorator on the second version of the second one some credit. It's not a Luke and Leia topper. It's Han Solo.
Oh, that woman in the background is not going to appreciate the Chewie comment. I, however, do.
Angie (from over at www.HalfAssedKitchen.com)
Hehehe. Luke and Leia are brother and sister, so that would be some message with the wedding topper. It's Han Solo and Leia.
Come on...somebody had to say it!
The topper on the second cake is Han Solo and Princess Leia. :)
Loved the comment about Chewie!
The last cake - Woah, that's bad.
ummm... That action fig is Han Solo.
Wow...
And sorry to be a stickler, but I'm pretty sure that's a Han and Leia topper. They weren't brother and sister (eek!)
I think some people want a fancy "magazine worthy" cake, but don't want to pay the price, so they take their magazine cut-out over to Wal-Mart or some other grocery store bakery and actually BELIEVE the decorators who say, Yes...I can do that! And then, are somehow surprised that it doesn't look just like the picture. Sort of like when people go in for plastic surgery to get Brooke Sheild's nose, only to come out with Michael Jacksons!
That is Han, not Luke.
Inspiration/Perspiration Wrecks are my FAVE! Yippee!! And these did not disappoint!!
On the fondanted and painted cake...what is between the layers? Lentils and M&M's? Is it tasty Vietnamese red bean filling? I just...it looks like a goat and a guinea pig got together and made it. Sorry.
Very interesting that it's a Luke and Leia caketopper given their sibling relationship. That'd be an interesting wedding. :)
Stephanie
Oh, no - geek foul. That's Han, not Luke. Nerd cred dropping...
OMG OMG OMG OMG OMG. These are BAD. The inspiration ones are stunning but it looks like my blind dog wrecked the other ones!
Oh my....
it's the poo logs on the first one that had me in fits...but they're all heinous crimes against sugar.
I think these have to be my favorite posts!! LOl
At least the flowers on the "bampoo" cake were pretty... That's about the most positive thing I can say about that one. No words for the others....
I can't believe that people actually get paid for producing such terrible cakes!
That is definitely han solo and leia.. since you know, luke and leia are brother and sister... awk-ward
HAN and Leia. Luke and Leia were brother and sister.
OHHH....that last one...it looks as though the exact same wreckerator did it as for the plaid wedding cake. Same from-the-tube colored icing, same horrid execution, everything. You see what I'm saying? Is that person still actually in business?
I hope these ladies all got their money back.
I think you mean Han Solo and Leia. Luke and Leia would be gross on top of a wedding cake...
What amazes me is the wreckerators who think that the fondant in the originals is actually icing...
The Star Wars Topper is Han & Leia. Luke and Leia were siblings, so eeww. Chewy would probably be the best man and R2D2 could be the ring bearer.
One wonders what kind of display cakes these decorators have. They must inspire false confidence to have the purchased cakes turn out so bad.
-LizzyB
Jen, it a good thing you’ve built up so much geek cred, because you just spent a bucket of it. That’s obviously Han and Leia topping the leaning tower of bad scrollwork. Luke and Leia would have been even more inappropriate as wedding cake topper, being siblings.
Anyway, I’m going to have to go scrub my brain with kittens to get the image of Chewbacca in a little black dress out of it. [shudder]
looks like the first wreck was made with hot dogs!
WV: perio, as in "perrito" (little dog in spanish). ha!
Hilarious as always but I think that's Han Solo and Leia. Luke and Leia would be really creepy.
That's a Han and Leia topper. A Luke and Leia wedding cake topper would be creepy.
Do these brides take pictures to their local baker and say "hey, can you do this?" How exactly does getting a wreck like these work?
Geek that I am I feel obligated to point out that the Star Wars cake topper is Han Solo and Leia, not Luke and Leia. Which is good, since Luke and Leia are siblings...
Okay, I've never decorated cake in my life, and yet even I can tell that the good cakes pictured had fondant instead of icing from a tube/bag/whatever. What in the world would a decorator try to replicate the cake using a totally different technique???
Um, that would be Hans Solo! Maybe you should rent Star Wars this weekend ;)
Sad when the results look nothing like the original idea. The second one looks like the Leaning Tower of Pisa.
~Amy B
My 11 yr old insists I point out that the cake topper in pic#2 is Han Solo & Leia, not Luke & Leia- cause that would be just gross.
When I got married, the baker 'forgot' to make the cake. We marched in at 10 am (wedding at noon) to pick up the cake, and there was no frickin' cake. I thought that was stressful as all heck, but looking at some of these (ok, all of them), I'd rather have had my goof up than have to deal with one of these wrecks!
I'm thinking the gash in last one is the bride grabbing the ugliest thing available to chuck at the baker in outrage.
And that's Han up there, not Luke. Though having Luke would've made it a particularly squick-worthy wreck, as Luke and Lea were siblings...
wv: menewead - what I think some of these cake decorators were saying about a half-hour before they started working.
Oops! Hate to be an armchair "Star Wars" nerd, but I think that's Han Solo as the groom on top of the wedding cake. "Luke" was a good guess, but a) it was Han who ended up marrying Leia, and b) Luke turned out to be Leia's twin brother, which would mean the cake would be the least of the happy couple's problems, what with incest being illegal and all.
The commentary, though, is as hilarious as always.
Now that eleventy-billion people have pointed out WHO is actually on the cake topper, lets discuss how the faux top layer doesn't even come close to matching the color of the cake. Classy says I.
So I just want to make sure...
Is it Han Solo? Cause I'm not sure.
Okay, I changed it. In Jen's defense, she's more of a Trekker.
john
Katie P.
I'm so glad you started your blog AFTER I got married, or I'm not so sure I would have been so calm about the whole cake thing...had I only known. Luckily, our cake was far from wreckish.
Ouch - the last one is awful.
My wedding cake was more beautiful than expected on the outside, but on the inside was a marble cake with grape jelly between the layers - like for a little kid's bday party. I imagine some disappointed kiddo got mine.
I thought it was Osama in the back ground.
Hei, congrats! I just saw your blog on the winners list of the Weblog Awards.
My god....on that last cake, the pink and green alone are enough to make you hurl! I certainly hope no one had to pay for these cakes.
I LOVE the inspiration vs persperation cake posts, and you do one on my birthday! Best unintentional gift ever!
I feel so bad for the people who got these wrecks...I can only imagine the "WTF?!" feeling they got when they first saw them.
Keep up the awesome blog, Jen. ^^
Even though I am an amature, at best, I have watched Ace of Cakes enough to know that the bamboo was fondant, and that horizontal stripes are a b**ch to make. LOL Those things are horrible. My husband's aunt made our cake, something she just did for fun, by no means a professional, and our cake looked awesome, especially compared to these disasters!
I love this site, and HAD to add it to my google reader. It's a high point in my day when I see some of these disasters. I don't think I would be too forgiving if my wedding cake would have turned out like these wrecks!
The ones with the "it was SUPPOSED to be" pictures are my absolute favorite. SO funny! You should do more of them!
This is definently my favourite category!
Keep em' coming!
Word verification - Allycho - how my brother sounds when he sneezes
Sadly, that last one was a pretty simple design to copy. The second one wouldn't have been HORRID, had it not been cake pans that were 1/2" apart in diameter? WTH? Minimum TWO INCHES people. To allow for decoration and tier effect! SHEESH!
I only did level 2 Wilton for dummies and I know that!
I don't think it's even a grocery store, it's totally craigslist or a friend of a friend who made these. I doubt that any of these really came from real professionals, though there are plenty of amateurs who THINK they are professionals. Obviously, because they're charging people money for this crap. But, I wouldn't be surprised if at least one of these is a friend of a friend cake :)
I want to know if the people who receive these wrecks have to pay for them. Do the delusional wreckerators know how horribly wrong it went?
WOW! And to think that I ordered my wedding cake online in 1999 (when ordering online was still new and exciting) without even meeting the creator, it showed up without incident, was pretty and had the right flavours... and she even sprinkled some flowers around it that matched our theme without me asking... I feel so incredibily fortunate!!!
I wish people would read other comments before leaving their own. I think we are all aware now that it is HAN and incest is gross.
These cakes are pretty horrifying. I can't choose which is worse. The colours on the first one make me want to vomit. What kind of back alley bakeries are these guys ordering from?? Oh the hilarity!!!!
I really want these brides to explain how this happened.....because I'm speechless! How does something go oh so wrong?
LMAO...this post made me realize my wedding cake turned out as a wreck. It's too bad I dont have the before photo to compare it too.
Well hell, on the last one, what was ordered is verging on wreck-tastic with that sloppy fondant application. Crooked stripes make me weep in the corner.
P.S. My verification word is "tiatoses." Sounds like something perfect for the last post. :D
To me, the star wars cake is the saddest because it looks like they really tried and just didn't have the skills. So sad. That scrollwork looks exactly, and I mean EXACTLY like what my one year old did on the wall with the contents of her diaper last week.
Ewwwww!!!!!!
Seriously?!? The last cake isn't even square like the inspiration photo!
I need to turn in my geek card as well because for some odd reason I thought it was Hans, no Han. . .do! When I looked this factoid up I found this cake of Han Solo Frozen in Carbonite Cake - funny!
http://www.geekologie.com/2008/08/han_solo_frozen_in_carbonite_c.php
SO everyone has pointed out that it wasn't Luke on the cake topper, and you have actually aready corrected it in the post....BUT wouldn't it have been an even bigger WRECK if it really was Luke!! That would have been hilarious! And that last cake is horrible and almost looks like the round twin of another wedding wreck in a previous post!
ROFL the Inspiration vs Perspirations are my faves! The last one is, of course, horrible but what on EARTH were they trying to do with the second one? Why is the faux top layer a completely different color?
Oh, and who was it on top of the cake again? I don't think I remember :P
I was so busy paying attention the horribleness of the last cake that I didn't even notice the swipe.
I just can't understand how a "professional" could be happy with their work and send it out.
may i ask WHY people keep thinking their local bakery will be able to duplicate what is obviously an extraordinary cake?
it's almost like walking into the salon asking to look like angelina jolie when you obviously look more like angela lansbury.
Wow! What would make me the maddest if I were these brides is that I'm sure they asked the baker/decorator if they could handle that kind of design. They give them the picture, say I want that, Can You Do THAT??? I'd assume the answer would be yes when the decorator knows they can't handle that kind of construction. ARG!
I so hope after some screams and tears (all very valid), they were able to have a good laugh.
why, why, WHYYYYYY would you deliver a cake that looked like a drunken psychotic monkey decorated it and then fell face-first into it? (I'm referring here to the last cake, btw.) Don't people have quality control? Or know about word of mouth? I'm speechless, and kind of angry, about that last cake. ARGH!
I will only feel better about that cake if I know that the baker/decorator did not accept or ask for payment.
I don't know why I'm so emotionally invested, actually.
And the less oft' heard from Cake wrecks fans come out of the woodwork in droves to correct the egregious Star Wars misnomer... THAT to me was the funniest part of this post.
Okay, I can understand people trying to get a "champagne" cake on a "beer" budget and going to the local grocery store chain kind of possibly 'getting what they deserve' BUT for all that's holy MOST grocery store chains have samples up indicating that they know how to do a decent looking tiered cake at least! Proper tiered cakes do not lean!
The "Inspiration vs Perspiration Wedding Wrecks" are my favorite!!! But so scary!
I'd LOVE to know what people paid for these (or at least where quoted originally because I certainly hope they didn't end up paying anything).
I can't help but wonder if they went to wal-mart or a grocerty store to get these. Yikes!
How can someone, who claims to be professional, consciously deliver a cake that looks so bad - especially in comparison with the 'asked for' cake?! Maybe my work ethics are a little higher than most. If those cakes were done by professionals - I should start advertising to do wedding cakes, because I too can be a professional wrecker, I mean decorator...
Everyone thought DH and I were nuts for going to a high-end bakery and paying top dollar for our wedding cake (the cake cost more than my dress). After seeing the cakes on here, I am so glad we did. I took a magazine picture cake into our baker and the cake we received turned out better than the example! They even replicated my bridal bouquet in gumpaste for the cake topper. Honestly, you get what you pay for and if I'd paid for any of these wrecks, you can bet I'd be getting my money back! I hope they at least tasted good.
These cakes upset me. Usually I laugh and laugh here, but truly, do people get their money back? It is so sad to see something so ugly show up.
This looks a lot like the plaid weeding cake . . . . same decorator?
The "how" part is interesting enough to contemplate, but . . . THEY PAID FOR THESE CAKES????
I think the blue cake with the lime flowers and the melon striped cake were both ugly to start with. But the wrecks are hilarious. And omg at all the christmas green frosting on the damaged cake. And what are those dark accents on it suppose to be?
Have you ever done one of those child psychology experiments in college where you ask kids to draw a tilted glass of water but they draw the water level wrong because their undeveloped brains can't understand gravity's effect on the level of liquid?
Anyway, that's cake #3.
you know what, let it be luke and leia. a little "flowers in the attic" never hurt anyone... other then their offspring.
there isn't enough poop at weddings if you ask me. i am hoping for a bampoo cake one day. (giggle)
Anonymous said...Um, that would be Hans Solo! Maybe you should rent Star Wars this weekend ;)
Hans? Solo. Hans? Hans Solo. Han. Solo. Han Solo. Han'se Han S. H-A-N.
(From this video, which if you haven't seen it yet, you should: http://vimeo.com/2809991 )
I think that last one is contending with the Jamaican wedding cake pretending to be a Scottish wedding cake as my favorite wreck :)
If the decorator doesn't know how to use fondant, regular buttercream is not the same thing :)
Ok, these cannot be professional cakes. Tell me someone's neighbor offered to make the cake for the wedding. What human could possibly create these and say, "yeah, awesome the bride will love it! It's just like the picture." I refuse to believe these are professionals..I just can't wrap my head around this. I really need to know who made these things
All I could think while reading these (well, besides laughing at your Chewbacca joke) was "those poor brides." I'm glad the first one had a sense of humor about it - I don't know what I would have done if I had received a cake like the last one. Probably would have cried. :)
How did those bakeries think they even came close? wow...
Ya know I had a friend whos wedding cake got so messed up (unfortunately no pictures) they wound up getting a sheet cake from Costco. The baker at Costco felt bad for them and added a little wedding decoration and it looked quite nice. Myself I skiped the whole issue and had a desert table rather tan cake.
I would imagine the last cake was created by a baker high on out-of-date narcotics and helium.
I also believe that swipe was how the cake was delivered. The baker, his drug induced paranoia kicking in, attacked the cake monster before it could attack him.
brown icing has to be the most disgusting thing I've ever seen on a cake . And I can't believe how common it is.
Mother of God. Okay, seriously, decorators. You cannot pipe buttercream frosting and have it look the same as rolled fondant or royal icing decorations. You can't. You can't you can't you can't stop trying. Lordy... how do these poor women find these bakers??
I am, quite simply, aghast...
Wow, that is all I can say, wow...
I hope no one actually had to pay for any of those cakes, I would be in tears if that happened to me. Did any of them look at any samples of what the bakery had actually produced?
Wow!!!
These are my favorite posts. Though I would love to hear stories from the brides - who was responsible for these crimes against cakery?
I feel terrible for the people who got the last cake. :( FAIL.
My sincere apologies to the geek community about the whole "Luke vs Han" snafoo. Really, I DO know that's Han; I guess I must have just been thinking of this cake when I typed that. :)
Man oh man. Do they get their money back, I wonder?
wedding cakes, look more like gifts. still better than the cakes I make
What so sad is the decorators really spent some time with their... um... creations.
You can't do anything BUT laugh, otherwise you would be crying if you had ordered one of these!
Wow. I'm not sure exactly whose idea it was to change the type of frosting for the first and last cakes, but even I know that the originals were both fondant (and that's why they worked) and that the imitations were buttercream (and that's why they didn't work). Don't mess with what the cakes were topped with if you're going for horizantal detailing!
I need a cake.... Anybody got the number handy for Three Blind Idiots bakery?
WV.. brette.... I brette to inform you that your cake looks like it was wreckorated by a three year old.
I always think about those missed mark cakes... and I was delighted/horrified to see them today. But I am officially freaked out that one day, I will be the bride with the crap cake that I send in to cakewrecks. =/
That first one seemed fine to me, minus the bamboo of course.
Hey, I'd be proud to have made any of them, although I'd resist cutting a chunk out of it.
I cannot believe that there were more Star Wars faux pas comments than cake comments in response to this post! (NERD ALERT!!! :-p)
I probably would have fainted ON the last cake if it would have been mine... Then at least it wouldn't have made it to the reception. I'd rather serve Wal-Mart mini cupcakes to all of my guests...
I agree with the comments before. The icing colors and the wreckiness of the last one really remind of me of the plaid wreck of this post. It even has the same slumpy look. One just can't help wondering~
Thank you Clara Cupcakes! I was thinking the same thing - read the comments before posting a correction. Chances are it has already been said... no need to beat a dead horse into the ground.
As for the cakes - YIKES!!!
My daughter and I looked at the first 2 and gasped at the wrecks, imagining the distress of the brides.
The third cake, well it really....um...took the cake!
In South Africa, our favourite expression of compassion, whether one has scraped a knee or suffered a broken heart, is 'SHAME' or 'Ag Shame'. The last wreck elicited a huge OMG...SHAME! That poor bride.
All the geekitude is warming my heart on this too cold for school day. I think the inspiration vs perspiration is my favorite cake wreck category.
Brandi said, "I doubt that any of these really came from real professionals..."
Unfortunately Brandi, as we've seen time and time again in this blog, professionals can and absolutely do screw up cakes this badly. Even wedding cakes. Ughhh...
I'm not saying they DESERVE to be called professionals, but so many of these wrecks come from bakeries (not just "professionals" working from home for $$$)
That last one baffles me... How hard would it be to just roll out some colored fondant and cut ribbons for the stripes? Heck, they could have even used REAL ribbon and it would have looked a thousand times better! I'd rather have to peel fabric ribbon off my cake before eating it then have THAT nasty frosting mess!
If you can't make/replicate the item that people order, then don't take the order!!! How hard is that for bakers/bakeries to understand?
Jeez.
--Kate
All the comments made me laugh, too, Good grief, Star Wars fans. Okay, we got it.
My husband just emailed that they had a lunch at work to honor a co-worker having a baby. And I quote: "And there was a pink cake with brown polka dots – it looked like something from a Dr Seuss book."
So, I asked if it was a Cake Wreck, and he replied: "Close, but it wasn’t a sculpture, the spelling was okay and there weren’t any odd attempts at frosting art. It was just a putrid pink with unevenly spaced half-dollar sized cow droppings."
Too funny.
Were these ordered from grocery store-type bakeries?
Jen - will that cake be coming here? lol
'Bampoo' is my new favorite word...I think it should enter the WV rotation ;)
Hmm.
Seriously? I mean just look at -
SERIOUSLY???
OMG...why can't some people just admit they can't do something. Or do a trial run, if you're a self employed baker. Sheesh...
wvotd rewobill..."Fondant decorations cannot, for the most part, be replicated with buttercream. The buttercream cannot hold the intricaties of the required shapes and it will rewobill into a shapeless mound on top of the supporting layer."
do people pay for these cake disasters?
jackie31337- That video is SO HILARIOUS!!!!!!
I'm pretty sure that's an out of focus woman with shoulder length blonde hair in a black dress playing a violin. I sure would hate to appear in someone's picture and be called Chewbaca. :(
EEEEEKKKKKK! I would have freaked out seeing these on my big day. Yikes!
I don't think that's a swipe on the last cake.
The designer tried to make it slanty, as in the photo, and the cake fell off the table, resulting in the gash.
Bam-poo cake...still laughing about that one!
P.S. why does everyone keep telling you it's Han Solo and Leia on top of the cake as though that's NOT what you said?
I think this (stripe cake) was made by the same bakery that made the plaid disaster the other day. Does anyone else see that? I also think they used the left over icing from it. (or they were drunk)
How awful for those Brides. I can't imagine. Are these bakers colorblind or something? I think as mother-of-the-bride I might have been tempted, no I take that back, I would have taken the top tier, and pushed it in the face of the baker. I'm not as forgiving as these folks were.
Someone is going to have to explain what "WV" means to this newbie. I don't quite get it.
Every one of your posts make me laugh at first then I shake my head thinking what in the world??!!
I posted about your blog on my blog. :)
I'm totally freaked out that the presentation of the Star Wars cake was so beautiful — flower petals and all — for a cake that should have been heaved out the window.
The last one. No. Just no. Run out to the local Piggly Wiggly and get something generic. But I can't blame the gouge — someone must have wanted to see if it tasted as horrible as it looked.
Oh, and Jen: Before you put in a link to a cake such as the one you did, please warn us not to have a mouthful of Coke when we click. Help save a keyboard today.
Word verificaiton: undeffi. These cakes are the undeffi-nition of good.
These are by far my favorite wrecks. If it damns me to hell, so be it!
Please tell us Jen, WHY DO PEOPLE PAY FOR THESE?!?! I don't understand how that would even make it to someone's wedding because I can't believe the person who paid for it or picked it up would stand for that kind of abuse! Honestly, it blows my mind. It's one thing to ruin a birthday cake or a sugar bowl cake, but for a wedding? Inexcusable.
I love these! Keep em coming!
"bamPOO" Thank goodness I wasn't the only one seeing that!
When I got married the flowers for the cake were provided by the florist so that they would coordinate with the wedding flowers. I notice that all of these wrecks have beautiful flowers.
I'd love to have seen the florists' faces when they (who probably had the same "inspiration" picture) showed up to add the flowers.
That last one does bear a strong resemblance to the plaid cake.
I wonder if there's any sort of cake paint available...kind of like airbrushing, except it wouldn't have that airbrushed effect, because you'd just paint it on, like you'd paint a wall. You wouldn't be able to apply stand-out strips of it, but at least it seems like you'd be able to get more even, less wrecky stripes.
word verification: ments, a shortened, plural form of mental, which is what the wreckorators of these cakes must have been when they made them.
@ Kelly:
WV stands for "Word Verification", as in the random sequence of letters you're required to type in before blogger lets you post your comment.
Okay really. Are these professional renderings, or ones done by "loved" ones trying to saving a buck or two? Holy cow!
man, I'm scared, I'm getting ready to order my wedding cake for a destination wedding and things like this make me so paranoid! Yikes!
To everyone who complained about a bazillion people commenting on the Luke versus Han Solo topper and that they should read the comments first before commenting on it again...perhaps you should read what it says right above where you type in your comments:
All comments are reviewed before being published; please allow up to 12 hours for your comment to be posted.
I'll bet most if not all of those Luke/Han comments were in review status and so they weren't even there to be read...just a thought...
And those cakes are just bad. Those pictures would be step one for a nice little lawsuit.
Han and Leia are standing atop the Death Star!!!!!!!! I think Chewie should buy the bride and groom a drink or two or ten; perhaps the cake will look better then.
I would just like to say that I lived in a small town and our piddlysquat little grocery store had a fabulous decorator who made the most beautiful cakes...and my own wedding cake was made by a different small-town home based decorator and was absolutely lovely and exactly what we asked for - so it CAN happen...it just doesn't happen here!
And on the Han and Leia (thud thud on the dead horse) cake..are those...MILK DUDS??? on there? Yuck!
This are the best posts, and the reason why I love this blog so. Keep it up!
I just have to wonder: Aren't these brides looking at samples of what the decorator can do before they order? I mean, that is some staggeringly terrible work there. I'd think it would show in the portfolio.
Vicki wrote :Mother of God. Okay, seriously, decorators. You cannot pipe buttercream frosting and have it look the same as rolled fondant or royal icing decorations. You can't. You can't you can't you can't stop trying. Lordy... how do these poor women find these bakers??
Correction Vicki - You can't make buttercream look like fondant but you absolutely CAN make buttercream look like royal. ( and Visa versa - royal to look like buttercream) You can! You can! You can!
This right here is why I want a plain white cake. No piping, no letters, no swirlies and no STRIPES!
I think that last one looks intentional. Reminds me too much of the "Braveheart" plaid wedding cake where the baker was drunk or something. (I know that one well because it makes me laugh no matter how many times I look at it.)
Rochelle
What the heck were they thinking? How does one walk into the reception hall holding any of these?
Makes me want to work so so hard at my cakes!
I think the slice was taken out of that last one before the obligatory photograph just to show that yes, it truly was edible.
Oh dear. Really, what else can one say except that?
I think the first bamboo cake, or are those bones? and that teal green? and those mildew color flower? was not so hot to start with, before I realized you were doing a before/after post, I thought it was a rather ugly wreck. I actually prefer the purple flowers.
This cake looks like the world's largest club sandwich.........with FROSTING!!!!!!
That is a direct quote from my father upon seeing the 3rd cake in this post!!!!
I about died laughing not only because this is very funny but also because it is 100% TRUE!
Kristy from Texas
Cakes are hilariously wrecky as usual but to be honest the comments section bothers the heck out of me for one reason: People don't read each other's comments. Thus, we get the Han and Leia correction (from my count so far and I'm not couting any further) 20 times between 9:26 am and 9:50am.
Can you please request that people at least *skim* the comments before commenting? I like reading the comments, as they are often funny as well, but reading the same comment over and over is really annoying.
Yayyy my fav type of posts.
I would love love loveeeee to hear the brides story on these cakes. Did they get their money back, what did the baker say, did it ruin the day or give them a big laugh etc.
These are my fave types. I make cakes (amateur) and I would be horrified to show up with any of those! For SHAME!
Ok, so these wrecks are driving me CRAY-ZAY!!! So what happens to these brides afterwards? Do they try to get their money back, a partial refund? Or do they just knock the table over and try to not think about the pile of poo that the baker tried to pass as a cake? Maybe you could do a post about what wrecked brides have done...
No no no, Chewbacca was not the ring bearer... FRODO was the ring bearer, get it right.
What?
The last inspiration cake looks like it's covered in Froot Roll-ups. Had this been an option when I got married, I would have totally gone for it.
WHOA, NELLIE!!! Is the wreckerator from the "plaid" wedding cake still working? She wasn't burned at the stake?
OK, I'll ashamedly admit there was a time in my life where I would have been geeky enough to want that Han/Leia topper. But even then, minus the smeary brown smudges and completely off-plumb stacking job!
I think these Missed Marks posts have got to be my favorites. Keep 'em coming!
OMG! Thank you for making me laugh so hard I couldn't even breathe! I love your site and can't wait for more.
D: These missed marks cakes are the worst. But the first cake the way it was supposed to look is so pretty!
Alicia,
Lemme esplain...
No. There is too much.
Lemme sum up.
We here at Cake Wrecks have some of the most gloriously attentive readers of any site on the web. We also moderate the comments before they go up since a few people love to drop the f-bomb (I blame the Norwegians ;) and we try to run a relatively clean site.
Occasionally, when we make a boopsie with the post, everyone calls foul and you get what we had here today, er, yesterday. It went something like this...
9:35 Post goes up.
10:05 "Oh tribble fiddlesticks, 53 comments. What did we do?!?!?"
Now in the time it took me to go through those comments, weed out those who felt it necessary to emphasize there displeasure with unpleasant f-bombs, and change the post from Luke to Han Solo, there were 22 more comments.
So a day in the life of cake wrecks. Gotta love it.
Wreck On!!!
john
Jen, my super-sleuth color analysis is telling me that the last cake is actually decorated with left over icing from the plaid disaster you posted in a previous missed mark post. The wreckerator had some left over, and it was just the right consistancy for those zany bloopy 'lines'. Come on...when did brides get so picky?!?
~Gwen
Alicia,
The comments aren't immediately posted when we hit the submit button. Therefore, there may be 20 comments all saying the same thing, but nobody knows it yet because they've not been published on the site. And I'm sure Jen and John don't want to leave anyone out by not posting a comment that doesn't have any foul language it in, even if it DOES say the same thing as the 15 other comments before it. :)
I don't think the originals were that great this time around - they were juuuust this side of ugly and difficult to execute, which makes them great bait for cake wreckers.
I would venture to say that among the first pair, the "wreck" would have been nicer than the original if it weren't for the Bam"poo" icing. The original appears to have a Kleenex box on top with tissue sticking out of it.
Are these really made by "professionals"? Seriously?
I like the little poo tails coming out of cake #2.
That last cake - did it arrive with that 'swipe' out of it, or?
- Juliette
Thank goodness my cake was fine but I had it delivered (customary around here) and the only one to see it before we entered the ballroom was the catering staff. I didn't even think to check it out (glad you weren't around when I got married or I would have freaked out! The cake was the hardest part of planning our wedding as we got married 4 months after getting engaged and all the bakers were booked - must have called 20 and the only reason we got a decent one was she had a recent cancellation). Also, we paid for it upfront so it would have been difficult to get our money back but then again, I had seen one of her cakes - it was displayed at the mall in the Godiva shop.
Han looks like he's trying to pull Leia away from overbalancing the poop smeared tower.
I really love how 23809752386723 people felt the need to reiterate on the Star Wars misname... over.. and over.. and over.. I think she got the point :P
This is my new favorite website. I just keep laughing out loud every time I look at these pics!! I just can't believe this - it's almost like a horrible joke. Like, I can't believe that anyone would think those cakes were acceptable!
Omgoodness. *rolls around laughing* That is hilarious. It wouldn't have been on the big day...but afterward.*hehehe*
And the link Jen...can I just say Wow?
Absolutely priceless. And hey, maybe if these insufferable Star Wars nerds would READ the other posts first, they'd find something NEW and RELEVANT to point out about this post - like how that is obviously an original 70s Han Solo action figure because his gun arm is at a forty five degree angle ;)
Jonathan
Jen,
I LOVE LOVE LOVE your blog! It's a daily read for me.
Suggestion: I think you'd have a rabid audience if you can publish some case studies of exactly HOW the process goes for these inspiration-to-wreck cakes happen.
Most of us just look at these and shake our heads in disbelief:
How does a decorator get it so wrong? How did the customer choose the decorator? How did decorator think that $ would be forthcoming? I like to hope that some of these customers might have the sense of civic duty (and humor!) to share with the rest of us what actually happened!
Thanks, and keep up the excellence.
my son said who made that yucky cake? he's 4 and he has taste.
please, more requested versus delivered posts. i can't get enough of them!!! i mean, really, can you imagine? oh wait, i can, it happened to me.
Can't even begin to imagine how pissed I'd be if I ordered something as lovely as exhibit A and ended up with exhibit B. Kudos to the bride for having a sense of humor over the bampoo cake; there's no way I'd've paid for it!
Also...that last number...it looks like those hard-tack ribbon candies you can buy at Christmas time. Apparently it's not attractive made of thick, pasty icing piled high on a cake.
And lastly...I just wanted you to know that these "inspiration vs perspiration" posts are my fave.
I second Z Gal's request for a step-by-step history of a wrecked cake. Where did you get the before picture? Whom did you ask to make it? Did they have samples that looked competent? Did they assure you they could replicate your sample?
Sitting here laughing my butt off. Thanks for a very FUNNY morning!
Absolutely shameful! WOW! I would have lopped someone's head off!
Sooooo funny! Encore!
I can't believe you have found more fantastic wedding disasters - and yes I feel very ashamed that I find them very funny!
More please :o)
Even the flowers used in the imitations are worse!
Wow...I definitely don't think these wedding cakes were what the bride and groom ordered! I cannot imagine getting a cake like that on my wedding day...I guess it's just something you have to laugh about.
Great post, very funny!
Ok, so I am the bride of cake #3. I did not submit it on here, I did reviews of the vendor and someone must have thought it was funny to send it in. Fine by me but that is why I am late to commenting. So, you want to know how this happened and I feel like I need to defend myself.
First of all, this was not some redneck wedding. It was in downtown Chicago at an amazing venue and I was a meticulous planner. I took a lot of care and time planning every detail for the big day.
As most of you know, wedding planning is expensive and (sorry if I am offending anyone) the cake cost was not something I could justify. The average cost was $6.75 a slice at nice bakeries plus my venue tacked on a cake cutting fee per person. I thought it would be fun and different to have a cheesecake bar where people could pick out of 6 types of cheesecake which they wanted to dessert. (Cheesecake is our favorite, cheaper and pre-cut) For picture purposes I still wanted a cake to cut though. I was reading the paper on the way to work and there was and add for wedding cakes from the grocery store that looked amazing. I picked up a brochure at the store and checked online for reviews and it all seemed positive. All fondant and seemingly complicated cakes for less. I went there with my picture and they claimed they could make a smaller version for much less. I even brought them sample ribbons of the colors I wanted and they claimed they could match it. Sounded good to me. I am in Finance, I have no clue about making cakes, nor have I had to order one before.
Fast forward to the day before the wedding when I am supposed to pick it up…I get a call from the store saying that the first attempt “did not look right” and they wanted to start over. I was really annoyed at this because I was on a tight timeline and had no other time to get it myself. So I arranged for a family member to pick it up for me and went about my busy day. The family member had no idea what it was supposed to look like so they did not say anything to me and I don’t think I even asked how it looked, only that it was dropped off. I did not see the cake till the DJ announced us and we walked over to the table to cut it. The moment I saw it was videotaped and every time I see it I can’t stop laughing. My eyes get the size of saucers and you can see me say “WTF is this?? OMG do not take pictures of it” I was laughing so hard at the hot mess of a cake that we could barely cut it. (The swipe out of it in the picture was from us) I had my “Day Of” wedding coordinator remove it immediately and no one really even knew it was there since we had the cheesecake bar already set up.
I did not ask for my money back….if the baker did not see a problem with this cake how do I even begin to explain this to them?? And I figure you get what you pay for. I honestly thought it was funny and it did not ruin my day. I did review them on wedding sites with pictures as an example of their work.
I did not yell at the family member (they had no idea what it was supposed to look like) or my Day of Coordinator (she figured if a family member dropped it off, it must be ok).
Hope this clears things up & glad it made everyone else laugh too ;)
I can't believe there are professional bakers who think you can recreate a fodant cake with buttercream. WTF, people? Does that EVER work?