Only two options, but three "or"s.Nice one, Melanie & Danny. Or Danny & Melanie. Or...
Tuesday, January 13, 2009
OR...
Tuesday, January 13, 2009
Only two options, but three "or"s.Nice one, Melanie & Danny. Or Danny & Melanie. Or...
Subscribe to:
Post Comments (Atom)
Search This Blog
Wreck the Halls
NEW! Pre-Order Today!
|
Buy the Book
Buy the NYT Bestseller
What's a Wreck?
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
tabs
- Fan Faves
- The Classics
The Classics
Awards
Praise for the Book
- “Will have you laughing so hard you’ll forget to eat!”— Washington Post
- “a hilarious winner” — The Oregonian
- “a fantastically gut-busting book”— NPR
- “It’s all here, each wreck a disaster of hilarity.” — BookPage.com
- “Hysterically funny!”— Epinions.com
- “laugh-out-loud funny”— The Times
- “Yates’ sharp humor makes the funny even funnier.” — The Dallas Morning News
- “an amazing laugh-out-loud book”— The Book Triblog
What the fans are saying
- "I was laughing so hard, I couldn't catch my breath."
- "As funny as the blog that started it."
- "WAY better than I expected!"
- "Cake Wreckery at its best!"
- "Wrecktastic!"
Awards
- American Mensa:Top 50 Websites of 2010
- Amazon: Top 10 gift books of 2009
- The Orlando Sentinal “Orbbies”: Winner Humor
- 2009 BlogLuxe Awards: Funniest Blog
- 2009 Bloggies: Best Writing of a Weblog, Best New Weblog, Best Food Blog
- The 2008 Weblog Awards: Best Food Blog
- Blogger's Choice 2008 Awards: Best Humor Blog
order
Where's the book?
We don’t have any copies of Cake Wrecks for sale here, autographed or otherwise. We decided the shipping and handling costs would be too high to make it worth your while. So instead, buy your copies locally or online and then order personalized bookplates: it’s cheaper, easier, and I think even looks a bit nicer.
Ordering Info
Payments must be made through Paypal, which accepts all major credit cards. Sorry, but that means no checks or MOs or barter-based chickens.
We ship everything first class USPS, and will do our best to have your package in the mail within 2 days of your order.
Popular This Month
Popular This Month
Archives
-
▼
2009
(419)
-
▼
January
(43)
- It's Me or the Dog: Cupcake Trance
- Of COURSE It's Right-Side Up...
- Score!
- Are You Ready for Some Football?!
- It's My Blog and I'll Flog if I Want To...
- Well, the word "holy" DID come to mind...
- You Say "Redneck" Like it's a Bad Thing
- Every Breath You Take...
- Why So Serious?
- Sunday Sweets: Cutey-Patootey Dragon Babes
- Hey Everybody, Do You Know What Time It Is?
- The Problem With Phone Orders
- Breaking News: Head-Swelling Bakery Incident Goes ...
- Why Suzy Needs Therapy
- The Presidential Sweet
- Wedding Crashers, Cake Wrecks Style
- That Poe Bird
- Sunday Sweets: Lord of the Rings
- It's Just a LITTLE Soap Box, I Promise
- What Do You Mean, "Last Minute"?
- Big Day, Big Wrecks
- Think They're Organic? [smirk]
- Introducing a Good Sport
- Double Your Photos, Double Your "Fun"
- OR...
- LIFE Wrecks
- Voting Update: This One's For John
- Sunday Sweets: Castles & Fairies
- New Tees!
- My Sweet What is What?
- How to Make Your Twins Hate You
- Hey, Bebeh
- Cake Wrecks Gets Its Own TV Show!
- A Real Stretch
- Calling All Evil Wrecks Henchpeople...
- Now THAT'S What I'm Talkin' 'Bout
- Bonus Side Tangent Contest Results
- Why Football & Bridal Showers Don't Mix
- Sunday Sweets: Fastastical Beasts
- Groom's Cake for a Cop
- Food that's Bad for You, Disguised as...Food that'...
- Year of the Tongue?
- Wasted Cakes
-
▼
January
(43)
80 comments | Post a Comment
*beating head on the table* Why, why, why???
At least there are sprinkles... sort of.
LOL!
Are you sure those aren't years? I think I see 87 and 89...
I just have to say as part time copy editor, this makes me cry a little. Or maybe I'm just dealing with my indecisive side completely being overloaded by the cascade of choices these "or"s promise.
I'd like to see what the order sheet for this cake said that could have possibly produced this.
At least they got sprinkles!
It's a pity that the person taking the order isn't necessarily the person who is producing the finished product.
Better yet- it's amazing that they can't EXPLAIN the order to others. As if explanation was so difficult in itself that they could justify taking the rest of the day off because that slip of paper they half-assed filled out really sapped their energy.
It's awesomely bad.
I didn't realize God manufactured idiocy this big.
This is funny. Or sad. Definitely pathetic. Or something...
karen
At least nobody is going to be jealous this way A first spot for everybody
what are those balloons made of?
ah, back to basics. Simple, but wreck-tastic.
What in the world??? Really, why can't we have decorators with brains to at least think "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". It's that simple people!
"...and just put silly string or balloons or sprinkles on it, too..."
"or sprinkles, and silly string looking squirted icing or balloons.."
I sure hope it TASTED good at least. Probably not.
But those are 87s not ors. Even so one wonders... were they married in '87? Is this their 87th birthday or anniversary?
;^) Jan the Gryphon
http://gryph-wotd.blogspot.com/
We definitely have a huge drug problem in this country.
I like that in the name it even says 'or' Happy Birthday to Ernie or Joanna. Maybe those are their & signs and they just know A LOT of Ernies & Joannas born on the same day? ...Or they are just dumb.
i HATE that goop on the edges! blech. i know a certain store that loves to use that design ( they will remain nameless...*cough*) but blech. it looks like a three year old was allowed to try and frost the cake! although with all those or's maybe it WAS a three year old! eek!
I'm trying to think of something witty - but I guess I'm just speechless
This hurts my head. I keep trying to make some logic to how they got to this. I can see placing the order, "just put 'Happy Birthday' Joanna and Ernie or Ernie and Joanna or something." I can even see it being a joke about an ongoing argument over who gets top billing: Joanna & Ernie or Ernie & Joanna. But even with both of those options, I can't see how they got there. Excedrin please?
I HATE these Squiggle border cakes. Every wanna-be cake decorator that doesn't have clue how to decorate does these. I have no idea as to why people buy them.
Word verification: perinbar: the buddies the morning after the night before
These people have some CHEAP friends!
Look like 87 etc to me too.
That icing better TASTE good. That's all.
they didnt even ice the sides of the cake!
All I can say is "WOW".
I can see how the ors could be construed as numbers....but that doesn't make any sense either...
Don't hate the wreckerators everyone...they make funnies to brighten up your day...as I see it, we should love the wreckerators...celebrate them...and laugh till we cry over their inability to follow simple directions...
I feel like baking a cake for this decorator with the same edging and a carefully centered "WTF?"
*sigh*
This is either a case of the decorator being overworked or being ordered by their boss to write whatever is on the order form no matter what!
Seriously...
Yeah, I'm not convinced those are "or" ... looks like 89, 87, and something else...
Lew
Seriously? Apparently reading isn't part of the job description. :)
This has turned into an office controversy. We actually saved the image and blew it up on Photoshop and touched it up to try to determine if it was "or" or "87". And we're still inconclusive. The 8 strongly resembles the o in Joanna, which had us leaning more toward "or" but the r in Ernie doesn't resemble the 7 at all.
This has lead to the conclusion that it's really "o7"...maybe they're 2/3 of a secret agent and they haven't quiiiite earned that license to kill yet? Okay, now we're stretching.
I remember being waited on by a trainee at a Macy's store. Her supervisor kept telling her to put her initials on my coupon. The trainee kept asking "What?" Again . . . initial the coupon . . . write your initials on the coupon. Finally the trainee says, I don't know what that means.
I'm pretty sure it's "or" written in script, not "87" or "89". If you exaggerate the loop to connect "o" to any other lowercase letter in script, you'd wind up with something that can be misread as an "8". The "r", to me, is how I was taught to do a lower case "r" in script. At least initially. Then I was informed by other teachers that script isn't supposed to be angular and blocky.
Regardless, can we all agree the placement is awful and the design is gag inducing?
Hi Folks. Here's what happened. Someone typed the order in, and those were supposed to be ampersands, and when the text was sent to the person making the cake, the ampersand character turned into a "control" character and 7, the two keys which have to be pressed to make an ampersand. It often happens, when transferring typed files from one program to another (like Word into some email editor) that special characters get shown as other things because different text editors use different specs to represent them.
I just had to close my eyes and shake me head in disbelief.
These people must really like the word "or".
Amy B.
I didn't see "or," I saw three little 87's
No, there are 4 ors! There's a tiny one floating on its on to the far right near all the side decor.
Ooops. I counted one of those ors twice. That's embarassing. I am hoping that you won't publish my comments now because of my lack of kindergarten counting skills.
Note to self: The next time I have to order a cake for more than two people, make all decisions regarding wording beforehand AND be absolutely clear on the order form. Unless I'm feeling snarky and secretly wishing for a wreck, that is.
Word verification: ingsty, the adjective form of the word formed from ink + angst, which may be applicable here...
How is it that qualified people everywhere can't find work and then the cake places hire ppl who can't read, spell, or decorate? Isn't there some sort of test to prove their skills before hiring?
I would be non thrilled to pay money for a cake and then get plastic balloons, side scribbling, and randomly placed names in the middle. :/
Then again, that explains why I do all my own cakes, yes?
pretty sure they're 87's, but still...
1) 87 what? 87 years old?? by the time you're 87 i'd say it's fairly unlikely to find two people turning 87 at about the same time
2) 1987, the year they were born...when is the last time you had a birthday cake with the year you were born plastered all over it?? Not "happy 22nd birthday" "I'll just throw '87' all over it and let other people figure it out.. MATH!!! ha ha ha!"
3) None of this explains the double appearance of the two names in the two different orders.
WHAT!?!? confusion abounds on this one
I dont even know a good word for this cakewreck! Sad...really sad...
Maybe the "or" in the middle was supposed to go in the first line, so it was supposed to say "Joanna or Ernie or Ernie or Joanna." Still inexplicable but at least makes the number of "or"s vaguely appropriate and the grammar reasonable. Or, since they do look a bit like ampersands, maybe it was "Joanna & Ernie & Ernie & Joanna."
I actually don't mind the border, which looks fun for a kid. (But plastic balloons: ugh.)
It looks like the "or" off to the right was added after the fact. So...it was added for clarification. Hmmm.
It's like a Where's Waldo -took me a second to find the 3rd "or" HAHAHA!!!
The mind reels.
The two versions of the same pair of names aside (that is bad enough, but let's pass over that for a moment) ... there are too many "or"s. And an extra comma. Or one too few commas and two too many "or"s. Or something, comma.
I'm pretty sure those are neither "or"s nor numbers. They're an attempt at fancy, cursive ampersands (the '&' symbol). Go to images.google.com and search for "ampersand" for lots of examples of the extreme variation in style of this particular symbol.
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.