Yes, those are live fish in wineglasses.Naturally, I have a few questions.
1) Live animals in a wedding cake? Really? What next: hamster rolly-balls?
2) On a scale of 1-10, how bad is it that now I want to see a hamster in a rolly-ball jammed between two cake tiers? I mean, are we talking "not our first choice for babysitter" bad, or "your name should be on a national watch-list" bad?
3) Is "rolly-ball" even what you call those things?
4) What was I talking about?
Oh, right.5) Getting back to the fish thing: if you MUST have fish in your wedding cake, why wouldn't you at least use pretty ones? Was the bait shop having a 2-for-1 sale?
6) You know how the wedding cake usually gets set up a few hours before the reception? Well, just how long do you suppose the fish were in there? I mean, not to be indelicate or anything, but what happens if one croaks before cake-cutting time? ("It's ok, kids, he's sleeping! And his friends are just...kissing him! Yeah! Really!)
And if you're not completely grossed out yet, just imagine the smell of old fish water mixed with the smell of icing when they took that top tier off. Mmmm.
Perhaps you think I'm coming down too hard on this cake, though. After all, the cake itself isn't so bad, so maybe the whole live-fish thing was an isolated incident. Right?
Right?
Uh...
WRONG.
If this groom's cake teaches us anything, it's this: when there are live minnows embedded in your cake, RC cars mashed down into the icing can seem downright classy.
Stacey W. & Karen W., believe it or not, these aren't the first wedding cakes with live fish in them here on CW. There was also this one. So, are we looking at a terrifying new wedding trend? (And who among us secretly hopes so?)
- Related Wreckage: The Groom's Revenge
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179 comments | Post a Comment
W.T.F.
Hopefully, they were an outdoorsy couple, and this wasn't a surprise by the groom?
I'm assuming the couples involved in these weddings must have been known for some weird stuff. I only know a few people who would do that. And if I went to their weddings, it wouldn't surprise me.
I guess what I'm saying is, if you're willing to do this at your wedding, the guests who know you probably won't be surprised.
Ugh... my sister had live Chinese Fighting fish in her centerpieces at her wedding (and then gave them out as favors?) but not IN the CAKE! Gross.
I must be honest: Looking at these pictures, I thought it was a creative idea to embed a mini-fish tank into a wedding cake, and I was not opposed to it if it was well executed (and these were NOT!).
But then I read, "just imagine the smell of old fish water mixed with the smell of icing when they took that top tier off" and nearly gagged.
Never mind. It's a terrible idea.
Oh... guh... *gag*... I can't even handle thinking about what that was like right there.
What they should do, is insert a large plastic bag of fish into a cavity cut in the cake, plaster it all over with icing, so that when the bride and groom cuts into it, fish and stinky water gush everywhere....
Just a thought.
I'm pretty sure my Aunt and Uncle had fish on their wedding cake. It was the 80's.
As a cake professional, I can tell you that live fish as cake decoration has become a big thing (in my area at least). I had so many requests that I finally had a custom cake stand built with an aquarium in the bottom. Now I do fully understand that just because people want it doesn't make it right. I'll have to see if I can come up with a good picture to send you.
-Jenniffer
http://cupadeecakes.blogspot.com
I am torn between pity and worry over the fish and disgust at the ruined cake...
wv: distritt. I am distritt at the poor fishie's fates...
I think this is worse than fish: Buddy (The Cake Boss) did a cake on his TV show that incorporated a cage with two live doves. I believe they were released just prior to cutting the cake. The reception was indoors. All I could think of was poop on the cake or in the guests' hair.
I think it's a trend... Facebook shows me there were goldfish in a glass bauble spacer...thing... holding up the top tier of the cake at my cousin's wedding this winter. They were pretty goldfish at least. The pic shows the bride and the bud light she was drinking as well so I can't/won't share it. (She's so pretty in the pic she actually pulls it off!).
Man, a betta would have been a better choice. At least they don't have a reputation for rapidly polluting their water and since they actually breathe air they won't run the risk of suffocating when the oxygen level in the water drops (especially since each glass had several fish and glasses don't have the necessary surface-to-air ratio needed to keep up said oxygen level).
Except that you can't have several bettas altogether for a cake like that. Put them in a glass together and they'll fight to the death, and if they see each other in seperate glasses they'll still try and possibly die from heart attack thanks to the stress.
Also, fish have a habit suddenly jumping with no warning whatsoever. It's bad enough when they jump onto the floor; having them jump into icing would ruin the cake and probably kill the fish.
Live fish. INSIDE a wedding cake.
JUST. PLAIN. WRONG. :(
I can't work out if those cakes are amazing or just really, really wrong...
Sooooo gross...ewwww!
I was thinking along the EXACT same lines as Emily J.
Actually the pond one was sort of neat, but yeah....I wouldn't want to eat it.
I want to know what happens if the fish jumps out and gets all covered in buttercream?
Not that I'm condoning such behavior, but if you're going to have live fish in your cake, at least go for the Siamese fighter fish (bettas). So much prettier and can do okay in small containers.
And do the guests have to throw ping pong balls at the cake to see who gets to take one home? It's the new alternative to the garter/bouquet toss!
Anyone who has ever had a small fish bowl will know that even fresh fish water has a fishy smell. And let's not even begin to think about the possiblity of dripping onto the cake! This is one cake I'm sure I would not be eating.
http://agirlinherkitchen.blogspot.com/
"just imagine the smell of old fish water mixed with the smell of icing when they took that top tier off"
yep, i was happily enjoying my bowl of cereal until I got to this part. Yuck, yuck, yuck!
Reminds me of what one of my relatives did for a wedding reception. The table centerpieces were bowls with goldfish with floating candles on top. Looked nice, until the goldfish started going belly up because the candles warmed the water and killed the fish! I thought it was funny; the bride's mother, not so much.
So how do we know none of the poo-water accidently splashed onto the cake during transport?? I'm so grossed out I can't even THINK STRAIGHT!!
Am I the only one disturbed by this trend because nobody considers what happens to the fish? Sure, they aren't fluffy little kittens, but neither are they party favors or objects to be discarded after the party.
My, your description of removing the top tier of the cake was particularly...vivid. Urp.
Also: way to title this post. Heeeeeeere, fishy fishy FISHY FISHY FISHY!
wow. the smell was the first thing i envisioned when i saw this cake! srsly!
What is it about fish poop that the wreckreators don't understand?
atimsho: Atimsho never gonna eat a cake with fish poop on it.
Is the "pond" in the last photo an old ham can? You can never get those perfectly clean and un-smelly! Imagine THAT smell mixed with fishy icing. Ew.
...are the rocks on the second one chicken nuggets? O_o
Probably not what the guests were expecting when they made the "chicken or fish" choice on the RSVP.
Gina--Chinese fighting fish? is that prophetic for what she expects in her marriage? I hope the fish weren't dueling throughout the reception!
Poor things. Not a lot of room for swimming. I hope they are REALLY CAREFUL when they cut the cake or take off that top layer, that they don't knock the glasses and fishy water all over the bottom cake. or crush a glass into the icing.
There's a few hundred dollars of sugar gone to waste.
The wedding cake disturbs me more than the dirt and dune bug cake. Part of me thinks it's cute. careful not to slosh when transporting!
I think it’s sweet when people want to make their pets part of their big day. What other options were there, a ring bearercuda or flower gar?
Fish water, good heavens. Nope, not a smell I want mixed with a wedding cake. As for the pond on the other cake --- yep, you're right, it does look like a small ham can. Ham and fish water. Barf.
Hah. I would pay to see "a hamster in a rolly-ball jammed between two cake tiers". Someone HAS to make this extraordinary... creative... errr... travesty of a cake!
I was talking to my mum about this, and she said she'd eat them cause she doesn't think the fish would actually affect the cake, that much. (Even after I pointed out the frosting and fishy water!)
But she does agree with the general consensus that betas would've been better...
Personally I wouldn't touch the top tier, but wouldn't mind the bottom tier my-self....
And I'd happily take home some betas from a wedding and keep them as long as they live, I think they're beautiful, and easy to take care of. Get some of those halfbowl things that hang on the walls and you have living artwork for a room. Add a air freshener and you're good to go until they need fed/water cleaned.
WV ingsopo - Did the wedding make ingsopo they couldn't afford prettier fish??
We think it's fantastic! But then...we are turtles.
I really, really, REALLY want to see the hamster cake too!
The cake in the old post at least had the fish in a proper aquarium, instead of cramming them into glasses or tiny bowls or the like.
Being kind of an aquarium geek, I take part in several online aquarium discussion groups. Very frequently, some newbie asks a question about using live fish as centerpieces or party favors at her wedding (these questioners always seem to be female), or, yes, even how to imbed them in the cake or use live fish as a cake topper. Either goldfish or bettas, or both, tend to be the victims of choice.
I, and everyone else on the forum, always try to explain that fish are live animals that should not be mistreated in that way, and that there are plenty of nice fish sculptures or pictures that could be used as decoration. I suspect that this dissuades almost none of them, though-- there's no stopping the wedding-induistrial juggernaut.
The fish in the first cake look like what pet shops call "feeder goldfish" (maybe that's why somebody thought they should go in food)-- more or less the same thing as bait fish. They are basically rejects from goldfish breeders, and they sell for about ten cents each. The fish in the jeep-stuck-in-mud cake do look like minnow, and I notice that their water is already quite dirty, which makes me wonder how long they've been in that torture chamber.
By the way, fish water (in an aquarium; I don't mean on a cake) should not smell noticeably bad. If it's stinky, somebody's not taking good care of that aquarium.
And (sorry, but I have to say this) the betta fish (Betta splendens) is the Siamese Fighting Fish-- not Chinese or Japanese, as many people seem to think-- and its name is pronounced BETT-ah, not BAY-tah. Thank you for your attention.
I totally agree with Gravekeeper. Goldfish are completely inappropriate for keeping in little glasses on cakes (or as center pieces, either way). Not that there is really a fish that is "good" being used as a disposable ornament, but goldfish are worse than most, they just happen to be available for cheaper than betas for example.
And yes, fishy water and cake smell would be nasty! The fish tank one awhile back at least actually looked like a aquarium and had plants and things, but I can't imagine it's in any way sanitary to have a live animal on a cake, even if it is in a container. I also can't imagine it's healthy for the poor fish to be shipped all over the place with a cake (and what do they do with them afterwards?). Plus, I do rather wonder how many times the fish jumped out before they managed to get the tier on top.
I will volunteer to be the crazy animal lover here. I don't have fish, I don't WANT fish, but I still consider fish an animal and animals are not DECORATIONS! Not for cakes, and not for wedding centerpieces. Animals as wedding decor makes me want to punch someone in the face. It is selfishness at the height of it's who-cares-about-the-rest-of-the-world glory.
we had thought about having live fish in our center pieces but then we thought about dead fish floating during the reception. These cakes are awesome in their reckness.
I have to wonder how long until the water in there doesn't look clear any more... not to mention the smell of fish poop.
The hamster in a ball on a cake... well, as long as there are no "chocolate sprinkles" all over the cake, maybe.
bettas are definitely the better choice as they are pretty hardy fish. Goldfish are really prone to dying and need a lot more water than other fish that are about the same size.
I have heard of live fish as centerpieces but the cake should be a fish-free zone (unless this was a fake cake and you got slices from a sheet cake hidden in the back)
How in the heck do you give away fish as party favors? Do you print on the invitations, "Come prepared to be a new pet owner?" Odds are most of them get forgotten and/or flushed. Not good for your karma in your new married life.
I'm not exactly an animal activist, and fish probably rate with most people somewhere down the list well below furry animals, but I can't see how this is a winning idea at all for people, and especially not for the fish!
None of these people seem to be thinking in terms of all five senses, as the cakes 1)do not look good, 2) would not smell good in no time at all, 3)no one wants to touch them, for fear that they’ll 4)taste awful like fish water. And obviously, they had no sixth sense to tell them how they’ll 5) be hearing the unfavorable reviews for years to come, especially after they wind up on CW.
As a pastry chef I shudder whenever I see that someone has put glass between the tiers of a wedding cake. It's so unprofessional. Glass can break way too easily. Add to that fish... I'm simply mortified!
Cute, gross, but Cute
The first thing I thought of when I saw these cakes was the cake they made on Cake boss with the doves. I had to go and dig up a video for those who haven't seen it.
http://tlc.discovery.com/videos/cake-boss-dove-wedding-cake.html
While the cake they are putting them in is beautiful and thankfully they only seemed to be in it for a few minutes it's still gross.
the first thing i thought of when you mentioned hamsters in roly-balls is YES! i immediately wanted to see that and got a bit giddy at the thought of seeing one...is that wrong?
I <3 Lisa's ping pong toss idea. Perfect for keeping the kids entertained! lol! At least the fish were in enclosed in glasses and not swimming around in one of those cake fountains!
Here's a thought... what if the fish were actually pets of the bride and groom?
Perhaps they were just trying to involve them in the wedding like people do when they make their dogs ring bearers.
:D
Are the electric blue things on the fish cake seaweed or coral? I dunno. and to solve a lot of your complains with the fish, a beta in each glass would have been ideal. They're pretty -and- they are awesome at oxygen conservation.
Those poor, poor fish - several in each wine-glass, top covered, oxygen running out....and how long does a wedding reception last,not counting how much in advance the cake was prepared? I'm all for fish in unusual settings (my favourite was in a lavatory cistern in a separate glass compartment) but it has to be humane and this is just cruel. Guess the bride & groom aren't Buddhists!
The other cake is a cute idea but must contravene about 20 Health & Safety rules!! Mmmmm, fishalicious...
wv - empoly...I would not empoly these wreckorators...
Okay, I have to say that I am completely fascinated by the wedding cake. The top tier floating on top is actully very interesting. Yes, they should have had something pretty like betta. But they would have knocked the glasses over trying to kill each other so then you would have to explain dead fish AND how a fish could knock over a wine glass between two cakes. (The Groom cake is just ... well nasty looking with or without the fish)
that's pretty evil and disgusting...nice way to treat living beings -- as disposable party decorations, yay!
I don't think you need to be an animal activist to find that extremely distasteful, not to mention repulsive, those are tiny containers for fish, the water must have been filthy.
But why are the fish in GLASSES? Is someone going to .... drink them?
EEEwwwwwwwaaaaaccccckkkkkk.
make it stop!
the fish idea, not so bad as I've seen fish in bowls as centerpieces at weddings, but c'mon, can we find a better way to display them than in wine glasses? Makes you wonder if there were any fish in your champagne glass... and yes, I agree, some nice male Beta fish would have been better than those "backyard lake" looking things...
um, 'Cake Boss' did an Italian wedding cake with a plexiglass box with 2 live doves in it (the box did have air holes): before the cake was cut the doves (shackled with white satin ribbons) were ceremoniously 'released' (the bride dragged them out of the box by the ribbons).
andrea said...
Am I the only one disturbed by this trend because nobody considers what happens to the fish? Sure, they aren't fluffy little kittens, but neither are they party favors or objects to be discarded after the party.
March 25, 2010 10:26 AM
I'm with Andrea. Poor fish.
As a fish lover, I'm completely mortified. Goldfish (the top picture) need a LOT of water, and they're squished in there like little live sardines. Properly cared for, those fish could live 40 years -- these guys probably suffocated before the reception was over.
:(
I am going to assume they used a lovely anchovy paste frosting between layers of the cake.
On the fish one, I don't think the actual idea of it is bad. Badly executed, but the idea of having live fish in there is really interesting.
http://www.flickr.com/photos/sabocakes/3222495093/
http://www.flickr.com/photos/doc711/314582610/
http://www.flickr.com/photos/tyrven/3812808460/
http://www.flickr.com/photos/tyrven/3812808478/in/photostream/
http://www.flickr.com/photos/30203596@N08/3887385329/
http://www.flickr.com/photos/budgiejen/1460587575/in/set-72157602203193764/
I'm a carnivore, I loathe PETA, but this offends me. Nothing says "let's start our lives together in love and happiness" like torturing small, defenseless animals RIGHT THERE at your wedding.
I stopped going to a particular bank because they had little cups with betta fish at each teller station, and they were almost always dead, but the did occasionally replace them. So 90% of the time it was sad, and the other 10% it was soon-to-be-sad.
And you know, even if it is all the rage, at some point it behooves the decorator to say, "NO."
Now, if someone wanted a fake fish suspended in some kind of edible clear medium to simulate this effect, that would be interesting. Still kinda gross, but at least not cruel and interesting from a cake lab perspective.
*shark leaps into boat*
You calllled?
:)
I'm with the crowd of the intrigued-yet-still-grossed-out. I've seen the fish centerpiece thing, but never in the cake. Far too many ways it could go wrong...
*shudder!*
I think they should have at LEAST sprung for fish that cost more than 16 cents!
When we got married 20 years ago, we had fish centerpieces! (I know, animal activists all over the blog just lost consciousness.)
We put one betta in a brandy snifter with flowers around the stem. It was pretty and unusual and a nice pet-shop owner let us rent them for the night and then give them back.
Even if they were Bettas, you wouldn't want to use them as centerpieces. Although Bettas *can* live in those half gallon or gallon bowls, it isn't good for them at all. They tend to get stressed and bail.
Don't believe it when retailers tell you all they need are the little bowls. To be properly and humanely kepts, a Betta should have at least a 2.5 gallon tank with a filter and heater. A five gallon would be better.
How bad is it that I'm thinking you could use one of these:http://www.petplanet.co.uk/product.asp?dept_id=454&pf_id=0878
in a ring between layers (you could even get a multi-level decoration going on). And is it worse that I really want to order such a cake now?..
P.S. this site also sells hamster leashes...
We have 2 fish tanks and they don't smell. Then again they are tanks with a filtration system, not fish crammed into glasses.
To better capture our life, our wedding cake would need the fish, AND the hamster in the rolly ball, AND a smattering of cat hair for good measure. Good thing we don't have a horse, eh?
That's really a shame, because the top cake would actually be pretty if it weren't for the extremely ill-advised goldfish. I'll just put my hand over the middle part of the screen and admire the pretty, pearly shells....
Count me with Sue, Andrea, Jo, and the others whose first thought was: Poor fish! They ARE living creatures. Did anyone think about what was going to happen to them after being cooped up in a wine glass for a few hours? Did someone save them and put them in a real aquarium? Don't tell me . . . I'm afraid to know the answer. Argh.
I've kept fish for years, and this is one of the worst things I've seen! If any of that water got onto that cake, you risk salmonella and other infections from the fish waste. Don't even get me started on the fact that they probably used new tap water for clarity (which is unhealthy for the fish) and there is no room for them to even move. What are the odds the poor things were tossed after the wedding. Shame. :-(
Wouldn't anchoring plastic fish have been easier (and safer) all around?
Even as an aquarium enthusiast that enjoys the smell of a clean aquarium, I wouldn't want tank water that close to something I intended to eat. Also, seeing those sad-looking fish in those sad little containers is... well, just plain sad.
The fish smell mixed with icing was not a good moment for me... so yuck.
I know I shouldn't be surprised anymore by anything you post on here, but that grooms cake with the little pond made my jaw drop! What if the water sloshed over onto the cake?!?! EEEWWWWWWW!!!!!!
I'm not sure if you call them "rolly-balls" But I don't care it just seems cute! Little Fuzzy guy there, Hehe. I have a Betta so I can tell you, THEY STINK! They are very good pets but beware the smells, the water, the food, the poo that sticks to EVERYTHING, and the darn things have to be very far apart or not seeing eachother, But they are very pretty. And really, HOW IS THAT SAFE FOR THE POOR FISH?!?!?!
WV:lorkyi I will go lorkyi for the poor fishes safety!
Please tell me you've seen the Cake Boss with the doves in the cake. GROSS!
Actually some fish, like bettas like to live in tiny amounts of water...they naturally live in small tidal pools...you put too many of the males together (like more than 1)they fight to the death...(aka Siamese Fighting Fish, which I am sure most of you knew.) Goldfish don't mind small bowls either, but they sure are not pretty. The second one was kind of cool...thinking about doing that for my kid's birthday party...
Unbelievable! The smell, the use of ugly fish, the numerous things that could go wrong with this display. WOW!
http://tlc.discovery.com/videos/cake-boss-dove-wedding-cake.html
Here it is...this can't be sanitary.
This is awful on every level. Even if the fish were to survive the reception (not likely, since the top tier of the cake is cutting off their oxygen supply), what were they planning to do with them at the end? Either way, these fish are gonna die for someone's idea of a cake decoration, and that's sick.
And even if you don't care about the lives of feeder goldfish (I'm a goldfish lover, I admit it), what about the poop? What about the smell? Whoever thought this up is nuts.
The first cake looks like this one really chintzy "sculpture" from Bradford Exchange that we got in once at the knick-knack store where I used to work. Dolphins and fish leaping out of blue plastic waves. Breathtakingly beautiful if you're a dolphin-obsessed eight-year-old girl with no taste at all.
As for the fish-smell comment - I think I'll be skipping that tuna sandwich I brought for lunch today.
~Mel
Not that using live fish is PC, but the wedding cake wouldn't look half bad except for the striped wallpaper behind it.
"Actually some fish, like bettas like to live in tiny amounts of water...they naturally live in small tidal pools"
That is NOT true. Wild bettas live in rice paddies which hold hundreds of gallons of warm water. A betta may be able to survive for a little while in a small cup, but it is cruel to them and they certainly don't "like" it. I could cram you into a small studio apartment with no heat and you'd be "just fine" but wouldn't you rather have a nice one bedroom place you can actually move around in and be warm?
See: http://wiki.answers.com/Q/Where_do_Betta_fish_live_in_their_natural_environment
and: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Siamese_fighting_fish#Behavior
and : http://www.associatedcontent.com/article/416986/top_five_threats_to_betta_fish_health.html
Ok, EW! My first question was actually what happens if they cut the cake with more force than expected and the glasses tip over?
I'm going to try this. It looks awesome. Awesome in that terrible, I want to try it, kind of way.
While I often read the blog & think, "That is the most outrageous cake ever & consequently, the funniest comments ever posted" I think this one really takes the cake! (And yes, of course I meant that!)
Daffodil:
No, bettas do not like to live in small containers, but they can survive in small containers if the water is warm and frequently changed. They don't live in tidal pools in nature (who told you that???)-- Bettas are strictly freshwater fish, and tidal pools are full of salt water. They live mostly in quiet swampy backwaters in Thailand and nearby countries.
Goldfish certainly DO "mind" being kept in small bowls. A goldfish in a pond can live for over 40 years. In a small bowl, it will be lucky to survive for one year.
Hmm, a lot of people seem to think that torturing Bettas is a more acceptable wedding entertainment than torturing goldfish. I don't think I buy that, notwithstanding the fact that Bettas take a little longer to strangle on their own waste than goldfish do. By the way, fish urine is much smellier and more toxic than fish poo, so even if you don't see waste in the glass, it's in there.
If a pet shop agrees to take the fish back after the reception, that would seem to solve the problem of what to do with the fish after you've had your way with them, but it doesn't really. What happens to the next customer, who buys a Betta without knowing that it has recently been stressed, jostled, chilled (probably), and scared senseless for a whole evening, and therefore is highly likely to sicken and die within the next few days or weeks (and believe me, most of them will)?
I don't care if it's cute-- find something else cute that doesn't involve cruelty to live animals.
Why stop at hamsters? Why not embed dogs, or miniature donkeys, or zebras, in cakes?
Why not hang kittens by their tails around the reception room? They would provide both decoration and musical entertainment.
Why not attach fake cherub wings to real babies and put them in a cage between cake layers?
Personally, I'm holding out for my dream cake-- a cake made of ants, with a live anteater leashed to it.
All I can think about is one or two of those little fishies committing suicide. My first fish leaped out of a comparatively large tank with filter; and my boyfriend's boss once came back from a long weekend to find her beta flopped on the keyboard because she left the window open and it couldn't take the heat. I can only imagine how long they would survive in those glasses before they kamekaze the bottom tier.
But, of course, there's this:
Sing a song of sixpence, pocket full of rye.
Four and twenty blackbirds, baked in a pie.
When the pie was opened, the birds began to sing.
Wasn't that a dainty dish to set before the king?
Some folklorists say that this old rhyme probably describes an actual practice. Instructions for making pies with live birds in them can be found in some old recipe books, apparently.
What the folklorists can't explain, though, is, who would want to eat a pie that has had live birds in it for any length of time?
Feather, guano, dander, and bird lice tart, anyone?
i was at the fish store once and someone was buying gold fish for her wedding, she said "i don't want to spend a lot I'll just let them die after the wedding." to the credit of the fish store they told her to bring them back for a refund but using fish like this is cruel. if you keep fish you know how quickly water can get toxic and how painful it is for fish.
don't use fish like this please.
Fish centerpieces never look good. The animal is almost always in there too long, and is lethargically floating around in dingy water. I have never, ever seen a fish on a dinner table where it's actually added to the ambiance. I know people want to try to save money and also be unique, but it isn't unique at all. No one wants a fish foisted off on them at the end of the night, so that it's inevitable demise is now their responsibility.
Anyway. The aquarium cake in the link looks okay, but these newer ones are pretty gross. Especially that minnow one. yeck.
Aw, c'mon... Nothing says "class" like 18-cent-a-pop feeder goldfish!
Yes, fish in the cake! :) To cook as hor de vours, of course; and people thought it was strange... :) Tarter sauce, anyone?
I echo the others; how cute is it to shove poor fish into your cake? Some sick idea of "Art" (Piccasso? Is that you?!), perhapsy, but not at the sake of life (even if it is a goldfish/baitshop fish, fated to be shaken to death by a 5-year-old or chomped at the edge of a fishing line! lol). :)
What about the wedding cake made by Buddy Valastro (the Cake Boss) that had the doves in a cage halfway up it? Apparently an "old-school" type of cake? That one was pretty wild...
http://tlc.discovery.com/videos/cake-boss-dove-wedding-cake.html
Ok, fish is one thing, but I was watching Cake Boss on TLC one night and Carlo made a wedding cake with LIVE Doves in the middle! Above is the video link...apparently, this is an old Italian tradition.
Okay, so fish aren't furry and don't meow or whatever. I just think it's wrong to use living animals as a decoration. (Or dead animals for decoration, for that matter.)
(And @Gina - those "Chinese fighting fish" are probably bettas, which are very sweet little guys. And they probably all died prematurely after that.)
And bettas - also not suitable for decoration. I put mine in glasses just while I'm cleaning their tanks, and they get stressed out by it. Bettas won't just keel over right away in a small container the way most fish would, but it drastically shortens their lifespan, even down to 25% of a cared-for fish.
And bettas don't smell! If they smell, you're doing it wrong, change the freaking water.
Personally I think the grooms cake was kind of cool.
Can't...handle...germ...potential...
I think that's a SPAM can they are swimming in! That's horrific!
Have you seen the episode of Cake Boss where Buddy makes a wedding cake with a cake with two live doves as the middle tier of the cake?
This is probably one of the craziest things I've ever seen...both cakes are so bizarre!
Btw, I think they're called Hamster Balls. Even though you can put mice in them (or gerbils or bunnies.. or small rodents..), I will forever call them Hamster Balls.
:) Loved this post!
A Kay Krex Fan,
Annie
I actually like the wedding cake. The only thing that bothers me is when decorators use live animals (usually fish) to set a table or decorate a cake, what happens to the animal afterwards? Nine times out of ten, fish are considered 'disposable', and are flushed down the toilet!
I hate the use of living creatures as disposable decorations....
Jenniffer wrote:
"I'll have to see if I can come up with a good picture to send you."
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
A good picture of a bad idea. That happens all the time! I guess that's why we have all these "fail" blogs!
-----
@Brandi: BRAVA!!! I agree 1,000%.
The whole idea is just T.A.C.K.Y.
But of course, if it IS the latest rage, and everyone THINKS that it's just SO wildly innovative, it will keep happening until some other, edgier, "Oooo, what a racy idea" stunt comes down the pike.
Oops--no pun intended there.
>^0.0^<
..."Except that you can't have several bettas altogether for a cake like that. Put them in a glass together and they'll fight to the death, and if they see each other in seperate glasses they'll still try and possibly die from heart attack thanks to the stress..."
A harbinger of marital bliss to come?
wv: pinot: Something that should be in those wine glasses instead of feeder fish.
I'm sure i'm the gazillionth person to say it, but re: CW1: Who the hell thought this was a good idea? No way would I eat even a *taste* of that cake. It might have fish on it...or near it. Barf. Glad I ate lunch already.
manster.. what next your pet mice, pet snake...
I'm sorry, but on behalf of the entire state of WV I have to point out that those are not cars embedded in the icing but ATV's.
Otherwise, I love your site and laughed out loud. Fish? What will they think of next? - Wait don't answer that.
What! No! No no. Are we even CONSIDERING a viable replacement for the crappy fish in that cake? No. No fish in cake. If a fish is anywhere around a cake it'd better be salmon, tilapia, tuna, or flounder (etc); it'd better be dead; and it'd better be prepared superbly.
This is comparable to those live fish disco platform shoes back in the 70's. At least you didn't have to eat the shoe.
No bettas, no goldfish, no pretty flowery fish, no replacements. No fish. The only thing I would except as a replacement for those wine glasses would be more cake.
And no hamster balls, for pete's sake! Even for the novelty. Rodents and cake. Sheesh.
I can't believe that ANYONE would think incorporating goldfish into a cake is a good idea. It's tacky, disgusting and inhumane! And it's becoming a trend? Oh dear, at least it will give you some more Cake Wrecks fuel, Jen.
But really, my offense at the treatment of the fish and dirty fish water aside, both cakes are two of the ugliest that I have seen on this site!
Flab-er-gas-ted!!!!
Stuck in the mud
Stuck in the mud
You're a MUD-STUCK guy!
(He's a MUD-STUCK guy!)
Stuck in the mud
Stuck in the mud
You're a LIKES-MUD guy!
(He's a LIKES-MUD guy!)
Let's have a Bud
Let's have a Bud
(He'll HAVE a Bud!)
Let's have a few...let's ha--
WAIT! Why, pray tell, are they hooked up that way? The puller-outer guy should have his tow-rope /chain /(wire?) thingy attached to his BACK bumper.
No wonder it's still stuck.
=^e.e^=
I don't remember which birthday it was, but when my brother was little, he had just gotten into fishing with my Dad and wanted a fishing themed birthday party. Mom made a cake like the second one (though MUCH nicer) and just before the party started, put a goldfish into a bowl of clean room temperature water set into the cake like that. (I am fairly certain that there was a little figurine of a little boy fishing sitting at the edge of the "pond".) The fish was fine, the water didn't get smelly in the two or three hours that the birthday party lasted and the fish went on to live happily in a regular fishtank for the rest of its fishy little life.
Second comment, I am totally inspired to make a hamster-ball birthday cake for a friend's birthday... I'd have to learn to do sugar work, but a poured-sugar ball with a fondant hamster inside? That would just be wicked awesome! (I'm anticipating being laid off at the end of the school year, so I apparently am deluded enough to think I can learn advanced sugar work by December...)
I would tell that bride and groom off at their own reception for mistreating animals. It wouldn't be much more tacky than that cake.
Not a good trend! How long before someone decides that their wedding cake and party favors are a good place to get rid of that box of kittens!
Terri
http://whyifearclowns.com
Ugh. That is pretty nasty. I can eat an ugly cake, but I can't eat a cake that has living animals eating and pooping in it.
I'd also like to see the hamster rolly-ball, but maybe with a few of those tube things. Of course, I wouldn't eat it, but it would be funny to see.
Using live animals as decorations and party favors = fail. I know someone who did it at their wedding and all I could do was sadly watch drunken people carrying fish bowls home. Not cool.
My first thought was how it would smell, and I am glad Jen addressed that as well
oh I am disturbed!
Really, when people started having dogs and cats as members of the bridal party, could this possibly have been far behind?
Hey, you guys are featured on the Today Show website!
http://today.msnbc.msn.com/id/36039383/ns/today-today_food_and_wine/
Hooray!
I went to a wedding once where there were fishbowls with fish as centerpieces and by the end of the evening almost every centerpiece had a dead fish in it. Bad idea!
Minnows are the WORST choice there for that groom's cake! The thing about minnows is they JUMP. Trust me. I once took a bunch of minnows home from a fishing trip to keep as pets, and the only thing I had to put them in was a shallow(ish) plastic container. About half of them jumped out that night, onto the floor...
Seriously if you're going to put live fish in your wedding cake, you could at least spring for some prettier fish rather than the 2-cent feeder goldfish from Petsmart!
This is the first time I'm ever going to say that I don't think these are Wrecks. I LOVE fish, so I think these are really cute!
Weird yes, but not horrible.
I actually REALLY like the first one! It's so pretty and the glasses make it elegant.
Awesomeness! I want a cake like with live fish too! Except I'm picking out the fish. Maybe some pearl goldfish or kissing gouramis; maybe bettas.
But no minnows! Yuck! Minnows! XP
Ew, it never takes fish water long to smell like fish & then it evaporates up & there's the bottom of the cake above. Oh, I'm all sorts of grossed out here. No problem skipping cake at this wedding.
lol! Fish is dead & floating at cake serving time, my grandpa always told my sister the fish was tired & giving it's fins a rest.
Fish & cake don't mix, bleh! What next live miniature poodles dyed the colour of candy floss then they do that bit, like where they drag their butts across the floor, ewww that's not chocolate!
Whoops I thought the grooms cake was a kids cake. Live minnows, maybe he's planing on going fishing right after he has his milk & cake.
It makes me wonder if any of the fish in the glasses were accidentally drunk by
people who were already three sheets to the wind.
I hate to say that this reminds me of my days working wedding receptions. They would have fish bowls, with live fish in them. Then they would have floating candles. Usually by the end of the night the candles had warmed the water up enough that the fish didn't make it. Why did anyone think that was a good idea?
The wedding cake is pretty but using live fish is not a good idea. I have seen fish try to jump out when they're enclosed in small spaces and it's not a good thing.
I think sea-themed weddings are nice, but why do you need the real thing? They could have filled the glasses with seashells or matching colored glass beads floating in water instead.
That is some disturbingly bad taste. It makes my soul/artistic sentiment a little sore.
If they had been in there a while then there would also be floating fish poop. I'm sure that was a nice touch as well.
I've seen caged birds in a wedding cake.. compared to that, the fish aren't so bad... kinda...
OK! I totally want to see a hamster ball in a cake now too! I think people are running out of ideas and they'll do anything to be unique! Even gross fish in their cake!!!!
BTW: I spent HOURS (4) reading your website when I first discovered it...it is hysterically funny!! Keep up the good work!
Sung a-la the McD's commercial:
Gimme back that cake-o-fish,
Gimme that fish.
Gimme back that cake-o-fish
Gimme that fish.
What if it were you, swimmin' 'neat this cake?
If it were you in this glass you wouldn't be laughin' at alllll
You do not hafta be the Ace of Cakes; just make a fondant fish stew! (Wreckies: guess that song lyric!)
I think it's in bad form to ask your baker to make a side trip to the bait shop on the way to your reception.
And I keep wondering: when it was time for the wedding toast, did they go "lose" the fish to make use of the wine glasses? *gagging*
Wow! Where was this reception held? At a puppy mill? Next to the pony rides? What year is this again?
Are those REAL shells, covered in (hopefully) food-grade paint? Yuck!
And I don't see how you can attempt to put together or serve either cake without fish water coming into contact with the cake or icing at some point. Double yuck!
This is terrible. And for all you people who think that its ok to keep any fish (including bettas) in such small containers, that is untrue. while they can live in them, they will not thrive and will have a very short lifespan, not to mention a very sad an unenriched one.
please read here:
http://www.ultimatebettas.com/index.php?showtopic=18097
Good grief.
Fish produce ammonia along with their waste. It comes from their poop and also they excrete it from their gills. Not only is this a disturbing thing to have around your cake, but that means these poor fish are stewing in their own waste in those tiny glasses. It's like being locked in a toilet. (In large, established aquariums, beneficial bacteria break the waste down into something less toxic so the fish aren't poisoned.) The fish in the picture, common goldfish, are high-waste species of fish -- they poop a LOT.
Ew.
Plus, there's no air circulation in those glasses, or the little "pond" thing. The fish are also suffocating. Would they survive through the wedding? Probably. But it's very, very unpleasant for them, along with whoever has to eat that cake.
Goldfish need huge tanks with double filtration and lots and lots of aeration to live out their natural lifespan, which is 30+ years. Live animals are not decorations. Tacky, gross, and mean.
I don't mean to be gross, but all I can think of is what if one of them has one of those mile long poop strands hanging when you go to cut the cake.... ewwww!
Can we just have a rule... nothing that poops neat the cake!
Is that really too much to ask?
The first wedding I ever went to (when I was about 6) had two fish embedded in the cake in a little acrylic container. I thought it was the coolest thing on the planet but now . . . oy.
Oh man who in the world would want these cakes? Oh wait insane people would probably want those and yeah we have plenty of them around. Gross just thinking of the smell and the cake and ugh.. if this is a new wedding trend they should all go for piranhas now that I would love to see lol.
Well, HAVE you seen the episode of Cake Boss? Would ANYONE else like to comment on that? I swear, people who do not read posts before posting are the reason why "Epcot" was invented.
So, no fish in cakes or other situations that will stress the fish. Get Buddy or Duff to design a cake with a gum-paste hamster in a plastic ball that runs.
The End!
Holy carp.
I cannot believe that anyone who actually LIKES fish would ever approve of these cakes. The casual cruelty plus fish-water on the food adds up to a gross, unappetizing wreck.
Seeing as fondant icing is crap anyway, I wouldn't care about the fishwater smell (I never eat fondant, not even the "good" fondant which is still not that good).
But otherwise, bleeeaaaaarrgghhh. I am all about non-traditional wedding cakes - I think the normal looking white with flowers or pastels or pearls or whatever ones are pretty fugly, in fact - but this. This. This is just not on. Ew.
Lovin' the "two for one sale at the bait shop" comment! :)
WV: seces - feces of the sea! (Seces - sea+feces, get it?)
My kids would love a cool cake loving babysitter, Jen. And I think a hamster ball cake would rock. Except how to explain those little black things under the hamster? Of course they're sprinkles! And I agree - maybe they could have used betas, a fighting fishy cake! Much better than the "baitshop special".
ugh, the idea of having anything alive besides the bridal party and guests is not a good one. Animals are living things, not disposable for the sake of our entertainment. :(
Poor fish.
Jimma Lou said...
"Well, HAVE you seen the episode of Cake Boss? Would ANYONE else like to comment on that?"
-----------
Well, yes, I just barely watched it myself...but I'm not quite sure what your point was.
The whole scene was ludicrous! The "Boss" was yelling at the birds, "Get outta there!" and THEN the bridal couple had to DRAG them out of the case! The most MORONIC thing of all was that they released them with the ribbons still TIED ON and dangling from their legs...auurrgh.
!! IDIOTS !!
=^>.<^=
Um, this may sound weird, but the fish in the champagne glasses is actually a cool idea. It would have been better if they had used fake ones though.
AAAAAAAAACCCCKKKK! I want to run away but I can't stop looking. . .Yeah they really did that. EEWWWEEE!
I'm late to this posting but have to chime in to say that not only is wanting to see a hamster-ball wedding cake completely understandable, your coming up with the idea just launched you guys to the top of our "please babysit" list when we have our baby in June.
Fantastic image. Maybe I can convince my friend who's getting married in 2 weeks to let me have a few minutes alone with her cake before the reception.....
Fish POOP.
Nuf said.
I find it weird that anyone needs to be told this, but Fish and Cake do not mix!!
Ugh. =( That's fish abuse. Those poor fish are in a horrible, horrible place. that's not even the amount of water you throw in a fish bag that's supposed to last the hour or so ride to the house and the aquarium. They've probably been in there a whole day.
Those poor fish. This is just horrible from an animal lover's standpoint. And for everyone saying 'use betta fish!' no! No, that's even worse =(!
This is just terrible. I'll be so glad when they finish passing laws in every state that makes it a crime to do stuff like this to fish. This is abuse.
The awfulness of having something that swims around with strings of poo hanging from its behind and occasionally jumps out of its container ON YOUR FOOD is distracting y'all from the other bad badness in this horrible thing.
1. So it's an all-white cake, except for the electric blue streaks of . . . something. And the feeder goldfish.
2. Either they molded sugar shells and then skipped painting them in order to spend that whole couple dollars on feeder goldfish, or they plopped white plastic shells on the cake.
3. Somebody put a lot of thought into the engineering required to get the fish onto the cake in the first place. That was the detail that mattered most? Really?
With just a bit LESS work, this could have been a white sand beach with lifelike sugar shells scattered on it. And no half-suffocated pooping fish.
Jenny Islander
I was at a friend's wedding. She had huge vases on each table with flower bouquets and goldfish in the vases.
The problem was either the water hadn't been treated for the fish or the flowers were poisoning the water, but, yes, you guessed it, the fish started going belly up all over the hall. Reflected on mirrors on the tables, too.
Sometimes, the simpler weddings are the best!
It's terrible that just because fish aren't fluffy or have feathers that people think they can just treat them as disposable ornaments. They're living creatures and they need proper spance and oxygenation for the water.
I wonder how long they had to be in those glasses for? I'm assuming quite a while so as someone else pointed out, those fish are suffocating. They have a limited amount of oxygen and what some people don't realise is that the wanter NEEDS to be CONSTANTLY oxygenated by an air pump or something. That's why keeping them in bowls is also cruel. You wouldn't stick a cat in an airtight box and stick it on a cake -- why would you do it to a fish?
When I was checking out venues/caterers etc for my wedding, one suggested mini ice sculptures for each table (no). He said that they could do frozen spheres with flowers in the middle (no thanks) or goldfish. Yes, welcome friends and family. The menu is vegetarian, but no worries, there's a dead-ass frozen pet on each table for decoration. We also have a frozen puppy spewing fruit punch over by the cake.
Skarto sez:
"You wouldn't stick a cat in an airtight box and stick it on a cake -- why would you do it to a fish?"
Don't be so sure nobody would do that. If people would put live fish and live birds in cakes, can cats and dogs be far behind?
(No animals were harmed during the writing of this comment.)
Una, I'm still chuckling over the caterer who wanted frozen dead fish as centerpieces at your vegetarian wedding. Vegetarianism seems like such a simple concept that I'm amazed at how many people don't seem to get it. I've lost count of how many people I've heard saying things like, "I'm a vegetarian. I only eat chicken and fish." (Huh?) My favorite was a woman who told me, in all seriousness, that she was a vegetarian and therefore she didn't eat meat unless it was Kosher.
Must have been the Little Mermaid's wedding? She wanted some of her closest friends to be a part of the wedding...you know, make 'em feel real special.
... Fish in a cake?
That's it. I'm putting a PONY in my wedding cake! Fish are for amateurs.
Man, this is how I ended up with goldfish. My friend went to his cousin's wedding and came home with three of the goldfish decorations just because he couldn't stand the thought of the unwanted fish being thrown out. I'd kept fish before so I had an empty tank and I ended up taking them.
Except my tank was only 10 gallons and that's still too small for three of those tiny "feeder" goldfish once they start growing. I kept them for as long as I could, but trying to keep three growing goldfish healthy in a 10 gallon tank is a lot of work and once they reach a certain size, it's just not possible. Luckily another friend's stepmother has a proper fishpond and when the fish were finally just too big for the tank, she agreed to take them. So that's four people who were willing to put more thought into those fishes' lives than the bride or wedding planner who just thought they'd make an interesting and inexpensive wedding decoration.
I liked my goldfish. They were pretty and a lot more interesting than I was expecting after years of fiesty bettas. I'm just gonna pretend that the fish in that cake were and are now in a fish pond somewhere.
While the blog entry is funny, the cakes are not. This is animal cruelty, pure and simple. Goldfish rapidly suffer the effects of hypoxia and ammonia levels when contined to a small container like that, particularly for prolonged periods of time like the duration of an entire wedding/reception. Plus, what is the fate of those fish once the wedding is over? With proper care goldfish should live upwards of 20 years, and single tail varieties like that need to live in ponds to reach adult size and remain healthy. How very tragic that people use living creatures and decorations.
OK.
My cousin thought live goldfish were a sweet wedding centerpiece idea.
1) dead fish + reception hall reeking of dead fish on the wedding day.
2) drunk guests eating said live goldfish on dares
3) no one wanting t take home sickly goldfish centerpieces and being stuck with 30 or 40 fish and a honeymoon trip to attend to...
bad idea.
OMG. That's all I can say.
Fish? In a cake? What has this world come to?
Am I the only person who noticed that the grooms cake had real rocks in it??? Please tell me I'm not the only one. :( It was gross to see the fish, but that just made things worse....
Ren, you're awesome ;)
Fish as centerpieces, to me, is an ok idea.
Not taking into account the fish's wellbeing, and what to do with them after, BAD idea. Capital B-A-D!
If someone had described this wedding cake to me, I probably would have thought it was an awesome idea, but after seeing it...not so much. And the groom's cake...I'm not even going to get into that one.
Those remind me of the creepy cakes found here - http://www.flickr.com/groups/creepy-cakes/pool/
JEN
Those remind me of the creepy cakes here - http://www.flickr.com/groups/creepy-cakes/pool/
-Jen
Words fail me. The thought of fish water and icing made me want to throw up right on my laptop! To ask what these people were thinking is just the tip of the iceberg! I sincerely hope these were homemade. What self respecting baker would do that?!
I cannot believe some folks approve. Yeah they're fish but they are still alive and feel pain.
I wish I didn't know about this, it makes me sick to my stomach.
Oooo let's display a torture chamber on our wedding cake. Sounds lovely.
I cannot believe some folks approve. Yeah they're fish but they are still alive and feel pain.
I wish I didn't know about this, it makes me sick to my stomach.
Oooo let's display a torture chamber on our wedding cake. Sounds lovely.
I have never laughed so hard in my life. I went to a wedding not long ago where they had live fish as centerpieces and the fish were going belly up through the reception. Of course, having a sense of humor but in poor taste, the people at my table wanted to roast the poor fish on toothpicks over the candles burning at the table. This is priceless.
Ha! I had a beta in my wedding cake. My friend made it, was a total surprise and a big hit!
http://www.flickr.com/photos/budgiejen/1460587575/
fish in glasses? I fear the worst ;) xx