First, the inspiration:
Which isn't bad, I guess, if you've got a Brave Heart kind of vibe going for your wedding. Certainly it's executed well.
Anyway, here is what the paid, "professional" baker provided:
Erm.
[glancing between the two photos]
It’s like seeing double, isn’t it? I mean, sure, the second one is collapsed in on itself, slumped over to one side, and channeling a bit more Bob Marley than William Wallace, but besides all that I’d say the decorator was bang on, wouldn’t you? Ok, ok, if you wanted to get picky about it, I guess that crack in the bottom – the one you can see the cake through? – that probably should have been iced over. Oh, and the red stripe might look a little nicer if it were one continuous line – or for that matter, if the line were straight. (Perhaps a little too much Red Stripe was consumed before icing the red stripe, eh? Eh? Come on, that was freakin’ hilarious, people: Bob Marley? Jamaican beer? Booya!)
Come to think of it, maybe that mass of squiggles in the mid section isn’t the best example of plaid I’ve ever seen, either. [tilting head to one side] Huh. Yeah. Ok, Summer, you got me: I can sort of see why the bride sued.
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174 comments | Post a Comment
She actually had to sue the baker? They didn't just give them their $ back at the reception???!!!
I can't stop staring at it! It defies belief!!!!
I concur with the above comment! She had to actually sue over that monstrosity? Unbelievable. I have no words.
WOW!!!!! This is why cake wrecks was invented! Job security, some might say.
lol...I'd sue too!!
Oh...wow....umm...yeah...
I can understand that she had to sue the baker. If the person was shady enough to promise cake A and deliver that...thing...then she's shady enough to try and keep the money.
I think I'm still in shock.
somehow when I saw "Summer" and "Texas" and then seeing that the reception was outdoors, it's not surprising that it looked like a melting mountain of icing.
Good writing, Jen. Keep it up.
As a professional cake decorator I can NOT believe that someone actually delivered this cake!!! I understand having bad cake days, but this is why there is always a plan b!
Your writing skill is the work of angels, you have the tone of derided sarcasm perfectly! Keep up the good work!
Also, thanks for introducing uglydress.com to me through this post - more to laugh at HURRAH!
This was one of my all time favorite cake disaster stories-I am so glad it made it on here!
The shell borders are nice, right?
I find it hard to believe this was a " professional baker". didn't the bride look at samples of her work? or at least pictures?
Oh, come on, now, at least the baker added that classy plastic lace border around the bottom...
*That* is the ugliest freakin' cake ever. EVER! *I* could do better than that and my crafty talent is sewing, not cake decorating.
There are at least three more CW specials where that came from! (Ugly Weddings.)
maybe she was super busy and let her three year old decorate it for her. No, no, there is no way anyone sober could have done that cake.
I feel sorry for the baker, believe it or not. I mean, they had to have been mortified to deliver this cake...right? RIGHT?
I literally just fell off of my chair laughing.
I mean... seriously? Someone saw the inspiration photo and then put together the actual cake and thought, "You know, I've really done some good work here. I think the bride will think this is great."
Even if they didn't think it was going to work out, wouldn't it have been better not to have brought that other cake to the reception at all?
WOW. This might be my favorite of all the posts. As Kate said, it's like a car accident. It's so horrible and yet I can't keep myself from looking!
This is just incredible.
I make two cakes a year (one for each kid), and while I'm always proud of them at the end (despite the fact that I sew, I write, I sing - I don't bake....) I don't pretend they are anything other than an act of love. But there are so many cakes on this site where even I would be deeply embarrassed by the sheer quality of the work.
I'm so sorry this poor woman had to sue. That is so wrong.
Oh my goodness!
I was glancing down the page a post/pic at a time going "yeah, pretty funny i suppose" and then i saw this post and i am *CRYING*.
This is too funny! I need medical assistance here! Wheeeeeeeezzzzzze!!!!!!!!!
Wow. That trim icing looks like to crud you get out of the squirt can with the "fancy" plastic tips.
I've made plenty of cakes in my day. I've made a few ugly cakes. I'd sooner feign a stroke than actually hand over that monstrosity to someone.
I'd be willing to bet that the bride chose the bakery in question because they offered to make the cake on the cheap. I have seen people wait til the last minute on the cake, then realize they are low on cash, having spent it all on other items. They then head over to the discount supermarket because the cakes there are 'just as good' as the fancy wedding cake bakeries. The cake really looks like the product of a supermarket bakery.
Hideous...........beyond belief....
I'm with Bec. I got caught laughing to tears in my office over this. Then at home, went to show my husband, who hadn't understood that the top one was inspiration for the bottom one. I was bent over laughing... again.
I'm a cake fiend and love to laugh at other people. If I wasn't so PO'd that Jen beat me to this concept, I would be in love. Thank you one million times for this brilliant work.
I started laughing so hard when I saw this and read this story that I cried.
I couldn't catch my breath for like 5 minutes. Thank you for making my day!
OMG i haven't laughed so hard in so long!
that is the funniest story on here! I canNOT believe that cake was actually delivered to the wedding!
tears...streaming...down face! can't...stop....laughing!
Okay, since I've come here, I've been sympathetic to the bakers, but this cake makes me worry about radioactive mutations. Someone put it out of its misery. There is no god.
I can't belief a baker tried to give that to them. Wow!!!
I love your blog. The baby cake...hmm not sure I could cut or eat that either.
Wow...seeing this I suddenly don't feel so bad about the first cake I decorated ten or so years ago. Then again it's sort of sad thinking that the work of a professional baker is on par with that of a ninteen year old wielding a ziplock bag with a hole punched in it. (hey I didn't have a piping bag)
This is astoundingly bad. I was a pretty laid back bride but I probably would have had a bridezilla moment if I'd been given this cake.
i can not sop laughing! help!
I have just spent the better part of an hour laughing so hard that I cried. Thank you, thank you, thank you for a good belly laugh. (I decided to post my comment on this one because the Jabba the Hutt-esqueness of that cake is what really caused me to lose it. I'm sorry for the person who it was delivered to, but thankful that it has served a comedic secondary purpose.)
No matter how hard they tried, the blancmanges couldn't pull one over on Angus Padgorny.
Oh my gosh! I almost fell off the couch when I saw this post! I actually work with the Groom who had this cake at his wedding. He had shown us this pic when me and my husband were planning our wedding and we were just as incredulous as everyone on here.
To clear up a few points - they didn't pick this baker at the last minute... They actually picked her 6 months ahead of the wedding and, based on pictures she showed them of other cakes she had made, trusted that she could get the job done.
Needless to say, that trust was misplaced. The baker evidently had some personal issues a few days before the wedding and tried to throw (and I use this term loosely) the cake together at the last minute. She claimed that it had "melted" some due to the temperature (what, did she take a fire torch to it?) If I remember correctly, it arrived without the ugly red stripe. She tried to "fix" it after delivery and that was the outcome.
Truly a "cake wreck"...I'll have to show this to my co-worker - he laughs about it now (great sense of humor) and he'll be pleased to see it bring joy and pain to others as well!
I don't know why the baker didn't simply admit that she didn't have the skill to make this cake. I've been in that position; there are times when you just have to face the music and say, "I'm sorry, but I don't have the supplies or expertise to make that particular cake".
The colors don't even match...she should have trimmed the cakes to the proper size and shape before stacking them, but frankly, having made some awfully nice cakes (and stringwork was my passion) I would be scared to death of trying to replicate that plaid. Keeping those lines parallell and perpendicular would be a nightmare.
Was this an actual bakery? & if you can't decorate better than that then why are you trying? It isn't easy to re-create somebodyelse's creation, but close would have been nice!
I do cakes & I would have given them their money back & gotten a cake elsewhere or something if my life was sooo bad that I couldn't even put a cake together...I don't know there's no excuse....
Was she drunk??? I've seen many nonprofessionals do "better' (that's not saying much though
Okay...and spend her FIRST YEAR of marriage in court?!?!?!? You mean it actually took a YEAR for a judge to get her money back?!!??!!?
This is the most tragic cake I've ever seen.
My wife sent me this link, and I do believe you just made it onto my Google Reader
It looks like it fell from the sky and landed on a poor little flower girl and her ruffled dress is sticking out the bottom! yikes!!
I sure hope that cake was stuffed with refund money.
I think people would have had to hold me back from actually doing physical harm to this person if they delivered that to my wedding. Not only would I be embarrassed, no mortified, to deliver a cake like that, I don't think my conscious would let me.
So glad to hear that the groom can laugh about it now though!
Time to quit baking cakes and take up pouring concrete instead.
Wow that's horrendous! I can'r believe any baker would have the nerve to actually put that cake out! All I can say is Wow!!!
This is like the cake equivalent of the Titanic Dress Disaster on www.ettiquettehell.com !
I'm curious as to whether they still ate it.
funniest.post.ever LOL
I give the baker points for audacity.
The sheer brazenness of waltzing into a wedding and delivering this platter of crap -- and then defending it ... the dude has balls.
I think the second cake's maker must have been channeling Salvador Dali's spirit in creating that work of art. As Surrealism, it wins. As a Scots-themed wedding cake... not so much.
If this cake had been at my wedding, I would have clearly displayed the name of the baker responsible. Then I would have submitted a picture to the local newspaper, again with the name of the baker.
I really wish I would have thought of publishing the baker's name and photo in the paper.
Yes, I am the lucky bride for whom this cake was so carefully and thoughtfully prepared.
Our wedding was in Southern California, and believe it or not, this cake was NOT melted, it was ACTUALLY put together this way! I CRIED when I saw it. The worst part was that it had been set up before the guest arrived and of course, that was about 45 minutes before WE arrived. So, that monstrosity was was sitting out for all the guests to admire long before we were able to whisk it off, safely out of site.
The fact that someone I don't even know posted this on a website is hilarious!
As for suing the talented baker, yes, we had to sue. The best part about that was that she stated that "it wasn't that bad when she dropped it off"... UM, YES IT WAS!!! Well, needless to say, she was forced to return our money (duh) and for some reason, the judge wouldn't grant me emotional distress (WHY???). AND, the baker filed BANKRUPTCY and we never got our money back.
Yes, she DID bake us a sample cake and brought it to our house and it was GORGEOUS! I also looked at a photo album of all her work and it was also lovely. I have no idea what kind of crack she was smoking on my wedding day, but it has certainly haunted me for over 6 years now, and I'm sure, for the rest of my life!
Enjoy the cake! If you'd like to see more pictures of this lovely confection, let me know and I can show you different angles and such (if you wanted to replicate it for your own special day!).
I'm curious as to whether it was still edible. Or did the bride and groom have to save it as evidence for the lawsuit?
Yes, the cake was edible and actually pretty darn good. We shoved a few pieces into containers and took them with us on our wedding night so that we could eat them the next day. We had PLENTY of pictures to take to court with us, so we didn't need to save the rest.
I don't want to sound rude, but I would actually like to see more photos of this oh so...beautiful cake. Could you possibly link me Lynda?
I want to take this delicious cake and bedazzle it a little.
Why, why would you sue? She should have handed over bonus dollars immediately. That's like having a cake, a pipe band, and a professional interior designer all in one modestly-sized package. It's obvious they sued only because the cake was so stunning, no one was paying attention to the bride. Love this site!
Wow. That's *impressively* bad. Lynda, do you have the name of that baker? I have several friends who're getting married in SoCal, and I want to make sure they avoid that baker at all costs!!
I bet it was delicious!
Hmmm... This is the kind of thing that you may expect on say TNA Wrestling, but not in real life. I'd personally hit the baker with a steel chair.
I really can't see the difference.
1. the baker of the below cake was drunk
2. the above cake was made in 1996, if I were them I think I would get my inspiration from a newer cake
I dunno dude, looks pretty good to me! Wow.
JT
www.FireMe.To/udi
So did the cake not taste good or something? I mean, it only exists for like 5 minutes until that junx gets sliced and devoured, so . . . couldn't the bride just laugh and eat it?
Sora, I would LOVE to give you all the information of this "baker"! Her name is YVETTE AGUIRRE. I will be more than happy to give you her phone number and address (although, I'm SURE she's moved by now) if you would like that additional information for your friends! :)
I will try to dig up the rest of the pictures and post them for you all to enjoy.
it's not that bad
my wife said it looks like jaba.. after she freaked out :)
"hooaaaahoaaaahoooaha"
Sadly I could make a better cake.
there is no doubt this is a total goof a spoof of the original and the story is completely fabricated
The cake is a lie, I swear it!!!
Perhaps the bottom cake tastes better. I actually think I would prefer a "crappy" cake than the stupid plaid one above. You only take a picture by it and then attack it with a knife. I am sure it felt a lot better to serve the bottom one than the top.
It easy dude just sue them for your beautiful cake.
me,
http://health-care-article.blogspot.com
i hope the cake tasted delicious
Wow! How long has the Cake-tanic been submerged in that pic??
Frank Gehry was here.
Haha. That's the most beautiful cake I've ever seen.
I have to say...that 2nd one looks a lot tastier!! The first one looks like it's made from cardboard. The second looks like melty ice cream.
Your sarcasm came on a little strong. Usually we people stop after the second usage. On another note, that cake looks delicious.
Sigh. I don't understand you people that believe it's OK to sue for A CAKE.
It's not. It really isn't. If that woman really spent a year over that then she really did deserve that cake.
That takes wasting time + money to a whole new level. And juvenility.
That would have inspired some interesting conversation at the reception. Wonder how it tasted? Or would that have been destroying evidence?
the most important question is...
did you eat it?
I never thought a site about wedding cakes would actually make me have one of the best laughing fits I've had in weeks. It's not just the pictures, it's the thought of the wedding party who PAID for this, and the look on their faces juxtaposed to the poker face the baker must have taken years to perfect before delivering this with a straight face. Fishing outrageous. You can't make this stuff up.
seriously? this can't be real.
Are you sure a stork didn't crap that out of the sky just happened to land on the original cake?
sweet zombie jesus! it's like a teleporter accident!
I'm a pretty laid-back person and would just laugh at most wedding disasters, but I think that even I would cry if that cake was delivered. Sure, it probably tasted great, but when you're paying hundreds of dollars for a cake, the baker had better damn well make it look good. This isn't some $30 cake from the supermarket we're talking about.
wow thas funny, i cant stop laughing. I hope they gave it to them for free ...(lol)
Good god.
Outdoor summer wedding in Texas? You do not use buttercream, you use fondant (which is what is being used in the original photo) so the cake doesn't melt and collapse... which is what happened to that cake. It probably looked okay when it was originally delivered, but it looks like there were no supports put into the cake layers, so in the heat the whole thing collapsed and melted to the side.
(My mom is a professional cake decorator and she warns people of this very thing.)
I wouldn't be surprised if the bride insisted on buttercream, though, and got... exactly what she asked for.
I did not insist on buttercream, and no, this wasn't summertime in Texas. It was October in Orange County and it wasn't hot. The "baker" said she could do exactly what we asked with all the tiers and even the hexagon levels. We certainly didn't get exactly what we wanted. Even the colours are TOTALLY wrong.
Ok the really sad and awful thing is even if this baker had scraped it all off and just done a white cake it would still be a catastrophe the layers arent even wtf I mean really and it looks like it doesnt have the proper support and is cracking under its own wieght
The bottom cake looks like absolute sh*te, but the top one doesn't look very yummy either imo. In fact, it looks like a bunch of hatboxes stacked together, not like foodstuffs at all!
It doesn't look like that cake had any interior construction built in. If it had, it wouldn't have collapsed upon itself like that. It's all mooshed together, which would happen to a multi-tiered cake if dowells and cake boards weren't used.
I saw this first years ago and it's still funny. Although my heart goes out to the bride. Jeebus.
Come on, Lynda, don't leave us handing with those extra pictures. We all want to see!
Oh, my god, this cake actually made me laugh out loud...now my co-workers think I'm nuts...but it's just so....BLOATED! LOL LOL LOL!
I bet this "decorator" saw Sandra Lee (of Semi Homemade atrocity) make a wedding cake - without supports mind you - & said, heck yeah, I CAN DO THAT!! And this, ladies & gentlemen, is the end result. And the proof that God rewards stupidity & ineptitude (is that even a word?) lies in the fact that the poor bride had to SUE to get her money back. WHO would even deliver that & how do you suppose that went? "Well, here's the cake you ordered. I think you can pretty well see that it's virtually identical to the photo you gave me (after it melted in a kitchen fire). Best wishes on your special day!"
Lynda, I hate to ask but if you don't mind me asking, what did this decorator try to charge you for this monstrosity?
I just am curious as to why she would show up with such a horrendous.... *THING*..... when you probably paid hundreds of dollars (if not a thousand or more) on the cake.
Also, this thing made me laugh for a good hour. Its hilarious! =D
You mean someone actually paid for this???????? With REAL money?????????? I think I would have had to smack the "decorator" in the face with it and ask them what they were smokin'
This is a hilarious post, and I've been enjoying your site immensely.
I have to question the lack of sense of humor, though. Emotional distress? Come onnn. Clearly everyone thought it was funny. And the cake tasted good. I can certainly understand the money being refunded (and perhaps a credit for a new cake in the future since her skills didn't seem to be the problem judging by her sample and portfolio) but to sue? I just don't understand why someone would waste the mental energy.
If it had been my wedding, I'd've eschewed the usual tradition of the bride and groom smashing cake in each other's faces, let everyone eat as much as they wanted, then changed out of the wedding clothes and just jumped in like a big messy cake trampoline.
Imagine the pictures!
This is something to laugh over, and it makes a great story. I'm a little blown away by the fact that the bride spent a whole year in court trying to dredge up some emotional distress money over a CAKE.
I believe it! My experience wasn't as bad but I wanted Snoopy on my son's first birthday cake because the blanket he dragged around was Snoopy and friends. The bakery found some little plastic dog on skis (not Snoopy) and plunked it down in the middle of the cake. After that I made his birthday cakes and drew Snoopy with colored icing. But that's not nearly as bad as the wedding cake shown above. That is awful and unless it's an ice cream cake there's no reason it would collapse like that. Wedding cakes are expensive!
I can only echo what anonymous, august 21 4:25pm said.
It's only a cake! This will haunt you for the rest of your life? Sheez!
Someone with a sense of humor would have laughed at it, would have been looking forward to telling the story to her grandchildren one day.
The more I love at both pictures, the more I keep laughing....uncontrollably. That second cake looks like something my little nephew made about of playdoh!
bahahahaha
Aw C'mon - I went to the original link and it says that the bad cake picture is from the cake that was actually AT HER RECEPTION. No bride in her right mind would allow that cake into her reception - casts some doubt on the whole story I think.
I really appreciate mot of your comments. But a couple of you are a little deluded. We didn't spend "an entire year" in court suing over "just a cake." We had paid half of the cost of the cake before the wedding, and had left a check with the reception coordinator for the other half. The cake was delivered to the reception while the wedding ceremony was going on. The baker claimed that she had been in a minor car accident on the way to the reception, and that she had tried her best to fix what had happened (this she told to the coordinator), and said that "of course, they shouldn't worry about the second half of the payment". (The coordinator wasn't going to pay her anyway!) When we got ahold of the baker after the wedding, we told her that not only were we not going to worry about the second half, but we wanted the first half refunded. Though she agreed on the phone - several phone calls, over a period of months - she never refunded our money, so we took her to small claims court, where we won the judgment...but she soon after filed bankruptcy so we didn't get squat.
That said, it WAS tasty - just ugly!
Lynda, I think you showed amazing restraint. I'm afraid I probably would have done this woman physical harm. What an atrocious thing to do! And people, it isn't "just a cake," it's a business person utterly failing to follow through on their contracted obligations. If you paid for a brand new 46 inch plasma screen TV, and got home to discover that someone had delivered a 14 inch TV from 1985 with rabbit ears, I suspect you'd want your money back. That's basically what happened here, only in cake form.
Thank you, Bianca! And, if it weren't for my calm and sensible husband, physical harm WOULD have been done! There were plenty of Scots, Irish and Sicilians there to take care of it for me!
I wish I could see the judge's face when presented with the photo evidence. Surely there was stifled laughter? Or are there people actually able to see that and not laugh til they pee?
I want to add my 2 cents in about this disaster. I dont think of myself as a professional cake decorator but i have done a faw wedding cakes for money. first, for me it is one of the most stressful cakes to make. It needs to be as near to perfect as possible because this is not just another birthday where you have one every year. Most get married with the expectation this will be it. Brides go to amazing levels to have the perfect day. I have had one near catastrophy and I cried for an hour and wondered what to do. I never would have asked for the rest of my money and probably shown up with a refund and the cake so the bride could decide what to serve. I am glad the cake tasted good. I know the heat or humidity effects cake but this "professional" should know how to deal with that in the area they live and work. It is pretty obvious there is no support in the lower layers also. If you compare the two pictures even it the cake wasnt "melting" it still looks nothing like the example. I dont know if the bride wanted less cake than the original or what but nothing about the deliverd cake says professional.My heart goes out to you Lynda and I am happy you have a good calming infulence in your husband. and I am sorry you didnt get your mony back. **side note, your baby is beautiful
Wow, THANK YOU Linda for your insight and wonderful comments! It was obvious that this lady didn't even prepare to make our cake as promised as shown by the colors that she used and threw it (literally) together at the last moment. I'm still working on getting different angles posted! Thank you again for your kind words.
Friggin' love it!
while i feel bad for the bride, i'm surprised you didn't consider the original cake oh-so-ugly. braveheart indeed!
This cake looks like Jabba the Hut at his 5th (clown-themed) birthday party! You should advise readers to invest in Depends before checking out this blog.
i think it is sad some people think that the bride should have laughed at this situation and not gone through so much trouble suing. that cake looked like someone sat on it. it looked nothing like that cake she had wanted BEFORE it started to melt. it was an epic fail on all levels. the fact that the idiot who made this cake went bankrupt lets you know she was making crappy cakes for everyone! i mean, i would be able to laugh about the situation NOW in life, but at the moment where i walk into my wedding reception and all i see is a pile of crap where there should be a gorgeous cake i paid good money for....i might have cried or at the very least, stabbed the idiot who left the cake there.
it makes a GREAT story, but i do feel bad for the bride and groom who had to suffer at that moment.
Yeah, I totally agree with Bianca on this. Do you people who are saying "it's just a cake" realize that wedding cakes can cost hundreds of dollars? Would you really be OK with basically flushing $600 down the toilet? Cause that's what this is like. What if you paid that kind of money for, I don't know, some kind of home repair that turned out to be crap? You wouldn't be a little upset? You'd just laugh about it? Suure.
It's Al Borlin's wedding cake! XD
I agree that the correct reaction was to take the baker to small claims court. If a baker finds at the last minute that they are unable to deliver the cake as promised they should at least be able to create or obtain a presentable back up (even it it's completely fake stand-in and you serve the tasty destroyed cake from the kitchen). I would have been upset on my wedding day if I saw this but would probably enjoy the memory in future years as a funny story to share.
I find that the people who keep insulting the taste of the bride by complaining about the original cake are extremely annoying. The original cake may not be to my taste but it is well constructed, innovative, and very likely fit with the personality of the bride and groom.
As a side note: the repetition of some of the comments (especially questions that have already been answered or details that have been clarified) are a waste of time. If you're going to comment on something, put forth the effort to read the comments that come before yours.
I hope it at least tasted good. Maybe the person here who knows the groom can ask him.
I just now saw that Lynda replied to this-Yay! I would LOVE to know how much you paid for that awful cake.
OMG, this cake is so depressing! I can't believe there are people who think its just a cake! I'm not a professional baker but I'm the one who bakes the cakes for all occasions with family and friends... Even I could get pretty damn close to that inspiration cake! I'm glad it tasted good but even I wanted to cry from just looking at the cake.
Just out of curiosity, how much did you lose for that tasty monstrosity?
I was one of the anonymous posters (August 21, 2008 4:25 PM; wasn't logged in at the time) who remarked that it was a little ridiculous to spend all that time in court over "just a cake." And I am basing that on the following statements:
...but it has certainly haunted me for over 6 years now, and I'm sure, for the rest of my life!
Well, needless to say, she was forced to return our money (duh) and for some reason, the judge wouldn't grant me emotional distress (WHY???)
Um, because if getting the wrong cake on your wedding day is the worst thing that ever happens to you, you are a very fortunate person. Taken from wiki:
-The intent of the act need not be to bring about emotional distress. A reckless disregard for the likelihood of causing emotional distress is sufficient... For example, if a defendant refused to inform a plaintiff of the whereabouts of the plaintiff's child for several years, though that defendant knew where the child was the entire time, the defendant could be held liable for IIED even though the defendant had no intent to cause distress to the plaintiff.
Now, to me, that example sounds a heck of a lot more serious than having a cake wreck delivered, even on one's wedding day.
-The conduct must be heinous and beyond the standards of civilized decency or utterly intolerable in a civilized society.
Are you really going to try to make that argument?
The emotional distress rule is designed to prevent people from being unduly harassed or to compensate them for truly hurtful things. This sooo doesn't qualify, and the judge must have agreed if you didn't get the judgment.
I fully agree that you should have been compensated the value of the cake, so going to small claims court over that was definitely justifiable. If she declared BK, that sucks but there's not a lot you can do about it. A lot of people lose money when someone goes bankrupt.
But at some point, try to realize that you're very lucky if this is the worst thing you ever need to be in court over. Haunt you for the rest of your life? I'm not objecting to you being compensated for the cake. I'm just expressing surprise that it is STILL bugging you 6+ years later. That's pretty extreme.
"The intent of the act need not be to bring about emotional distress. A reckless disregard for the likelihood of causing emotional distress is sufficient"
Check. I'd say delivering that cake is a reckless disregard.
"The conduct must be heinous and beyond the standards of civilized decency or utterly intolerable in a civilized society"
Heinous - check. Delivering that cake to a wedding when you know it is unacceptably bad (and how could the baker not have known??) is pretty heinous.
Beyond the standards ... intolerable in a civilized society - check. Please let me know in what civilized society such a thing is tolerable. And at somebody's wedding, no less.
The wiki bit that's posted doesn't say at what level the distress need be inflicted.
Just sayin'.
Did the decorator have 2 glass eyes? Was she decorating by braille?
J.R.M.
I used these cake photos a few years ago as examples when I taught a class on legal investigation (an exercise in how to determine the parties in a potential liability case).
The website where I originally found the photos and story is gone, so I couldn't show them to a friend of mine.
Thanks for the trip down memory lane...and also glad to see there was some resolution, Lynda, if imperfect!
Lynda, I know it was delivered late but even at that point after seeing how terrible it is, I would have sent the coordinator herself out to the supermarket or Costco to buy a sheet cake or a few dozen cupcakes. Just displaying that cake is embarassing.
"I'd rather feign a stroke than hand over this monstrosity" (hopefully I got that right)...
It reminded me somehow of a woman who attends our Unitarian Fellowship who is also a Humanist minister who performs weddings locally.
She was hired by a friend of mine to do their wedding. The day before the wedding, she called to tell them she couldn't do the wedding because her house had burned down.
My friend was, needless to say, terribly upset for her, commiserated, and said she would try and locate someone quickly and not to worry.
The next year, at another friend's wedding, the bride was relating to me how the minister she had originally hired had called her the day before the wedding to tell her that she couldn't do the wedding because... her house burned down the day before.
I said This wasn't by any chance XXX, was it?"
"Yes! How did you know?"
Oddly enough, I had seen XXX that morning at the Fellowship and neither she or her husband mentioned anything about her house burning down the day before.
Nor did she mention it when I attended a meeting in the house where she had lived for the last 20 years which was (miraculously) in remarkable shape despite having "burned down" a month earlier.
Several years later, yet another friend told me his had engaged a Humanist minister to do his upcoming ceremony.
I said "It wasn't by any chance XXX, was it?"
"Yes... How did you know?"
I told him and suggested that he either get someone else or have a back-up in case she canceled. The opted to have someone at the ready rather than concern his son and his bride-to-be about the possibility of this eventuality.
Amazingly, her house did not burn down and she did perform the ceremony.
Apparently, however, she spent about 15 minutes before the ceremony pacing frantically up and down in the front of the spot where the wedding was going to be held, sweating profusely, and made a remark to the bride that she "ought to cover her tattoos because it wasn't very feminine".
My friend was very grateful when just after the ceremony, she declined the invitation to go to the reception.
hahahahahaha...that's really all I have to say to this - I'm just in awe at the work that decorator did!
This is my first (but not last)trip to this site. I sincerely hope the 'decorator' has had cataract surgery since this debacle! I also hopes she stumbles along this site and can finally see what she 'created'.
As a birder, I loved the comment about the stork dropping this 'whitewash' from the sky!
Do you have any follow-up information about this or other cakewreck lawsuits? I'm sure I wouldn't be the only one interested in hearing how this stuff turns out.
Thanks for the daily dose of laughs. I read your stuff as often as you post it and tell everyone I know about your site. You're great! :)
Lynda tells us the tale of her cake and sez: "Well, needless to say, she was forced to return our money (duh) and for some reason, the judge wouldn't grant me emotional distress (WHY???)."
I have a hunch. Did you sue in small claims court? (That would be the ideal place, since in regular civil court, with lawyers and all, it'd cost way more than you could ever hope to be awarded.) Small claims court will award actual damages only; it does not award punitive damages, nor is emotional distress a consideration. It's just about the plain value of the item lost -- in this case, I don't think the judge could legally award you any more than the value of the cake itself. It's just how small claims court works. The bonus is that you don't have to hand over half of the damages to your lawyer to pay his/her fee.
I'm so glad you survived this wreck! Hopefully, that was the worst that happened at your reception. ;-)
What. The. Hell.
Even my kindergartner thinks this is just fall-down-cackling hilarious. When a 5yr old knows better than to deliver this cake when the first one was requested... man. How drunk do you have to be to do that?
Waaaaahhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhh!!!!!im shock!!
This is pretty funny...I can't believe someone actually thought they could pass that cake off. Maybe the bride won't notice! I hope the couple got every penny of their money back.
I've been a cake decorator for two years and started with no experiance at all..Omgod I'm a Professional now..Thanks for letting me look good haha..I did my first wedding cake was 3 months ago and mine looked omg great up to that..
Omgoodness,Ive only been decorating cakes 2 years and I feel like a professional haha..I went in with no experience at all..
How hideous that tartan looks. If I had to make a cake like that, I would add the tartan with ribbon, not icing, as one sane might do!
This is just not right.
Evan
http://tevami.com
I think I know what that smudge on the bottom tier was from. Someone walking by thought to themself, "Is that a beautiful sculpture or is that a cake?" And then they stuck their finger in it to see.
that poor bride
What amazes me is that the baker actually had the cajones to go to court to DEFEND her/himself.
Really? You stand behind your work?? Enough to go to court???
I am not surprised that the baker had to file for bankruptcy. Makes me wonder if some other creations on this (wonderfully hilarious site) are also made by her gifted hands. I merely hope the stuff she smokes is good.
Well... actually it must be good, if she really dared to try to defend this piece of art in court.
Oh wow... Seeing as I just got married less than a year ago, I feel REALLY bad for this bride. I think I would have killed my baker if I she had showed up with this disaster. Actually I probably would have thrown it at her. And seeing as my baker was my own mother, that would have been really really bad. I am looking back at pictures of my wedding cake and thank my lucky stars that this wasn't my cake cuz I would have freaked out.
While I agree the cake delivered is God-awful, why would you eat it? I'm of the opinion that, if you get bad service, you don't continue to USE said service. I would have kept the ugly cake as evidence or sent it back to the decorator and bought a sheet cake at a local store.
wv: manite- man, ite ain't right, that cake!
My goodness... WOW!! They must have been drunk and on drugs...
That is the most hilarious cake wreck I think I have yet to see. I'm still laughing. just how does one get from A to B? It defies belief!! Love it!!
She had every right to sue. She probably spent hundreds of dollars on that monstrosity, and if that baker bitch wouldn't make her a new one STAT or give her money back right away, then she SHOULD sue. People shouldn't just get away with hurting others.
I think this bride and groom handled the situation extremely well. I am ashamed to admit that my (now ex) husband (a baker who specialized in bread) agreed to do a vegan wedding cake with absolutely NO idea how to pull it off. His cake was so ugly and it tasted terrible (it was soggy in the middle). I begged him to make a new one, but he absolutely refused, saying that he didn't want to spend the extra money on ingredients. So, I (no cake decorating experience at all) managed to cover up most of the damage with fondant and edible flowers, which I used because they were as close to foolproof as I could get. The cake looked ok (not terribly professional, but not out-and-out bad), but I know it must've been a flop when they cut into it and it was undercooked and gooey and tasteless. The bride and groom didn't complain or ask for their money back, though.
Needless to say, I divorced the unethical jerk a few months later.
I really love wedding cake disasters. But then I remember that some poor couple got stuck with such a horrible cake, and I feel a little sad inside. The cakes are still hilarious, but I always hope the bride and groom at least got to punch the baker in the face.
This is so my favourite one so far, it made me cry!
I used to be a supermarket cake decorator, and while I was the creator of a cake wreck or two, they were NOTHING like this atrocity. (In fact, the two that I thought were most hideous sold within 45 minutes of me putting them [with no small amount of embarrassment] in the display case!) This doesn't even look like a cake.
no one, and i mean NO one should have to put up with this as a wedding cake. I'm only 13, but when I marry I hope to have a wedding that, if it isn't perfect, at least has guests going home and saying "Gee, that was a nice wedding" although I don't mind if the leae out the "gee". JUST A CAKE?!?!?! It's a frikkin' WEDDING CAKE, people! If I had created such a horrendous... blob, I would rather live a solitary life in antartica (with no clothes) than serve it at a wedding. I'm surprised the "professional" didn't turn up missing the very next day. Or not turn up, as it were... I feel so sorry for you Lynda. As I was looking at this wreck for the sixth (at least) time, I called my mom into the room, pointed at the picture and said, "I want this for my next birthday!" She wasn't looking at first and said, " What does it cost like, $600?" Then she saw it and laughed, saying, "Oh, I can make that!"
Ommm..kinda reminds me of my wedding cake. It was a mess. The cake looked nothing like the picture I gave the bakery. I paid top dollar too. I was getting ready to walk down the isle when I caught sight of the cake and in some of our wedding pics you can see the anger on my face. Needless to say, I got a full refund, but that did nothing for the wedding cake itself.
First off the baker should have placed the layers on supports and covered them in fondont(sic) Then the stripes are clearly woven fondont(sic). He deserved to be sued.
My own wedding cake was suppose to be purple and yellow, but arrived purple and orange. Though it was nice enough I didn't see the point in fussing. The baker was also the mother of a good friend who was more important than cake.
Oh my! I have never laughed so much! I am trying to be sympathetic for the poor bride but it's just too funny!
Blog authors writing is perfect. Well done.
This is EASILY the greatest thing I have EVER seen on the internet!
I found out at my own wedding that most wedding cakes are frozen before being delivered for more stability in transport. I suspect that the same thing happened to this cake as happened to our groom's cake: it got hit by the sunshine and thawed unevenly. That said, I am impressed with the decorating ability of the baker's 3 year old child. On a positive note (maybe) The frosting looks tasty even if it is shockingly pathetic! Ouch!
Hey, give ME a sliceathat crazy thang!
In fact if I did request that second cake and presented with the first? I'd be positively splenetic!
Jeez--what a mess!
It's not even...I mean...it doesn't even make any SENSE!
Oh, maybe the baker thought the bride wanted a foodfight cake. Everyone gets ossified at the reception, and the desperate wedding planner says, "OK, everybody--FOOD FIGHT!"
...No?
And the baker had a "minor traffic accident"?
Looks like the vehicle was totaled, and the by-then- (if not before)-impaired "artist" put the smashed cake back together with that fun gauze wrap some ERs use.
[Cake + car wreck = cake wreck.]
PS Judy's (J.R.M.) comment about "glass eyes" had me weak from laughter.. XD
-Blondie's Mom
It hurts my eyes to look at it! OMG.......
Looks like the cake was deflated...awww....poor cake...
I bet it tasted delicious.
That is so damn funny. I can just imagine going to a wedding reception and seeing that monstrosity sitting on a table. It sure would be memorable. I bet it got photographed more times than the bride!
I'm so gonna make this for my sister's birthday!
Shopping List
1. Rainbow frosinng
2. Plastic bag with a hole in it
3. different sized cake pans
4. blowtorch
Oh my.....put a hex on it! Send it back to the hell from whence it came!!
How much did she sue the baker for?
I laughed so hard I choked on my coffee!
HILARIOUS as always, thanx!
Tasty Treats
OMG - how could anyone even contemplate doing that to a bride on her wedding day. Any sane person would have not turned up and just returned the money with a sincere appology rather than insulting the 'happy couple' with that.
OMG This is RIDICULOUS! Amazing that this even happened! I can't stop laughing! My Dog could create a better cake than this.
Hey!!! If you tilt your head to the right, close your left eye, close your right eye you can't se the difference!!!
whatever happened to her wedding coordinator? If I saw a baker place something so god awful in the reception, I'd immediately remove that from the table and get someone to get a plain sheet cake. Even that's better than this mess.
"minor traffic accident" might explain why a cake may collapse, but it doesn't excuse the "decorating". A beautiful cake that's pancaked, and had discernable supports, would at least be believable given the baker's claims. This would have been a wreck even if it were still intact!
And, there is absolutely no excuse for the baker to have delivered a cake like that to a wedding, particularly if she had proven her worth with her pictures and sample. If she didn't have the mental wherewithal to complete the cake, but was able to start it, she should have baked it, supported it, left it undecorated, and apologized. True, the bride wouldn't have received what she wanted, but at least it wouldn't have made her guests wonder about her, her taste, her budget, and her judgment. That would have been worth the half-price, given it was tasty. There is absolutely no excuse for this! Most amateurs could do better than that. And to refuse to refund the money-- appalling. The baker completely destroyed what must have been a hard-won reputation, and now deserves all mocking and lawsuits she gets.
The wedding coordinator should not have put that out-- serve it from the kitchen at most (I wouldn't have eaten it since I would have assumed that if it looked that bad, who knows what was in it!). No cake, or a Costco cake, on display. If I were Lynda, after getting bailed out from prison for assault or attempted homicide, I would have sued not only the baker but also the coordinator...
You know that game that people play (usually while consuming large amounts of alcohol)where you put your forehead on the end of a baseball bat and spin around a bunch of times before trying to hit a pinata? That is the only thing I can think of that this baker could have been doing during the decorating process that would have created this result.
Again...laughing and pointing. Cant believe that had to sue the baker. That's brass neck, not giving them the money back.
It looks like there is something trying to escape from inside it!
FRRREEEEDOOOOMMMMMM!!!!! Hahaha XD
The funniest one i've seen! i couldn't stop laughing i sent it to my sister so we could laugh together. lol but i would have sued too thats a wedding they ruined! it would be a big deal to me
As horrible as it is, how much did the bride CHARGED for the cake?
The original cake is at the generously LEAST $400. Anything less that that is a case of getting what you pay for.
I personally can not believe the baker if you can call him/her that even showed up with that!!! I have had cakes flop but never that bad and I definately would never take a cake like that anywhere WOW is all I can say.
Marsha
All the king's horses
and men could not repair cracked
Stripey McPlaidcake.
wv: frott
Frott with portent.