Friday, October 10, 2008

Cake Writing 201: "Congratulations"

Friday, October 10, 2008

"Alright, class, take your seats. We're going to need extra time to review yesterday's quiz, since once again you have all failed to meet even my lowest expectations. I suppose I shouldn't be surprised, considering you each barely scraped through Cake Writing 101 - yes, even you, Doug, so stop looking so superior. How you all expect to be professional cake decorators when you can't even spell the most common cake word after 'happy' and 'birthday' is beyond me. Seriously, what do I have to do? Spell it out for you? Oh wait, that's right: I ALREADY HAVE!!

"Laura, so help me, if you run blubbering to the bathroom one more time I am going to fail your cotton candy rear faster than you can say "contralulations". Which, incidentally, is what you wrote on your cake:"


"And Laura? What in the name of all things holy is UP with that apostrophe? Does Ronan belong to Contralulation, whatever that is? Oh for goodness' sake...here, take a Kleenex. I don't see what you're crying about, though; I'm the one saddled with teaching you bunch of imbeciles.

"Ah, Chris, I see this isn't quite so funny to you now, is it? Mr. Chuckles looks a little worried! Could it be because you made the EXACT same mistake as Laura?"

"Who's the big man now, Chris? Huh?

"And Katie, could you please remind the class of the very first thing I said to you all when we started last week? Oh, I'm sorry; you don't remember? Well, obviously you don't remember, Katie, because what I said was 'there is no 'd' in congratulations'."

"Way to go, Katie; you inserted a 'd' and omitted the 'i'. Now, class, 'omitted' means 'left out' - I don't want all these big fancy words to overtax your teensy little brains.

"Sarah, this looks like 'Congratwat Jody Clarry'."


"Maybe if you would stop focusing on your cutesy little flowers for a few seconds, you could attempt to center your inscription, eh? How's that sound? Honestly, class, have you undergone some massive brain-wipe since The Art of Spacing? Do you remember NOTHING that I taught you?!?"

[breathing deeply]

"Alright, moving on: Doug, let's take a look at your cake:"


"Say, Doug, why don't you do us a favor and just say the word you wrote here, hmm? No, really, I want to hear you pronounce it. Go ahead.

"I'm waiting, Doug. No? Nothing? I see.


"And finally, there's Beth's cake:"


"Beth here apparently thinks my years spent teaching have left me blind as a bat. Wow, it's like I can't even SEE that gaping hole between the 't' and the 'u', Beth! And I certainly would never notice the 's' is missing, or the fact that the 'g' stands out more than my wife at an anorexics anonymous meeting. Nope, this cake looks A OK to me!

"Well, since I'm obviously not getting through to you numskulls, we're just going to have to try a slightly less traditional teaching method. The metal pens you see before you are not airbrushes, class; they're tattoo pens. Now, pay VERY close attention, because you're really going to want to get this next bit right..."


Becky W., Claudine, Katy B., Liz P., and Terricha, class dismissed!
tony a.k.a. isweatbutter said...

I can't seem to get over "Congratwat."

HorribleLicensePlates said...

Cake decorators and tattoo artists unite!

Uncommon Blonde said...

These are physically painful to look at. And the irony that they are cakes referencing education ... wow.

Garret said...

Ugh, nevermind the spelling, the handwriting is horrible.

Wade's World said...

Contattooulation's on such a funny post!!

pastrywitch said...

Thanks - just the side-splitting laugh I needed this morning :)
Awesome monologue - it could be an audition piece.

gnarfle said...

Let's be fair now, maybe they are not native english speakers! Yeah ok...

I do really like the 'doug' cake though, too bad he can't spell, otherwise that's a pretty creative and well done cake.

Luvin' Ewe said...

there really is nothing more to say...

*ouch*

Kelli said...

I was hoping to see a con"grad"ulations somewhere in the mix. But that would be purposeful misspelling and proper use of quotation marks. And we know that those just don't happen.

Missy said...

No matter how many times I see it, it's always funny! On behalf of the rest of the world who has to deal with (and subsequently photograph and foward to you) these cakes, we thank you, Teacher!

gharkness said...

Um, teacher.......teacher? Can you spell "numbskull," please?

Anonymous said...

When people misspell the word "congratulations," I am filled with rage. White-hot rage.

April said...

So sad, the 5th one is actually a very nice looking cake other than the butchered spelling of congratulations.

Hey kids if you want to grow up to be a cake decorator you should probably pay more attention in spelling class while you're in elementary school!

TJ said...

LMAO, I love the teacher's 'voice' you write in.

Rebecca said...

oh man...I think the worst one has to be number 5. Not only is the word mangled...clearly we're looking at a bakery that is a step above walmart. Being paid minimum wage to decorate is one thing but this....

Also WHAT is that green pompom over in the corner? I find it baffling

Anonymous said...

Although the last cake's spacing is horrid, I THINK they were making some sad attempt at a "grad" pun. Although I suppose they should have taken the "gradulations" spelling for that. Or maybe they were just stupid, either way.

Anonymous said...

I'm totally paranoid when I have writing/spelling on a cake. I write the message out, sometimes twice, and I also have someone else look it over to make sure I'v got it right. Crazy that these cakes were actually paid for! Oh my....

Anonymous said...

I love this blog! I found it only about a week ago and it is now my primary source of laughter...

At any rate... I'm a bit surprised there's also no comment about the fact that the inscription for poor Sophi's cake also wasn't centered with the "s" ending up on that bright pink edging.

Cynthia Z said...

lol.... wow... those were quite impressive... especially Doug's
How do you pronounce that one Doug??

Janine said...

Your post made me laugh out loud in the middle of my school library. xD

The first thing they should teach is a crash-course on how to spell 'Congratulations'.

Anonymous said...

Maybe we could try to figure out the etymology of contralulations. Because we've clearly got the latin contra, against, starting our word off. I'd guess that lulation is a variant of ululation, from ululatus, also Latin, to howl or wail. How approriate. Right there in the first cake the writer is telling you not to yell at him. In Latin.

Miranda said...

Lord have mercy.

Has it never occurred to them to buy these two simple items:

1. Dictionary
2. Wilton letter press
?

I've seen rank amateurs turn out better stuff than that. I'm no pro, but I'm good at what I do...and I would NEVER give my friends a cake with misspelled, scribbled words on it and sloppy borders! I would be ashamed! I will stay up all night making sure a cake is perfect if that's what it takes. Hello, people, work ethic?

Sigh.

Cheers,
gothchiq

Anonymous said...

What's extra sad is that the 5th one is a GORGEOUS cake. And then someone let a high school kid run rampant with the piping bag.

cath c said...

these people have come to rely upon spellcheck way too much.

Christie said...

I haven't laughed that hard in a long, long time. COn Grad utawations!

Susan said...

Oh my goodness. I can't decide which is my favorite. I'll have to go with Doug's. And they just get worse and worse as you work your way down the page...

Craig said...

Wait. In the "gaping hole" in Beth's cake, there is a smudge. It's a missing letter, a letter not-so-deftly removed because Beth said to herself, "Hmm, that doesn't look quite right. I think 'ConGratrulation' shouldn't have that R in the middle, so I'll take that out and then it will be perfect."

JAMIE'S CREW said...

Hysterical! Great post!

Anonymous said...

Is that an "r" scraped out of "ConGrat ulation"? Or an "s" maybe? Sophi's cake decorater also slept through spacing class!

Anonymous said...

I think the cake decorators all smoked crack before deciding to scrawl the words on the cakes...either that, or they let their kids do the writing on take your kids to work day.

Shira-chan said...

Well, miserable spelling aside, some of the cakes do look rather yummy. Pity that they seem to hire elementary school children at these bakeries.

avasmommy said...

This is great!!! You are just too funny! I love reading your blog for a well-deserved laugh. Not only are the cakes hilarious, but your commentary just cracks me up! Job well done teach!

Oh, and on the last cake, it looks like they went over a letter with white icing to try to cover up their mistake...I guess they didn't realize that to cover up that mistake, they should just start over!!

Thanks again Jen!

Heather said...

OMG! Too funny! I decorate cakes and have had my fair share of spelling mistakes but I am usually able to catch and fix them. Hopefully my fix-ups aren't as obvious as these!! LOL! LOVE the blog!

Gladys said...

Congradsulation, countgrudaltion, congruntulation oh heck. Way to go!! Good Job!

Anonymous said...

Ok... how about: Good Job!

These are so funny!!

Uncle Big Steve said...

Not to nitpick but since this is a pet peeve of mine and you are picking on people for spelling - all right is two words. The best way I heard to remember that is this: you wouldn't say alwrong would you?

tkdquintmom said...

I also love with the pink trimmed cake how they started nearly in the middle writing it and then trailed off the edge of the cake onto the pink icing! ROTFLMAO...

Anonymous said...

You'd have thought by now bakers would have a big list on the wall of the bakery with all the common things written on cakes on it spelt correctly. A sort of idiots crib sheet for decorators to avoid those icing disasters :)

Anonymous said...

I LOVE it. The cakes are common enough (I've seen plenty of misspelled Congratulations before). But the commentary!

I want more of the class! You had me trying to stifle my laughter (since I'm at work...). Wonderful!

In fact...cingrtultns for the great job! :)

Kilroy! said...

Geez. Don't these students..err... 'professionals' have some kind of lettering thing like what comes with several Wilton cake decorating kits, so you can have them perfected before icing?

Though, while it helps with spacing, it won't help with spelling, sadly :P

Anonymous said...

ahahaha...

oh man, i seriously was trying not to just laugh my ass off here at work... so instead i smothered my giggles. priceless!

The Courteous Chihuahua said...

With every picture, another little piece of my soul died...

Sheri said...

I have a friend who constantly inserts apostrophes where they do not belong in his emails. I am good about "letting it go" but this post brought back my apostrophical frustration (yea, I just made that up--"let it go").

Jen said...

@hugeness & gharkness: Teach had me look up those words to defend his good name, since he's too busy berating his new piping class. I consulted dictionary.com, and here's what I found:

Alright - "The form alright as a one-word spelling of the phrase all right in all of its senses probably arose by analogy with such words as already and altogether. Although alright is a common spelling in written dialogue and in other types of informal writing, all right is used in more formal, edited writing."

So while you are technically correct, hugeness, apparently the usage of 'alright' is close enough for government work 'round these parts.

Also, "numskull" is indeed an acceptable variant of "numbskull". (And interestingly enough, the spell check here on Blogger thinks it is the 'b' version that is incorrect.)

Ya gotta hand it to Teach: he sure knows his old-fashioned insults.

Becky said...

Ha, this is hilarious! It was a cake wreck involving the word "congratulations" that inspired me to start my blog, Apostrophe Catastrophes. This cake was for the governor's inaugural ball!!
http://apostrophecatastrophes.blogspot.com/2008/04/governor-deval-patrick-gambled-on-wrong.html

Anonymous said...

These make me weep for the future.

Anonymous said...

Jen, were you a Catholic school nun in a previous life? Such a hard@ss! LOL Thanks for the smile this morning. You'll graduate one of these losers yet "o)

Anonymous said...

I love this blog - I haven't laughed so hard all year. The only unfortunate side effect is that I now really want cake. All the time. I'm particularly loving the "Con GrAt(r)ulatioN" cake on this one. Keep up the cakey-humour!

Anonymous said...

How to pronounce "Doug's" cake:
Kangarootalatown!

Anonymous said...

I'm speechless. Again.
And to think, some of these poor spellers might leave their cake decorating to become (cringe) school teachers!:op
Cungraduawaytions on making me laugh again this morning.
Amy B

Jessica Lynn said...

This was the perfect start to a Friday morning! I couldn't stop laughing for some of those.

Libba said...

I absolutely LOVE this blog! I just laughed so hard I cried! You seriously are very gifted with your writing and humor! This is definitely in my top favs of wreck posts for sure. The Congratwat was an A+ find...

Anonymous said...

Best post in a while! I laughed 'til I cried. Your blog is better than coffee.

Dea said...

I personally love the twat version of the word - bwahahahaa!!!

I agree with another commenter - WHY oh WHY don't bakeries just have a "word wall" like they do in 1st and 2nd grade? Or pre-sized, pre-spaced, properly spelled imprinters of various sizes of certain words, so that decorators can just trace??

Karen Harrington said...

Hilarious as always.

Anonymous said...

This post is the perfect physical evidence to back-up the 2 weeks they make us spend piping "Congratulations" on round pieces of cardboard as homework in culinary school. This blog is a must-send to my chef instructors (it's already been passed along to my pastry chef friends)!

Anonymous said...

It's good Cake decorators

Anonymous said...

I swear I almost pee my pants every time I come onto this sight (which is daily I might add!). You make my day :)

Anonymous said...

This blog makes me scared to get a tattoo! And if I ever buy a store-bought cake I'm going to write on it myself. And if I can't do that it will just say "Yay!" or "Sorry". Hard to mess those up, I would think, but this blog has taught me not to assume anything...

E.A.D. said...

Oh the tattoo pen is just EVIL. I love it! More "Class" posts please!

Anonymous said...

I've seen this word spelled incorrectly so many times on here that I don't think I can remember how to spell it myself!

cangradu....huh?

Anonymous said...

People!

It's called a Wilton Letter Press! Invest in one PLEASE!!!!

Jen said...

Is that white & green thing supposed to be a cake in the shape of a wheel of cheese? Maybe he just graduation from the University of Wisconsin.

Beth said...

Very funny! Thanks for the laugh, I really needed it today.

Anonymous said...

I'm always happy to see defense of "alright". I once wrote a whole blog diatribe about how much it drives me up the wall to see people oh-so-staunchly saying "alright" is wrong. As if the English language never, ever changes... I mean, we'd never start making substitutions like:

always = all ways
altogether = all together
also = all so

And people get bunchy because of "alright". Geezum.

Oh. Topic. Right.

Such sad cakes. I heartily agree with the commenter who suggested the Wilton letter press set and a dictionary. Very clearly needed.

Trevor said...

I find your post today extremely funny. In addition, it serves as a good reminder to me, as I just got my first paying client today, and there were be several "Congratulations" cakes. Thank you for your lesson, as it's well timed for me!

Funny, but "Congradulations" has always been a pet peeve of mine!

Anonymous said...

I am still chuckling! Thank you for this blog. I wouldn't miss it.

boardom said...

When I worked at a bakery in high school, they solved this problem with graduation cakes by putting CON - "GRAD" - ULATIONS!!!! on each and every one. I found this really annoying, but I guess at least it made clear that they knew they weren't spelling it correctly.

Anonymous said...

I love how the "s" on the pink and yellow one is creeping over the border. At least the decorator didn't squish the letters together into an impossible to read blob... I guess.

ksaldria said...

Wow, is astounding how much crappy spelling, not to mention poor lettering, can ruin an otherwise nice cake. Poor Sarah and Doug. *twitch* >.o

Pink Sith said...

I could almost, maybe, perhaps understand a cake that said congraduation! like combining graduate and congratulate but then again, no. No I couldn't. One would thing that hard to spell words such as "Congratulations" and "Antidisestablishmentarianism" would be written down for cake decorators to reference when decorating.

Mindy said...

You crack me up!!! Thank you Cake Wrecks. You're definitely my afternoon pick me up.

MJS said...

Doug's cake ... looking at the design, I wonder if the person who bought this cake decided it needed an improvement. The chocate thingy that holds the message hangs off the side of the cake, and appears to be a second grad cap. It's really not at all in the style of the rest of the cake. Poor Doug - maybe his baby sister was trying to help!

Chris said...

Jeez, what ever happened to someone performing a little Q/A on their cakes?

I worked at a place where EVERYTHING was double and even triple-checked. How difficult is it for someone to take a look?

Whenever I decorate a cake I see nothing but the flaws. Everyone says they're great, now I know the truth: my cakes do look great... by comparison to these disasters. Keep it up, slackers! You make me look like a star!

Anonymous said...

These are my very favorite. I just can't believe that these people get hired anywhere.

Beth said...

HOLY WOW THAT'S FUNNY!

*wipes eyes*

Reason #459 why I am not a cake decorator...

Found you via My Insanity!

Anonymous said...

OMG.. too funny! Well, I guess if a high paid editor of a newspaper can let things go out with misspellings and poor grammar then I guess we can't expect that much from the cake maker at Wal-mart! Aim

Anonymous said...

OK, I worked in a bakery for many years, and I know the kind of person that would spell "Congratulations" with a "d". It's called the high school kid in the front taking the money who told the costomer that the cake could be written on and then realized the decorator had left for the day. Now, many high school kids don't have spelling issues, but I can think of one in particular that I worked with that would have had this issue. Hence beautifully decorated cakes with bad writing and poor grammer and spelling. Or they could have English as their second language. You get that, too.

P.S. Jen, I like your response to hugeness and gharkness. Though, I do admit there are too many exceptions to rules in the English language....

Unknown said...

It's really a shame about the Doug cake. That's gorgeous, and someone ruined it. If I has bought that cake, I think I would have cried.

The 'twat' one cracks me up, though. I love how they were trying SO HARD to fit all the letters in, and in the end just said "Meh - screw it."

Anonymous said...

To me it looks like Beth's prominent "G" actually is the "C" of her first - in more then one way 'short' - attempt with an appendix made of blunt ingenuity.
The latter leaving her when she clumsily removed the excess "r" between the "t" and "u".

Anonymous said...

"Cangrtalation"
Loool this just made my day.
Wonderfull blog.Keep up the good work

Angela Smith

Angela M. Bray said...

I feel somewhat obligated to defend these cakes. I discovered, to my horror, that not all bakeries depend on decorators to do the writing. I was hired as a clerk at a bakery when I was twenty. I had a customer ask for a cake to be written on. I went to ask my 16-year-old trainer where the decorator was. She informed me that the decorators don't do the writing - do it myself. At my horror-struck expression she rolled her eyes, went to write on the cake then came back with a piping bag and a sheet of wax paper. She tossed them in front of me and then said "Practice - I'm not doing your job for you again" - at this point I had been employed there exactly one and a half hours and had never even iced a cake, nevermind decorating one!

However, I can in no way defend the spelling - for goodness sake look through the cake book they order from - it's spelled correctly on the demonstration page!

Unknown said...

I also seriously wonder if all these names are REALLY spelled the way they're spelled on these cakes. "Ronan"? "Terricha", not say, "To Erika"?

I just have my doubts that the decorators would meticulously copy down these exotic spellings considering what they did with the FIRST part of the inscription.

My money is on FAIL!

tomasmoreno said...

My favorite thing is that in the last cake, there is an obvious cover up of an "r" that was misplaced!

Rusty J said...

love this entry. how long have you been blogging?

i would appreciate any blogging advice you could give me. =)

could you spare a few minutes for some tips and a critique of my blog?

best,
rusty j

Poetry Sue said...

OH MY GOODNESS. I emailed this blog to everyone in the office. the gales of laughter from the varying desks was enough to set off the smoke detectors.

alisonkn said...

i just laughed so hard i spit on my computer.

Anonymous said...

I have to agree.....spelling is a pet peeve of mine, and it is amazing that there is no one to double check what goes out the door. I can only imagine the face of the person who picks up these cakes....ROFL!!!

Unknown said...

Just a note...The reason you see some decent looking cakes with terrible writing on them is because the cake decorator goes off her shift for the day and someone from another department comes over when someone want's a cake and says,"Sure I can write on that for you." Then once out of view of the customer, picks up the pastry bag looks into the end of the tip and thinks, "Noooowww, how do I do this???" Accidentally squeezes some icing out of it and then says "Oh, I see....easy!!!!" Well we can all see where this goes...yada, yada, yada.... and Tah! Dah!....the end result emerges from behind the mystery screen and is presented to the awaiting customer, who is then just too gobsmacked to respond with anything other than a silent glazed over stare and a nod. They then proceed in their semi-comatose state to the cash register and proceed to actually take their wallets out and pay for the item. While walking in an automatic pilot state out to their cars, eyes still glazed over, they can be heard mumbling over and over under their breath, "I can't believe it, I just can't believe it....."

Anonymous said...

I would love to see this as a Saturday Night Live sketch... Cake Decorating School featuring major Wrecks.

Kat Mortensen said...

Ah! I see today you have tapped into 2 of my pet peeves: the use of "d" in congraTulations and the misuse of the apostrophe just about anywhere. While we're talking about this, another peeve is the fact that the apostrophe is NOT used where it should be (as in possession of something - particularly in signage). Is it really that expensive to add an apostrophe to a sign?

Great cakes! Doug's was particularly chortle-inducing.

Kat

Anonymous said...

Nobody has yet mentioned the "decorative" icing on the sides of the cake for Congratulation's Wendy! Is it just me, or does that multicolored mess look like Silly String residue?

Anonymous said...

The Best Blog !!!

Bri said...

"Congratwat" is made of wrong-ness.

My face burns with laughter!
Excellent blog.

Anonymous said...

Sometimes, my heart so goes out to the poor (and usually very good!) decorators who spend time decorating 'blank' cakes for the grocery stores. I can sense their disappointment when they see that Lou from the Fish Department has come over with his scale-fingers to write atrocities all over their work. It's a tragedy of the state of our economy, and one of the things that is so wrong about big-box-do-it-all stores, I tell ya!

(Looking at those cakes, there's no way that the same person who iced the decorations was responsible for the writing.)

In fact, I'd bet if more research is done, 8 out of 10 cakewrecks happen in those 'open 24 hours' stores after the actual bakers have long gone... so unfair, yet, so awesomely hilarious.

Don't buy your cakes after hours, people... wait, do... because I'm addicted to the wreckage!

evil cake lady said...

that last cake is absolutely AWESOME.

Miz Dinah said...

Oh those are horrible! The penmanship alone is enough to ruin the cake, let alone the spelling. At the very least, Congrats would have been acceptable if the writing was presentable. I would not pay for or serve those cakes unless the party was in complete and utter darkness!

Zillah said...

Maybe Roman finally beat the boss level on Contra.

Lindsey said...

Do you think that TERRICHA is actually supposed to be "To Erica?" I can totally see that...

Adele said...

The last one seems to have the gaping space because looking closely one can see that there was an R scraped off the frosting... so Congratrulation's on a great wreck lesson on an otherwise dismal Friday!

RichaTee said...

All those cakes are horribly HI-larious!!! A few guessed my cake (which was last) was missing the letter "r" placed by the special-ed cake maker...they're right! I pulled the damn thing off before I served it...still a wreck no matter how I tried to save it.

Rebecca said...

Ohh, tears in my eyes! LOLOL!!

Sarah said...

It looks like that space between the 't' and the 'u' is where an 'r' was removed! There's a slight blue stain left on the icing. So "ConGratrulatioN" became "ConGrat ulatioN". And nobody suspects a thing. Good save!

RichaTee said...

"Terricha" is spelled right...I made sure that was spelled correctly...unlike other words...lol

Just Kreeping Up said...

When I decorated cakes at Dairy Queen, I posted a note in the decorating area, with words like "Congratulations" and "Anniversary" in large letters, so that there was no excuse for misspelling on cakes, even if there wasn't a decorator on shift to write on cakes.

Anonymous said...

o.O Commentary wasn't even necessary..

Anonymous said...

Would it be too much to ask to require cake decorators, especially those responsible for writing That Word, to have actually celebrated their own graduation from some institution of moderate learning? I'm not talking anything big here...perhaps elementary school would be sufficient.

Seriously.

Rima said...

That was fantastic. I really want "Congratwat Jody Clarry" on my next cake. Maybe I'll even get the quotation marks as a bonus.

Mom O Matic said...

I would just give up and write "Rock On" after awhile.

Ella said...

I just laughed so hard I cried at this post! Thanks for making my day w/ your teacher voice!

Angie McCullagh said...

They should've just gone with Good Luck. Good Lick?

Angie (from www.HalfAssedKitchen.com)

Whirlwitch said...

The mess of bright scribbles on the second cake is a wreck all by itself - and yes, it does look like silly string.

To those wondering about names - "Ronan" is a perfectly good name. It's traditional Irish. Terricha's name is I think less traditional, but it is spelled correctly. I'll even concede that Sophi's name is probably correct - although I did wonder.

Rebecca said...

I can't stop laughing - loudly - at work over "Congratwat." Made my day. Thanks.

Mad Izatie said...

It's Congtwatulations Jody AND Larry i think. God that one's horrible.

heartafire said...

Ummm, teacher?

Uhhhh, yeah, I mean you, CakeLady......

Um, I think it's supposed to be "numbskulls," not "numskulls."

See, it's sort of like your "skull" (brain) is "numb,".....like sometimes happens after one of our classes, when you've had to rap too many of our hands with your cake spatula.....

Jessica said...

Contraption-ulations?
Awfulness

Kelli said...

I cant even believe they then sell those cakes with wrods (hehe) miss spelled.

Dawn said...

This is such a funny post. I totally relate, as I have done this a few times. Now, I write out my sentiment on paper and copy it just to be sure I don't get distracted and spell the word wrong. I was making a birthday cake for a little boy once and accidentally wrote my name on the cake instead of his. Disaster. Your blog is a much needed humbling for us amateur decorators. Thanks!

Syd said...

I like all of these, but I believe I'll make a ranking of which cake made me laugh most:

1. Congratwat
2. Cangrtalation
3. Contratulation's
4. Congradulatons
5. ConGrat ulation
6. Congratulation's

giz said...

Geez, after this long trying to get through school, seeing the spelling of my special cake would send me into an equivalent number of years of therapy....now try and spell that one. Congratulations on your Therapy

Anne said...

These cakes put all together were beginning to make me second guess my own knowlege of how to spell "congratulations". Help - I think it's rubbing off...

Unknown said...

OK, after reading depressing news story after depressing news story about the economy tanking, your site has me laughing so hard I can hardly breathe.

My kids are wondering what's wrong with mommy.

gharkness said...

Well, I just HATE it when I get called out, but I gotta (yes I know it's not a real word) admit, Jen is right. I looked up 'numskull' and it is an accepted spelling.

My bad, but a great blog anyway :-) Wouldn't miss it for anything (especially since I used to decorate cakes professionally).

Meg said...

These are really fantastic! Though I think my favorite congratulations error of all time was an earlier post of yours from May: Comguads! The longer spelling obviously Comguadulatioms. I was at work and had to walk away from my desk to compose myself from my fits of laughter!

craftywitch said...

I noticed, upon close inspection, the last cake with the wide gap USED to have an "r" there lol. Funny, they could fix THAT error but not the rest.

Anonymous said...

um...Terricha's cake...there was an "r" between "t" and "u" which has been scraped off. shows more clearly when you click and embiggen the picture. hence the gap.

:)

Anonymous said...

But the point is....these home- made cakes come from the HEART, and that's whats important!

It's cool that somebody cares enough to make you a cake in the first place!

C. B-ger said...

I still think the fat joke/anorexic joke was out of place in a post about spelling. I wondered why nobody else had remarked on it, until I noticed tonight that my initial comment was never published. Your statement above implies only "profanity, mean-spirited remarks & blatant advertising" are grounds for censoring. Knowing that even polite critical posts are weeded out is very disappointing.

Leah Goodman said...

You can't do this to me. I'm pregnant, and when I laugh that much... I have to run to the ladies' room!

Lei Ho said...

I can say with confidence that cakes are made in an ESL Home Economics class. I'm a teacher. At an ESL school. So I know.

Anonymous said...

C.B-Ger

You know, there is at least one person on every post that is offended by something:

"How dare you criticize spelling!?"
"The Batman franchise sold out!!!!"
"Naked babies on carrots!? What's that supposed to mean!?!?!?!?!

My point is that comedy, even the cleanest, most well intentioned comedy is going to offend someone.

Frankly, and truthfully, yours was the only comment in all that mentioned it and I rejected it as starting an unnecessary controversy. Since it apparently bothered you so much that you came back just to make sure that your controversy was in full swing, and then left yet another comment, it now sits here in living color for all to see.

Just to clarify, the man doing the writing in the story is a big, angry guy who probably brings up items of frustration from his personal life when he rants. This is common in dialogue and it was not meant to criticize big people or little people or medium people.

As a 255 pound man who is a member of a very heavy family, I was not offended by what was written. Maybe, just maybe, there is nothing to be offended by.

Anonymous said...

damn...lmao

they took out the r in the last one like that was supposed to make it better haha

Julie H. said...

Your sense of humor is great! But I think the blue and purple flowered cake says, "Congratulati (not congratwat) Jody & Larry" Congratulations is still spelled wrong, but I actually read it when I first saw it with the u-l-a-t-i on the cake. Must have ran out of room!

Lesslie said...

LMAO!

Anonymous said...

I thought the first "lesson" couldn't be topped, but you proved me wrong, happily. As a teacher, I really appreciate it... if only I could be so frank with my students! Hilarious, as usual!

Anonymous said...

Did anyone else notice that on "Beth"'s cake, between the "t" & the"u", an "r" or something seems to have been erased?
Craig, I just saw yours in the middle.

Unknown said...

I'm guessing the first cake is for Ronan the Accuser, and the green is meant to evoke the blood of fallen Skrulls.

Anonymous said...

Oh these are just the funniest! I wonder which of these people truly didn't know how to spell the words and which realized they messed up but couldn't fix it without wrecking the cake. Beth maybe should have just left that "r" in there, lol.

LuLu said...

I've been waiting all my life for a cake post like that! funny stuff.

Anonymous said...

Oh, I am crying with laughter here. Real dripping-off-my-chin tears. The best laugh I've had in a looong time! Love the way you wrote about these! :)

Moon said...

I never thought the word congratulations would cause me to laugh as hard as I did just know...I got all teary-eyed even!

Stina G said...

Holy crap I just laughed so bloody hard. "Congratwat!"
Wicked writing.

Blabm Honker said...

I just noticed that the space between the "t" and the "u" on the "Terricha" cake is the result of an "r" once being there, and then being scraped off. Perhaps they should have just scraped the entire top off the cake and started over.

Terri said...

I'm laughing so hard I can't even breathe!

Meagan said...

WOW! I have to agree that I can not get over the "Congratwat" cake. I also have an appreciation for "No really, I'd like to hear you pronounce this word".

I came across this blog today and have been looking over it for HOURS (no, seriously, it's been almost three hours). This specific entry has made me cry!

Thank you. Thank you so much.

Meagan said...

"Congratwat". Enough said.

Did anyone else try to pronounce the word on Doug's cake?

I have just spent HOURS looking at this blog, and I am now in tears of this specific entry.

Thank you SO MUCH!

Anonymous said...

I would pronounce the word on Doug's cake "can-gert-a-LAY-shun".
The decorations were actually good on that one!!!!!

Anonymous said...

Congratwat..smells like a shirt...

Anonymous said...

OH. EM. GEE.
I laughed so hard at this post i had real tears flowing down my cheeks. no exaggerations.

Sabrina said...

Isn't it spelled "numbskulls"?

Bethany said...

I can't believe nobody else saw that after "CONGRATWAT" there's a Q.

WV: reoli.

Katie Myres said...

The "CANGRTALATION" cake is actually gorgeous other than that... how sad :(