For those of you who would otherwise insist on knowing the whys and wherefores of this photo, here's what submitter Sarah M. had to say for herself (yes, she's the baker):
Subject: I swear I do get paid for making cakes
"The attached however was for a friend's surprise birthday party at a Chinese restaurant and since the birthday girl was born in the year of the rat, well I thought a giant rat cake would be appropriate."
Good thinking. Rats as a whole get far too little face time in the world of cakes.
"However my air conditioning failed halfway through the process and the butter cream icing began to destabilize and well all I could save was the head with the light up eyes."
Yep, see that tin foil "tail"? It's electric!
"The recipient of the cake claimed to my face it was the best d**n thing she had ever received.
- Sarah (I have more talent than this) M."
Sarah, I think I speak for everyone here when I say: you really need to buy better beer. Is that Miller Lite I spy in the door? Tsk, tsk. Oh, and also: we should all be so lucky to have friends make us electrified rodent heads for our birthday celebrations. Right, guys?
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115 comments | Post a Comment
Wow!!!!! I was born in 84, the year of the rat and.. I don't know if I'd like that as a cake, though it would be very funny!!
And that is indeed Miller Lite, quite a craptastic beer.
I would be honored if I received a rodent head for my birthday. One with light-up eyes! Wrecktastic!
Hey, she *does* have some Sierra Nevada Celebration in there... and some others that I can't quite make out...
I'm sure the Miller Lite was for a visiting friend with bad taste. I have one of those!!
The only thing that would make this better....if the cake were red velvet!! Is it? It would sooo bring me back to the Steel Magnolias sceen of the armadillo cake!! How do you make grey icing???
I would love a light up cake for my birthday! Go Sarah!
First post here.
I love this site, I got a digital camera for Christmas, and I am on the hunt for wrecks.
BTW, that's Sierra Nevada underneat those Miller Lite cans. Good beer.
Yes, I mis-spelt underneat on purpose. And spelt.
:) Patrick
What's wrong with Miller Lite? Go Milwaukee!
I'm wondering if the rat ate the rest of the food in the fridge...guessing it doesn't like beer...or at least not Miller Lite. ;-)
Cool idea by the way, creepy, but cool!
Yes. You have lucky friends, Sarah. I would be ecstatic with a phone call. BTW, was the cake taken to the restaurant? What did they think?!
Well, she does have Sierra Nevada in there as well, so that helps somewhat.....
HA HA HA HA - that's pretty darn awesome (knowing it's a gift...that your friend made for you). And yes, by all means, by better beer! Life is too short to drink cheap wine or beer!
Definitely creepy, but I think it's awesome!
I do believe that's Sierra Nevada. An excellent choice! I hear it goes great with rat...
Points for having Sierra Nevada Pale Ale in the fridge though!
It's like some perverse reverse version of Room 101 from 1984, where there is a rat whose greatest fear is lite beer...
Cakecrime does not entail death. Cakecrime IS death.
There's also some tasty Sierra Nevada's in there. I assume the Miller Lite cans are for the guests.
-Rob
There's something to say about rats and Chinese restaurants...
Rat cake- It's electric!
So hysterical, that head just sitting there!!
WV- unpol- make sure you unpol the rat head... don't want to waste electricity.
Well despite the subject matter, it's actually quite a cute cake, imo.
Love this! I wish I could get a pig head for my birthday, being born in the year of the boar... Very cool.
I just like the whole rat in a Chinese restaurant concept. Not exactly unsual, but bold nonetheless. And yes... please do something about the beer. There's only so much we can forgive.
Happy New Year y'all from Casa Hice
http://casahice.blogspot.com
She does have better beer...I see some Sierra Nevada in there!
If i get a piece of it... will i be sick?
Is there crunchy and soft filling in the cake?
Ouah!
That shocks me this morning! >_< Thanks for the waking-up-help!
Hey, she's got some more sophisticated beers in there. I'm spying some Sierra Nevada pale ale bottles.
I do laugh that she put the rat head in the beer fridge.
But all I can think of is the crazy armadillo groom's cake off Steel Magnolias.
I like it.
Was it red velvet?
Man, just wish I could have seen the whole cake. . .
Omg, yes. If it's a red velvet cake, perfect (I read some comments before I posted this time! LOL)
It already looks like it's sitting in a vat of blood although I'm not quite sure why.
And Miller Lite definitely for those friends with less umm...refined tastes!
I would say a good stiff dark lager to go with this. :op
~Amy B
Seems to me if you're eating electrified rat's head cake, you shouldn't give a rat's @$$ what the beer is!
(oh dear, was that profanity?)
Hey man, I'm all about trying different beer, and I like pretty much everything. Having said that, there is almost always some Miller Lite in my fridge! I guess being a beer snob is cool for some people...
It's really well made, but I don't want her making my birthday cake. I'm year of the monkey. A decapitated monkey head would just be too traumatic. :<
I now know what my next birthday cake will be. Thanks!
I think it's very cute.
I also spy a can of Bud Light sitting next to the Miller lite, so I'm good with that, but be careful, Miller lite doesn't play well with others.
I have been searching for wrecks at the new grocery store by my house to no avail, she is actually really good. *sigh*
First they light up mums at Homecoming, then they light up shirts for Christmas, and pjs for action heros, and little kids shoes--I guess it was just a matter of time before we light up cakes, eh?
But, a rat's head? Creepy. And it looks like a guy frig
Woot!!!
Finalist - voting starts 1/5/09
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I also see Sierra Nevada Pale Ale in there... at least better than Miller Lite...
If nothing else, that would be an *awesome* Halloween cake. Not the cutsey kind, mind you, but the kind that would horrify everyone.
Hilarious. Points to the baker for being a great sport.
do I spy a rat head in a mini-fridge? I'd love to see that trap that caught that thing! ugh...nasty
"the butter cream icing began to destabilize and well all I could save was the head with the light up eyes."
So how big was the entire cake then? Lol, I love it!
Shirley
YIKES! R.O.U.S! R.O.U.S! How scary is that?!
I used to have several pet rats (a total of 15 over a few years), and I think that this is awesome, in a totally non-wrecktastic way. I would love a cake like that!
(Rats are the sweetest little animals, by the way. I miss mine terribly.)
Oh I love it!!!!! I had several posts to catch up on and today's and yesterday's posts are fabulous!!!!
R.O.U.S's indeed!!!! That is fantastic Sarah! What a creative thing to do for your friend...and I do hope it was red velvet...PUH-LEASE tell me it was red velvet!!!
If that had been a real rat, the beer would have been HISTORY.
(Yep, I own two rats. Sweet little gluttons, they are.)
It's an R.O.U.S.! (for Princess Bride fans,anyway)
You're right Gina... DEFINITELY a R.O.U.S.!
I think I'd prefer an ox!
Angie (from over at www.HalfAssedKitchen.com)
That's brilliant. I too was born in the year of the rat and they are my favourite animals.
That is so funny! I don't know if I would want one myself, but it's still funny!
That is brilliant ... How exactly does one go about making electric eyes for a cake? Is the tail a plug? Are there electric rat cake eyes for sale somewhere??
I, for one, would like to give Sarah a medal, and a 6-pack of better beer!
The lead up to this wreck, the frigde door open in that horror movie-esque way, the...um, look...on the Decapitated One's face all helped to make this possibly my favourite wreck.
Sarah, you're my hero!
Wow, only a true friend would do that to you. I admit, I'm rather jealous. LOL
I was born in the Year of the Horse. Unfortunately, having a decapitated horse head cake would be a bit scarier...
I find it amusing that the fridge has a rat head and beer in it. Not much of anything else!
This is a great post, Thanks! But what's with the hate for Miller Lite? Just had to put in my two cents, Hooray for Miller Lite!!!
From all the beer snobbiness that I see I think someone will be creating a beer hate blog. Hmmm.
Don't worry Sarah, my husband has a lot of Miller Lite in our fridge, too. But we should give her a break--I think I see Sierra Nevada in there, too!
LOVE the rat. I"m making a monkey this weekend for my son's first bday. Hope I don't have to post it on here!
I love it! It looks like it's supposed to! Great Idea for Halloween.
I thought that the red wire was a prop to simulate blood flow to the disembodied rat head to keep it alive.
I'm serious! Have you ever seen "the brain that wouldn't die!" it's a great old B horror flick , and they used the blood in a little tube method to keep the lady's head alive.
Hehe, this is great! I love rats - I've had ten of them! I'm also born year of the rat. I posted this link over on the ratties community on LJ, where there were actually two other (Non-wreck) rat cakes posted by a member who baked 'em.
I don't doubt she's a talented baker, but I'm more than a little horrified to hear the submitter say that the gimormous rat head was the part she "saved"! Does that mean it originally had a body in proportion to that head?? Even if that head is only 4-5 inches across, a proportionate body must've made it a cake 2-3 feet long! And that's without a tail! An ROUS, indeed!
Gretchen-
Last year my best friend and I made a roasted pig cake for her fiance's Hawaii Five-O themed birthday party. Sadly, the pictures did not turn out well, but it was AWESOME! Some of the guests were pretty freaked out to find an entire pig on the kitchen table until they found out it was a cake.
I love this cake. Period. It's a wreck in name only.
Oh man, if anyone loved me enough to make me a rat cake (I love the darn critters- '85, one year shy of being born a rat poop), I think i would die from the delight. If that is only the HEAD, that body must have been HUGE! I wish I could have seen the whole thing :(
Any friend who would go to the trouble of making you a giant light up rat head for you to eat on your birthday is a true and good friend. That there is Rat Head Cake love.
I think that beer is for her freeloading, no good Brother-in-Law who can't be bothered to bend down and get the good stuff.
in her defense she does have Sierra Nevada.
Wrecktastic indeed!
I love it!
I was at that party! The cake was delicious (and Red Velvet for those that were wondering)! Too Cool!
All I can say is I'm glad I don't have a friend who cares enough to make me a rat cake!
Great Cake!!! I wish my friends would make me a cake like that instead of those crummy Costco Cakes, but like my mom always said, beggers can't be choosers!
On the Miller Lite beer- I have a co-worker who only drinks Miller Lite. If we go out to a micro-brewery he will order a Miller Lite. He loves it so much, he painted his Harley the exact blue on the Miller Lite can! How sad is that?????
I just needed to tell you how much I love this blog. It's a little moment of joy every day.
And thank you for chiding Sarah on her beer wreck, too.
I love that the fridge contains only the rat head, beer, and what appears to be pickles. And nothing else. At all.
I swear for about 30 seconds I thought I had clicked on the "It's Lovely, I'll Take It" blog on my favorites list, and that this was a photo from one of the houses.
Omigod... that is a RAT. I'll um...just be over here in this corner crying like a 10 year old girl.
HOLY CRAP, that creeped me out! It looked too dang real.
Which, of course, is a credit to the decorator.
But gad ...
Rattie! *Huggles my three*
What? Rats are cute.
I would love this cake.
So would my garbagte cans...
er, rats.
Sarah. You're. AWESOME!
Oh how quickly they turn! We all should be so lucky as to have a Sarah in our lives....
such delicious wreckiness goes perfectly with Sierra Nevada.
Hey, I see some Sierra Nevada Pale Ale in that fridge and that's a GREAT beer! Maybe the Miller Lite is for the in-laws...
Dear Everyone:
I'm the birthday girl. I didn't even know Sarah had sent this in, but I'm glad she did. It was definitely the best cake I've ever received in my life.
In response to some of the questions:
1. Of course it was red velvet cake! With raspberry sauce to pour over each slice.
2. The eyes were battery powered, so you had to touch the two ends of the wires together to get it to light up. No electricity was wasted. (And I still have the eyes - I wired them up to a skull in my bedroom.)
3. Kong, the restaurant owner, loved the rat head cake, especially when he found out it represented the Year of the Rat (1972). He also gave me a bamboo plant.
4. I never did see the body. I wish I had.
5. I can't explain the Miller Lite, but considering some of the leftover beer we have in our beer fridge, I'm not gonna throw stones.
I'm glad everyone liked it as much as I did! Sarah's a great friend. FYI, she's in charge of my upcoming baby shower. Stay tuned.
-- Diana
PS - Cake Wrecks is one of the best sites ever.
Anyone else, Sierra Nevada, Steel Magnolias? Anyone? Anyone else wanna point them out? I used to keep Schlitz in the fridge for friends who would drop by and drink all my beer.
Give her a break on the beer. She also has some Sierra Nevada Pale Ale and, better yet, Sierra Nevada Celebration Ale. The latter scores an 'A' on beeradvocate.com and a 96 on ratebeer.com.
First time commenter long time reader.
I am wondering...what do your cakes look like? Surly they are not wrecks. Post some pics.
Tsk, tsk, tsk....75 comments thus far and not one of y'all have mentioned the recipe for Sticky Toffee Rat Onna Stick. (http://www.amazon.co.uk/review/R1VPAX3TGUNB9I/ref=cm_cr_rdp_perm/ )
Terry Pratchett-->Discworld-->Rat cuisine. With ketchup.
Rats. Why did it have to be rats?
I think you should definitely RAID other people's refrigerators...with the Extra Large Value Can. Bleeach.
It looks like no one has mentioned this yet, but I think there may or may not be some Sierra Nevada in there as well.
What a great rat cake! LOL.
Briefly, I thought I was at "lovelylisting.com" and this was the interior photo!
I love this cake!! I wish we could have seen the whole thing. I love that the fridge has only beer and the rat cake!
Thank you.
-kerry
You just KNOW you're getting old when you realize that:
(1) you don't care what kind of beer someone has, or if they have any at all, and
(2) you would rather drink swamp water than actually eat something coated in bluish-gray frosting.
((SIGH))
word thingy: (pheardis) combo urbangangslang/redneck truck bumper sticker
First post here, although my husband and I have shed tears laughing for several months now.
I will definitely be calling the bakery at the yellow smiley face superstore for my next birthday--I was born in the year of the Cock. Hilarity will ensue...
I dunno-- someone with a fridge filled only with beer and a rat head sounds like someone I want to party with.
That's a massively kickass cake! I spy other adult beverages in there. Given the lack of other ingredients in the house, I am going to assume Sarah is young, and has no children yet. *JUUUST GUESSING*
And the Devildog drinks Miller Lite, however, he only drinks from bottles, none of that canned BS. Somehow one ended up in my fridge recently. It languishes till some poor unsuspecting sap visits. Either that or I'll spare his bottled stuff and make beer bread with it...hmmm, now there's a more productive use of such ingredients. Feed the family beer bread....wait, I just sounded like a slacker mom. Oh nevermind, no sense trying to refute what truly is.
I'm just assuming the Miller Lites were orphan beers left by her non-beer snob friends after a party or something. We just dumped out some orphan Micelob Ultras that had been taking up space in our beer fridge for 5 years. I have ne idea who bought them or how they got here.
A rat cake would rule - provided it was supplied by friends as is clearly the case here. LOL
Mortifyd
Simply AWESOME!
Here I was surprised because I figured it would be for a cast party for The Nutcracker or something.
Rat Cake??? Kinda creepy! LOL
Ok so I see everyone on here getting Geeked up over the beer in the fridge more then the cake......I have to say I wouldn't touch any of it with a 10 ft. pole!! Well maybe to cook with! I live in Germany right now and once you've had "real" beer, you never go back!LOL
Sarah,
That cake must have been enormous! And you must have the best sense of humour to submit your own wreck.
And if that rat head is what you call a wreck, I would love to see some of your "non-wrecks"!
As for the fridge... it's the beer fridge. I would suspect that a talented baker such as Sarah would have a full-sized fridge in the kitchen.
Michelle
Hey snobs, lay off the Miller.
Topaz, the decapitated horse head cake is being saved for the Godfather party. :)
I am the creator of the unfortunate rat head cake so let me answer a few of your questions.
Yes the inside was red velvet and there was chocolate mousse between the layers which is what caused the tragic collapse of the body leaving only the head.
There was also a chocolate heart filled with raspberry sauce in the chest. I managed to locate it in the cake debris and served it up to the birthday girl along with a slice of rat head.
The people at the Chinese restaurant claimed to be impressed if not slightly confused with the cake although I suspect they were just being polite.
The refrigerator featured is the "band beer fridge" that all my husband's musician friends stock with whatever they are drinking during practice. I have little control or opinion of beverages contained therein.
Lastly I am completely in love with all of you people, these comments are great and this is the best New Year's present ever!
This is pretty much the coolest cake ever!
I also was born in the year of the rat, and rats are my favorite animal. I have had pet rats since I was 6 years old and I currently have three.
Sarah, you rock for making your friend this cake. I wish someone would make me a red velvet birthday cake of a giant light-up rat head! It's like all my favorite things rolled into one!
Sarah, Creator Deluxe and Diana, Recipient Gratius, it was terrific to see your explanations re the inner workings of this rat.tabulous cake !!
Great friends for sure !!
The upcoming baby shower cake will have to really up the ante to top this beauty !!!
Thanks for my best laughs of the week !
Sarah is an awesome friend, and her friend is awesome, too. Great googly moogly, that's a cake carcass!
That's actually a cool cake. I'd like that, being born in the year of the Rat myself. I just wish Sarah had been able to salvage the rest of the cake.
Miller Lite is one of the few lite beers I will drink. Bud Light just tastes weird to me.
What, no Giant Rat of Sumatra comments yet?
I, too, was born in the Year of the Rat, and am a Terry Pratchett fan,
but Sherlock Holmes was first.
I'd love a Year of the Snake cake, but I don't think anyone's ever going to make me one. That's a great cake!
Miller Light AND Sierra Nevada...someone's got good taste!
There's totally Sierra Nevada in the door, that's perfectly good beer.
I'm not sure if I've already posted on this one, but OH MY GOD that is quite possibly the most glorious thing I have ever seen.
why have you forsaken us? come back and post new wrecks!
I know my comment is a bit late....say, close to three years late! But still, I couldn't resist.
I wonder why no one noticed/mentioned the fact that the Miller Lite in the fridge STILL HAS THE PLASTIC RINGS-THING holding the beers together!!
Fabulous.
(I have NO idea what those plastic things are called that hold together sodas/beers).
Ha not sure if I would like a Rat cake for my birthday, I'm not sure I could bring myself to eat it. Although, sending it to someone...that I could do! ;) x