Catablogue: Cake Wrecks

Cake Wrecks: When Professional Cakes Go Horribly, Hilariously Wrong

The title of this blog pretty much says it all. Blogger Jen shares reader-submitted photos of cakes, cookies, and other frosted baked goods that have been poorly decorated by "professionals." They range from sheet cakes upon which the decorator has misspelled a word (who knew that "congratulations" could stump so many people?) to theme cakes with questionable design choices (putrid colors, unartistic visual renderings, unappetizing similarities between the cake and animal excrement, etc.).

The photos on the blog are made all the more hilarious by the setup and captions written by the blogger. The combo of the decorated cake and Jen's commentary on it quite often leaves me racked with tears. Don't feel guilty about laughing; all the cake wrecks are created by people who were paid to make them (amateur cake decorators are not the target of this blog). If you charge people money to frost and decorate a cake for them without first taking a cake decorating class or at least checking for spelling errors before handing over the finished product, you deserve the scrutiny and should regard it as a learning opportunity.

Besides the unbelievable array of culinary transgressions and accompanying humorous exegesis, the blog offers also a weekly focus on well decorated cakes. Check it out each Sunday for a look at cakes that showcase professional decorators' good work (with bonus points to those who produce fondant-free cakes, showing their artistry with actual frosting instead of cheating with sheets of playdough-like fondant). If nothing else, the weekly glance at well decorated cakes serves "to remind you how wrecky the wrecks really are" (citation).

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