Cake Wrecks

If you’ve spent quality time with a cake-decorating kit, you know that making a cake pretty is fraught with peril. That’s why we turn to professionals when that birthday, going-away, graduation, or above all, wedding cake has to look just so. But sometimes—as Cake Wrecks abundantly attests—the pros aren’t up to the job either. This blog collects photos of cakes ordered at actual bakeries—yes, that means someone paid money—where something went terribly awry in conception or execution. Freudian slips (a farewell cake that substitutes an “F” for the “L” in “Best of Luck”), egregious airbrushing and just plain jaw-dropping—a baby-shower cake that shows a naked, fondant-modeled mother actually in the midst of giving birth—these are the cakes you really, really don’t want at your party.