Cake Wrecks is an entertainment

website A website (also written as a web site) is any web page whose content is identified by a common domain name and is published on at least one web server. Websites are typically dedicated to a particular topic or purpose, such as news, educatio ...

featuring user-submitted photographs of professionally made

cake Cake is a flour confection usually made from flour, sugar, and other ingredients and is usually baked. In their oldest forms, cakes were modifications of bread, but cakes now cover a wide range of preparations that can be simple or elabor ...

s that are unintentionally humorous or strange in appearance. Founded in May 2008, inspiration for the confectionery-themed

photoblog A photoblog (or photolog) is a form of photo sharing and publishing in the format of a blog. It differs from a blog through the predominant use of and focus on photographs rather than text. Photoblogging (the action of posting photos to a photo ...

began when site-master Jen Yates received an e-mail that included a photo of a

sheet cake Sheet or Sheets may refer to: * Bed sheet A bed sheet is a rectangular piece of cloth used either singly or in a pair as bedding, which is larger in length and width than a mattress, and which is placed immediately above a mattress or bed, b ...

, decorated with a customer's verbatim request: "".

History

Yates, a resident of

Orlando Orlando commonly refers to: * Orlando, Florida, a city in the United States Orlando may also refer to: People * Orlando (given name), a masculine name, includes a list of people with the name * Orlando (surname), includes a list of people wit ...

Florida Florida ( ; ) is a U.S. state, state in the Southeastern United States, Southeastern region of the United States. It borders the Gulf of Mexico to the west, Alabama to the northwest, Georgia (U.S. state), Georgia to the north, the Atlantic ...

, began searching for images of what she describes as "unintentionally silly, sad, creepy or inappropriate" cakes. She posted the images to her new blog, Cake Wrecks, but assumed a limited supply of strange cake photography would result in the blog running out of available material. An increasing amount of "Wrecker" photos submitted by site readers revealed "cake wrecks" are inevitable in the

baking Baking is a method of preparing food that uses dry heat, typically in an oven, but it can also be done in hot ashes, or on hot Baking stone, stones. Bread is the most commonly baked item, but many other types of food can also be baked. Heat is ...

industry. Blog entries have included photos of cakes decorated with sonogram images, an image depicting

sexual harassment Sexual harassment is a type of harassment based on the sex or gender of a victim. It can involve offensive sexist or sexual behavior, verbal or physical actions, up to bribery, coercion, and assault. Harassment may be explicit or implicit, wit ...

, and a message reading "". Described as an

Internet phenomenon Internet phenomena are social and cultural phenomena specific to the Internet, such as Internet memes, which include popular catchphrases, images, viral videos, and jokes. When such fads and sensations occur online, they tend to grow rapidly ...

by ''

The New York Times ''The New York Times'' (''NYT'') is an American daily newspaper based in New York City. ''The New York Times'' covers domestic, national, and international news, and publishes opinion pieces, investigative reports, and reviews. As one of ...

'', Cake Wrecks quickly gained in popularity. Mary Alice Yeskey, an employee at

Baltimore Baltimore is the most populous city in the U.S. state of Maryland. With a population of 585,708 at the 2020 census and estimated at 568,271 in 2024, it is the 30th-most populous U.S. city. The Baltimore metropolitan area is the 20th-large ...

's Charm City Cakes and co-star of the

reality television Reality television is a genre of television programming that documents purportedly unscripted real-life situations, often starring ordinary people rather than professional actors. Reality television emerged as a distinct genre in the early 1990s ...

show '' Ace of Cakes'', explained why fellow bakers visit Cake Wrecks: "Everyone in the baking business follows Cake Wrecks almost daily, if only to make sure our cakes aren't ending up on there." On Sundays, in a break from Cake Wrecks' typical format, exemplary edible art creations are featured instead of "wrecks". By the end of 2008, approximately 100,000 users visited Cake Wrecks each day and the website had received two

blog award A blog award is an award for the best blog in a given category. Some blog awards are based on a public vote and others are based on a fixed set of criteria applied by a panel of judges. Blog awards are a descendant phenomenon from awards given by ...

s: the 2008 Blogger's Choice Award for Best Humor Blog and the 2008 Weblog Award for Best Food Blog. During the 2009 Weblog Awards ceremony, also known as " The Bloggies", Cake Wrecks was named Best Food Blog, Best New Weblog, and Best Writing of a Weblog.

Print

In 2009, Yates compiled user-submitted photos for her book, ''Cake Wrecks: When Professional Cakes Go Hilariously Wrong'', which debuted at No. 9 on the ''New York Times'' Best Seller list for

hardcover A hardcover, hard cover, or hardback (also known as hardbound, and sometimes as casebound (At p. 247.)) book is one bookbinding, bound with rigid protective covers (typically of binder's board or heavy paperboard covered with buckram or other clo ...

advice. A second book, ''Wreck the Halls: Cake Wrecks Gets "Festive"'', was published in October 2011.

References

External links

* {{official website, http://www.cakewrecks.com/
"Cakes Gone Wrong"
slideshow via ''

''
"12 worst cake mistakes"
slideshow via msnbc.com
"Cake disasters"
video via '' Steven and Chris'' American entertainment websites Internet properties established in 2008 Works about cakes Photoblogs

History

Print

See also

References

Further reading

External links