Somehow I’m not hungry anymore
Cake Wrecks is a blog which records “when professional cakes go horribly, hilariously wrong”. Some of the examples - well what to say:
The bound foot cake (“Yes, it was for a podiatrist.”)
Edible brides and headless pregnant torsos
Says the cook behind this pregnant torso cake served at a baby shower:
Did I mention that this cake was red velvet? Hey, I just do what I’m told to do!!!!!!
On the one hand, both wedding and pregnant torso cakes were requested, it seems, by the women concerned. And the artistry of the cake-making is undeniable.
On the other hand, the image of a podiatrist grinning away as they tucked into their cake shaped like a bound foot? Of wedding guests milling about munching on slices of the bride? Or baby shower guests literally consuming the mother-to-be, considering all that’s been said about pregnant women finding their bodies become public property? Ick.
Posted by Jess McCabe on 12 August 2008, at 9:44 AM | Comments (9)
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Sabre said:
All of that was so totally disgusting. Having trouble keeping breakfast down, especially after that bound foot cake. Some people are weird. And making a giant cake of yourself seems incredibly arrogant to me. The pregnancy ones were also yuck, what are people thinking when they eat these cakes? Mmm I'm eating the bride's breast, or even Mmm I'm eating your unborn baby? What are people thinking when they cut these cakes up with a knife?
I ate a cake that had a photo of people printed on it and even that felt weird; I ended up eating a slice with my boyfriend's brother on it. Bleurgh
Posted on 12 August 2008 at 10:11 AM
Marlow said:
Thank God I haven't eaten anything this morning. That bound foot cake is absolutely disgusting... ugh.
Posted on 12 August 2008 at 11:07 AM
Jess McCabe said:
To be honest, the arrogance of it doesn't bother me. I'm not sure how arrogant it really is - I don't know what the woman in question was thinking, but often weddings are already about offering yourself up as a spectacle, casting yourself as belle of the ball, and that doesn't bother me. Fine, spoil yourself for a day. I'd take a guess that it probably seems to push the narcissism boat out, because of the role of transubstantiation - symbolic cannibalism is a form of God-worship.
But actually, it's sort of disturbing because in making a life size cake you are literally expecting your guests to consume you. It's literal objectification. It reads as a bit self-destructive to me, rather than a massive exercise in arrogance. But, I don't know, I'm only saying this as an alternate to the suggestion it's arrogance. Perhaps I shouldn't say anything, as all this reading motives onto someone else is a bit weird. But something in me feels this is a symptom of a culture in which we are all *so used* to women's bodies not being our own property.
Posted on August 12, 2008 12:36 PM
Laurel Dearing said:
i cant imagine digging the knife into the belly...
Posted on 12 August 2008 at 2:19 PM
Sabre said:
Yeah maybe it isn't arrogant, as you say Jess. Maybe it's actually more self-destructive to watch your cake image being destroyed and consumed. And to have the inevitable comments/jokes about your body and looks (as it's a life-size cake). Of course it's personal choice and it's probably wrong of me to read too much into the motives behind it. And also it's just cake. :-)
Posted on 12 August 2008 at 2:37 PM
Abby O'Reilly said:
Oh my gosh, what's so relevant to this is a book by Margaret Atwood called The Edible Woman, which concludes with the heroine of the book baking a cake in her own image and, if memory serves me correctly, devouring every piece!x
Posted on August 12, 2008 2:46 PM
Kath said:
I think the pregnant belly cake is lovely, really celebratory! Sure, you're gonna slice into it and eat it but that's because it's a cake. Children's cakes come shaped like all kinds of things and it doesn't seem problematic to eat teddy's head or whatever.
The bride cake is.. well I'm somewhat allergic to weddings anyway so I probably shouldn't comment!
The foot cakes are horrible, especially the bound-foot cake as it depicts a form of violence against women.
Posted on 12 August 2008 at 5:13 PM
Genevieve said:
Abby--
I was reminded of The Edible Woman as well...I just finished reading that.
Posted on 12 August 2008 at 10:20 PM
Nicole said:
I'm not so much concerned about what people think when they're eating those cakes, but rather what's on the mind of those people who ORDERED the cakes. "I'd like the cake to be shaped like my pregnant wife, just the torso, in a bikini, with a stethoscope on her belly. Make sure the nipples are visible."
Imagine yourself in the middle of your babyshower, lots of friends, parents and in-laws, and in comes your hubby, all proud, carryin The Cake! It's almost a reasond for a divorce!
Posted on 13 August 2008 at 10:13 AM