Cake Wrecks

Cake Wrecks is an entertainment website featuring user-submitted photographs of professionally made cakes that are unintentionally humorous or strange in appearance.[1][2] Founded in May 2008, inspiration for the confectionery-themed photoblog began when site-master Jen Yates received an e-mail that included a photo of a sheet cake, decorated with a customer's verbatim request: "best wishes suzanne, under neat that, we will miss you".[1][3]

Cake Wrecks
Type of site
Entertainment photoblog
Available inEnglish
OwnerJen Yates
URLhttp://cakewrecks.com/
CommercialYes
LaunchedMay 2008

History

Yates, a resident of Orlando, Florida, began searching for images of what she describes as "unintentionally silly, sad, creepy or inappropriate" cakes.[4] 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 industry.[1][5] Blog entries have included photos of cakes decorated with sonogram images,[6] an image depicting sexual harassment,[4] and a message reading "i lave you".[7]

Described as an Internet phenomenon by The New York Times, Cake Wrecks quickly gained in popularity.[1] Mary Alice Yeskey, an employee at Baltimore's Charm City Cakes and co-star of the reality television 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."[1] 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 awards: the 2008 Blogger's Choice Award for Best Humor Blog and the 2008 Weblog Award for Best Food Blog.[8][9][10] 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.[11]

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 advice.[7][12][13] A second book, Wreck the Halls: Cake Wrecks Gets "Festive", was published in October 2011.[14]

See also

References
  1. Hochman, David (October 13, 2009). "When the Icing on the Cake Spells Disaster". The New York Times. nytimes.com. pp. D1. Archived from the original on November 4, 2009. Retrieved October 14, 2009.
  2. Nobel, Carmen (September 8, 2008). "Someone left the cake out in the rain". The Boston Globe. boston.com. Archived from the original on October 16, 2011. Retrieved October 14, 2009.
  3. Farquharson, Vanessa (January 16, 2009). "Cake Wrecks: Icing that's not so enticing". The National Post. nationalpost.com. Retrieved October 14, 2009.
  4. Turnbull, Barbara (September 22, 2009). "Cake Wrecks documents confections gone awry". Toronto Star. thestar.com. Archived from the original on September 27, 2009. Retrieved October 18, 2009.
  5. Holmes, Linda (October 5, 2009). "Cake Wrecks: A Great Site Becomes A Fantastically Gut-Busting Book". National Public Radio. npr.org. Archived from the original on October 8, 2009. Retrieved October 19, 2009.
  6. Coscarelli, Joe (July 29, 2009). "Your sonogram on a delicious bed of frosting". Salon. salon.com. Archived from the original on October 24, 2009. Retrieved October 19, 2009.
  7. Stephenson, Kathy (September 29, 2009). "Pop Top: It may be a piece of cake but it sure spells disaster". The Salt Lake Tribune. sltrib.com. Archived from the original on June 4, 2011. Retrieved October 18, 2009.
  8. Aylward, Kevin (January 15, 2009). "The 2008 Weblog Awards Winners". The Weblog Awards. (2008.weblogawards.org). Archived from the original on October 18, 2009. Retrieved October 18, 2009.
  9. "Winners". Blogger's Choice Awards. (bloggerschoiceawards.com). Archived from the original on October 16, 2009. Retrieved October 18, 2009.
  10. Petrucelli, Mike (October 4, 2009). "The tremendous majesty of bad cake". South Bend Tribune. southbendtribune.com. Retrieved October 18, 2009.
  11. Wallace, Lewis (March 16, 2009). "SXSW: Pioneer Woman Nabs Top Honors at 2009 Bloggies". Wired News. wired.com. Archived from the original on October 28, 2009. Retrieved October 20, 2009.
  12. Cowles, Gregory (October 18, 2009). "Inside the List". The New York Times Book Review. nytimes.com. pp. BR22. Archived from the original on February 7, 2012. Retrieved October 18, 2009.
  13. Cowles, Gregory (October 9, 2009). "Hardcover Advice". The New York Times Book Review. nytimes.com. Retrieved October 19, 2009.
  14. Holmes, Linda. "'Wreck The Halls': Explore The Terrifying, Hilarious World Of Holiday Baking". Monkey See. (npr.org). Archived from the original on February 2, 2013. Retrieved July 23, 2013.

Further reading
  • Yates, Jen. (2009) Cake Wrecks: When Professional Cakes Go Hilariously Wrong. Andrews McMeel Publishing. ISBN 978-0-7407-8537-5
  • Yates, Jen. (2011) Wreck the Halls: Cake Wrecks Gets "Festive". Andrews McMeel Publishing. ISBN 978-1-4494-0776-6
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