If there is such a thing as an existentialist dessert, surely it must be the cake with the word “NOTHING” piped across its face in large, brown letters. This disturbing celebration of absence is the classic result of miscommunication between customer and cake-decorator. The baker must have said, “What do you want written atop your cake?” The customer replied, “Nothing.” And so a low-paid worker at an unremarkable bakery created a gaffe so serendipitously stupid it earned a place in the hall of fame for such gaffes, the Cake Wrecks web site.
Cake Wrecks is a LOL-celebration of all that is absurd and unintentionally horrid in the limitless realm of cake-decorating. From scary, life-size wedding cakes modeled after the bride herself, to unidentifiable fuzzy monsters, to terrible sentiments that should never be acknowledged, much less celebrated, the site beckons you to surf on in and lose days of productive time clicking from jaw-dropping wreck to wreck.
Jen Yates, the doyenne of Cake Wrecks, is stopping at Left Bank Books’ Downtown location to flog the second book based on the site’s content. Based on some of the bakeries’ logos in a bunch of the photos at Cake Wrecks, there’s a strong St. Louis following for the site.
In fact, local fans apparently sent in a passel of images of squirrel cakes hastily piped-out by area bakers when the Cardinals’ “Rally Squirrel” captured hearts during the baseball playoffs. Of course, to earn the right to be posted at the site, these squirrels would have to look like genetic mistakes and/or roadkill, and… they do.
When Yates’ traveling show of dessert-based derision and mockery touches down here Monday, she’ll also be offering a little contest. Create a "wreckplica" of your favorite cake from the site, adapted for a cupcake, bring it in, and you could win a prize. A local bakery will also offer sweets to snack on at the booksigning. Hopefully Yates will not find them risible.
Jen Yates signs Wreck the Halls: Cake Wrecks Gets “Festive,” a celebration of awful Thanksgiving, Christmas, Hanukkah, and New Year’s cakes, at 7 p.m. Monday, November 7, at Left Bank Books Downtown (321 N. Tenth St.), 314-367-6731.
And what better timing...just in time for the Holedays...
