Everyone loves a good slice of cake. Well, even if you don’t have much of a sweet tooth, you probably still take a piece whenever you’re at a birthday party. There’s something irresistible about that super-sweet sheet cake covered with sticky frosting.
You might not have ever tried to decorate a cake yourself. If that’s the case, you probably don’t know just how hard it is. Even just writing on a cake is a huge challenge. Those beautiful professional cakes that you see in bakeries are made by experts. They’ve spent years perfecting their ability to sculpt gorgeous things out of frosting, sugar, chocolate, icing, and fondant.
The bottom line…it’s hard to make a good cake. But when we order one from a professional bakery — for a birthday, baptism, wedding, anniversary, or some other occasions — we expect it to look great. Unfortunately, that’s not always the case.
Sometimes, even professional bakers make cakes that aren’t what the customer ordered. Some look ridiculous with misspelled words. Other times, the decorator misunderstood the instructions, leading to hilarious results. Here are 75 times cake decorators who took the customers orders just a little too literally.
11. What can we say? It’s a funny name
Apparently, when this cake was ordered, the baker decided to take the instructions literally. At least they got the right name on there…eventually.
12. Something tells me it was ordered from an iPhone
When you try to order a cake in a foreign country, you might want to triple-check it. Non-English speakers won’t know the difference between “Happy 9th birthday” and “Sent from my iPhone.”
For this graduation cake, the customer asked for the bakery to draw a “cap” on the picture of the graduate. Obviously, they misheard their instructions and just decided to roll with it.
When you want a picture printed on a custom cake, you might not want to give the bakery the picture on a flash drive. Otherwise, you might end up with something like this.
If there’s anything you should learn from these, it’s to be very specific when you order a cake. For example, never tell a bakery you want “nothing” on the cake.
In case you’re confused, they wanted the words “Let’s celebrate” in the middle of the cake. Instead, they got this confusing suggestion that probably prompted a lot of questions at the party.
So here’s what happened: the customer had a picture saved on an old phone and wanted the bakery to print the photo on the cake. They left the phone there so the bakers could access it. There was a slight misunderstanding…
When you’re going to propose to your girlfriend, the best way to do it is in cake form, of course. But make sure it’s as garish and bizarre as possible, complete with a Halloween hand.
If we’re announcing news about Coach Tom’s big purple balls, I know two things: Coach Tom shares way too much personal information and he definitely needs to see a doctor.
There are so many things wrong with this cake — for one thing, labeling it “Mickey Mouse cake” does not make it a Mickey Mouse cake. Also, I’m pretty sure it’s supposed to say “Michael — goodbye.”
4. “I want it to say ‘Happy Birthday.’ Just ‘Happy Birthday.’”
You have to wonder why bakers don’t question themselves when they’re making cakes like this. Maybe they make so many they become numb to requests that don’t make sense.
I can’t help but feel like it would’ve been easier to draw some puzzle pieces. Instead, the baker made more work for themselves by writing out the request.
Perhaps this baker thought that “50th in the flag” was a golf term. I don’t know, I’m just trying to cut them some slack. I do like how the golf balls say “GOLF.”
This cake’s a failure in more ways than one. Not only have they completely missed the point of the instructions, but they misspelled the word “sprinkles”…and there are no sprinkles.
This cake was supposed to say “Congratulations, you did it.” Instead, pretty much everything on it is wrong. Ironically, it was for students who had successfully passed their exams.
What started out as instructions for spelling ended up as a hilarious nickname. I really hope that Sheri’s friends call her “Sheri With One Eye” from now on.
This penmanship (frosting-man-ship?) is lovely, but that’s really all you can say about this cake. Let’s admit that they didn’t understand the customer’s vision.
23. When you want to congratulate them, but only a little bit
This is bound to turn into an awkward conversation at the party. They’re definitely going to ask why the congratulations had to be small. What, they weren’t good enough for a big congratulations?
There’s a story behind this cake. After giving instructions to the baker, the customer confirmed: “So you’re doing it?” They said, “Yes.” As you can see, that’s exactly what they delivered.
You’d think that simple would be easier when it comes to ordering professional cakes, but clearly, that’s not always true. The customer said, “Just write ‘Happy Birthday’” and the bakery delivered.
There’s more than just Christmas being celebrated in December. There’s Hanukkah, Kwanzaa, and even some you’ve never heard of — like Chrilmas, a lesser-known holiday celebrated by very few.
When a baker asks a customer what they want on the cake and they say “I want #1 on it”…this can happen. At least they got the main message across, sort of.
Sometimes, you have to celebrate a birthday a little early, which means adjusting the words on the cake accordingly. This bakery didn’t quite understand what they were going for.
This customer gave the bakery a picture of the cake they wanted, with the name “Caleb” instead of “Warriors.” The bakers decided they’d just print the entire picture. Is this cakeception?
When the customer wants a beach scene “without sky” in it, you give them what they want. And if you forget and add a sky, just write the words “w/out sky” on it. Now everything’s fine.
31. When you give the bakery too much creative license
As we’ve seen, you can’t be too specific when it comes to giving instructions to a bakery. But you also can’t give them too much freedom. And definitely, don’t tell them to write “Something really inappropriate.”
Here’s my theory with this one: the cake decorator has no idea what music notes look like. I guess not all of us played the recorder in elementary school.
When the customer received their daughter’s confirmation cake, they were perplexed about the decoration. As it turned out, they had chosen Design #315 in the bakery book.
This epic cake fail was for a couple’s 50th anniversary, and the guests certainly had something to talk about. I can’t decide what’s the most ridiculous part: the mucus-colored icing, the words “lime green,” or “anniverscury.”
This customer wanted a cake for her boss that said “So…” with 18 dots. Apparently, it was an inside joke. The bakery didn’t quite understand how to “fallow” her instructions.
Everything about this cake is beautiful, from the decoration to the lettering. And hey, who knew you could put a customer’s name and address right on top. All that’s missing is a stamp.
Could the customer have been any more specific with their instructions for this cake? They just wanted the words “wedding cake” written on the top. So of course, they said, “Literally just write ‘wedding cake.’”
All that was supposed to be on this cake were the letters “CC” with no other words or punctuation. That decorating job was easy-peasy…until the decorator created some extra work for themselves.
The customer, as you’ve probably already guessed, wanted the name “Seth,” but only if there was some extra room on the cake. I especially love the unnecessary quotation marks around the name.
The customer just wanted the cake to say “Wendy and Dave” with some cute hearts sprinkled around. What they didn’t want was an extra line of nonsense in the middle of the cake.
This was one of the internet’s original cake fails. Clearly, the baker was told to write “Best wishes, Suzanne” — then, UNDERNEATH THAT — “We will miss you.” They didn’t quite manage to get the instructions right.
Once a character is well-known, they don’t need to be identified by name. Everyone knows what the Bat-Signal looks like — especially if it’s unhelpfully labeled.
Or rather, it looks like an attempt at an inspirational cake. Ultimately, it just comes across as silly. Clearly, the decorator was told to make a rainbow “as big as it can be.”
The instructions couldn’t have been simpler — just write Margaret, the name of the graduate. But apparently, decorating cakes never goes as planned. I love the pointless quotation marks around the whole thing.
Everyone loves it when you loudly proclaim they’re getting older, right? Especially when it also comes across like a crack about their weight. Sorry for your awkward birthday party, Kim.
This is a rude way to put in a cake order. Maybe the customer was so obnoxious that the bakery decided to respond in much the same way. Regardless, it makes for a horribly bad cake.
Something tells me this customer wasn’t sure what they wanted on the cake. So, they said they’d call back with instructions. We’ll let you guess how that turned out.
Here’s another cake that comes across like the customer was just unbearably rude. Follow this life rule: don’t swear at someone and then let them take creative license with your cake.
Apparently, Roxanna was leaving her company just after the holidays. This is what happens when you try to make a holiday-themed goodbye cake. If Roxanna leaves, no one gets Christmas — NO ONE.
I’m not sure what’s funnier: the decorator misinterpreting the directions or that they didn’t even write it in purple. Either way, this cake is a fantastically hilarious fail.
This is the best possible way to confuse all the guests at your party. It seems the theme of this birthday gathering was “What flash drive are you talking about?”
People find all sorts of ways to provide photos to bakeries. Unfortunately, it rarely seems to get the point across. The decorator saw nothing strange about writing a long string of nonsense letters and symbols.
When you ask for a cake that says “Happy Birthday Noah” in red, you’d better articulate. Otherwise, Noah might end up sharing his birthday party with an imaginary friend named Red.
The order was written down as “‘Happy Birthday Ronda’ in cho” — shorthand for “in chocolate.” Somehow, the decorator interpreted that as the name Incho, which isn’t a name at all.
The customer asked for the words “Dave and Amanda” inside a heart. And that was kind of what they got. We’re not sure where the sunflower theme came in.
I guess this customer was trying to articulate that Dr. Smith is a man and therefore, they don’t want any frivolous decorations on his cake. Instead, they got a violent proclamation under the birthday wishes.
This cake was ordered for a school event known as the Academic Decathlon. Not only did the baker spell it as AcPec (instead of AcDec), but they also did — well, pretty much everything else wrong.
When the customer asked for a fire-breathing dragon on the cake board, the decorator was stumped. Apparently, they thought just writing the words was a good compromise. It wasn’t.
A touring company was celebrating its millionth audience member, so they decided to celebrate. But the baker was a little confused about the nature of the occasion.
For all you know, “With Sprinkles” is Kristina’s last name. But I think it’s much more likely that the bakery disastrously misunderstood the instructions for the cake decorations.
Well, we don’t know what this cake was supposed to say. We do know one thing with absolute certainty: it was sold to some guy named Adam Rauch. And I don’t think it was supposed to have his name on it.
The customer asked the bakery to make sure her cookie cake “looked cute.” But written like this, it comes across like an aggressive command. I’m trying, okay?
Some customers have very specific ideas for cake colors and designs, but this one said that “whatever popped out” was just fine. The result was a bewildering non sequitur that probably had everyone confused at Joey’s party.
This was supposed to say “Happy Birthday, Sara/Mom.” Instead, the decorator not only misunderstood but also misspelled. Now it’s a command: “Sara, flash Mom.”
The customer, as you might have guessed, asked for the cake to have “a big eight.” So, that was exactly what they got. Or at least, they got the bakery’s interpretation of that.
69. I wonder when this cake was supposed to be ready
This cake needed to be ready by Wednesday. It was so important that in fact, they wrote it right on the cake. Of course, they didn’t write it correctly. That would be ridiculous.
Here is proof that cake fails don’t just happen in English-speaking countries. A customer asked a French bakery to write “Happy Birthday” in Polish on the cake they ordered. So, they got the words “Happy Birthday in Polish.”
71. Am I more distracted by the misspelling or the lack of blue?
I have a lot of questions about this cake, including why there’s an Italian flag and a complete lack of blue anywhere on the cake. It’s okay, it all fades away beneath that terrible misspelling of “sweethearts.”
Not only will the words “Happy Birthday Mike” fit just fine, but so will a bunch of other stuff the customer didn’t even ask for. It’s amazing what decorators can do if they try.
Someone really wants a birthday with absolutely no extras. This comes across like a cake decorated by Dwight Schrute with a matching “It is your birthday” sign.
This customer told the bakery they wanted “nothing special” on the cake. But at the party, it must’ve come across like a commentary on the birthday boy or girl.
I think I finally figured out what this cake is supposed to say. They wanted a picture of a basset hound with the words “Thanks for all you do, Jenny.” What they got was…well, not that.
75 cake decorations that can “literally” surprise you
Kenny Fernandez
05.24.21
Everyone loves a good slice of cake. Well, even if you don’t have much of a sweet tooth, you probably still take a piece whenever you’re at a birthday party. There’s something irresistible about that super-sweet sheet cake covered with sticky frosting.
You might not have ever tried to decorate a cake yourself. If that’s the case, you probably don’t know just how hard it is. Even just writing on a cake is a huge challenge. Those beautiful professional cakes that you see in bakeries are made by experts. They’ve spent years perfecting their ability to sculpt gorgeous things out of frosting, sugar, chocolate, icing, and fondant.
The bottom line…it’s hard to make a good cake. But when we order one from a professional bakery — for a birthday, baptism, wedding, anniversary, or some other occasions — we expect it to look great. Unfortunately, that’s not always the case.
Sometimes, even professional bakers make cakes that aren’t what the customer ordered. Some look ridiculous with misspelled words. Other times, the decorator misunderstood the instructions, leading to hilarious results. Here are 75 times cake decorators who took the customers orders just a little too literally.
