Birth and Pop Culture: Horrifying Cakes Edition
Tuesday, July 26, 2011 at 6:07AM
By Emjaybee
Many of you are familiar with CakeWrecks, and with their occasional exposure of horrifying baby shower cakes. But this week…this week they’ve outdone themselves. So much so that this picture is actually the least-bad of the bunch.
If you’re eating a meal…now might be a good time to pause.
First up, we have the twins:
Points for the blood vessels in the umbilical cord. Wonder if that’s red velvet cake?
Next, it’s the best argument against a planned cesarean you will ever see in cake form:
Though the baby does say “ready or not” so maybe the baker knew something the mom didn’t.
And last, and worst of all, the answer to the question: what do you get when your cake decorator confuses “delicious dessert for a baby shower” with “cake-based medical diorama”?
You get this, and yes; it’s all edible.
Yep: even the placenta in the bowl. How about a closeup of that?
There’s probably a lot to be said about baby shower cakes in general when it comes to our expectations of birth, especially the c-section ones and the ones featuring a mom-torso or an actual baby…that you eat. Possibly we can blame it on all the cake-decorating shows that give bakers the idea that they need to challenge themselves to make realistic placentas or mom boobs with nipples. Just because they can.
What do you think, readers?
Reader Comments (29)
I'm glad that you point out that there are only mom-torsos. And thus no mom-heads--and no mom-brains.
Accuracy points for the shininess of the placenta in the last photo. (Those the points may be negated by the gross-out points that this picture also receives. I like my cakes to say, "I'm delicious!" Not, "I was just baked in the OR!"
Ha ha ha!
These are seriously disgusting, Emjaybee. I have friends that won't get a human or animal shaped piñata because of the image of a mob of kids beating the shit out of Cinderella with a stick. I'll assume they also wouldn't want anyone brandishing a knife near a newborn-shaped cake.
I hear some folks like baby donuts, though.
How timely, my sister's baby shower is in 2 weeks...
So no one wants to make a "crowning moment" cake? I guess it's true that babies aren't coming out of vaginas anymore ;)
But before you get to birth, you have to make a baby. More great Cake Wrecks - http://cakewrecks.blogspot.com/2010/01/labor-of-love.html
Wow, those are awful. I find the "ready or not" one to be such a derogatory and stereotypical insult to mothers who have/have had a planned cesarean. I don't agree with unnecessary cesareans, but if that was actually used to prove a point then it would make us natural birth advocates look like insensitive jerks.
ok, I thought it was just me who thought the mother torsos were really disturbing! I mean, do they realize they have to CUT into the mothers body and then eat it? Too much bad juju in that if you ask me! And what's with the Alien theme?
But I do agree with the above poster who gave brownie points for the shiny placenta!! lol As a part time cake maker, they did a good job on that! The rest of it was scary.
@Lisa, if you go back far enough on the cakewrecks site, there is indeed a crowning moment cake! Tastefully barred for younger viewers. *lol* I actually already commented on the cakewrecks site that some of these cakes look like they came from an unnecessary cesarean awareness event.
I always think of that scene in "Steel Magnolias" where Julia Roberts' character gets married, and the groom's cake is an armadillo... which Olympia Dukakis (I think) whacks off the butt/tail end and puts it on a plate for Julia's father (Tom Skeritt?). If an armadillo cake can be served at a wedding, why not one of these "cake wrecks"? At least these are a bit more life-like and accurate in their portrayal of what birth is really like, and isn't that something we're constantly complaining about the media and other sources *not* showing? Sure, I think these cakes are more geared towards a doula, L&D, midwife, or birth-junkie party, rather than the typical baby shower, but I really don't have a problem with them, other than that the typical mom (and her friends) would likely be horrified or grossed out by this (or pretend to be).
Oh my goodness, so very offensive. I could totally see this on an Ace of Cakes episode....Chef Duff wheeling the diaroma cake into the OR after a c-section to the applause of everyone in the room. Gross. Am a bit surprised that there are no vaginal birth cakes....or even more so, no cakes with the 'added for realism' pubic hair that is often seen in medical illustrations and such.
I will admit that I am now craving a piece of chocolate cake. What up with that?
Bloody hell! That baby looks weird. I don't think any new born baby could be that color!
I threatened -- errr, offered -- a few people "push cakes" a la Cake Wrecks when they were planning for their respective VBACs. Fortunately they got the job done and I didn't have to resort to sugar sculpted cervices (cervixes?).
Dana, thank you for giving me the chance to envision a fondant cervix. My life is now complete. I owe you one.
Ana, if I had to overanalyze something that's just plain tacky, I think that "ready or not" would be offensive to the person performing the cesarean. It implies aggressiveness.
In that last photo, the baby doesn't look alive. I mean, why would it be there on the table? CREEPY!
These will go great w my breast balloons & placenta piñata! Parrrtay!
Let me just say that if someone brought me that last cake, I would assume they wished me and my child harm. The the end, as my four year old says.
Maybe we're completely missing the point. Maybe these cakes are used to test friendships. If you have a party and serve one or more of these cakes and your friends seem too eager to eat your breast or newborn or afterbirth, you may need to reconsider having them as friends.
"Pass the placenta!" "Have you tried the baby yet?" "I'm just eating the face now!"
@ Jill, I think it would be offensive to the Dr. preforming a cesarean for sure, but also for the mother.It portrays cesareans in a raw and barbaric way that, having had an emergency csection myself, followed by a failed VBAC, would make me feel like my children were born in a horrific and nauseating way. It's bad enough to have to go through without feeling the sting of it being represented with a ragged-edged incision and a sign to let us know we've ripped them from their home prematurely. I just hope whoever had these made didn't use them in a way that would create guilt and hardship for a mother who was hurting already.