Wednesday
Jun032009
Maybe We Should Stick with "Good Job"
June 3, 2009 Graduation season is upon us, and with it comes the irony of those who cannot spell congratulating those who have (hopefully) learned to do so. In writing.
I suppose it would be easier if "graduation" and "congratulations" didn't sound so much alike. As it is, we end up with a lot of Franken-style mash-ups:
Putting a "d" in "congratulations" is now so common that I've had folks tell me it's a new word created specifically for congratulating graduates. [burying face in hands] *sob*
Admit it: Now you want to see a cake that says "Congradulations Gratuates" as much as I do. Well, I don't have one. (Yet.) But I do have some more fun manglings:
"Congratutahons, Sus & Robert!"What's that? Her name isn't "Sus"? Meh. So Sue me.
After a while you start to see the same mistakes over and over again. There's the "Something's Missing...":
The "End of the Road!":
(Complete with a truly epic grad cap - wow.)And of course the classic "Letter Switcheroo":
Actually, this is a Switcheroo combined with "Something's Missing", since there's no "e". And while "Gradutas" does sound like something from Taco Bell, it kinda has a nice ring to it, don't you think? Some decorators successfully navigate the "congratulations/graduation" minefield only to stumble right on the home stretch:
That's quite the stumble though. "Comminsoning?"(It was supposed to be "commissioning".)
Then there's this...thing:
CCCs with "s"s that look like "g"s, gratuitous ellipses, and sloppy icing piled higher than the cupcakes themselves have no "honor". Only "honers".
Anony, Donna, Sue M., Ila P., Sarah L., Jessica R., Christine H., & Rosalie C., congratutahons! You've gratulated from Wreckporter school!
Reader Comments (142)
The switcheroo cake -- why is it decorated with a zipper?
Nevermind -- I don't think I need to know that.
Stoo
oh boy......
Just look at the three inch thick layer of icing they put on that CCC (patohey!)
I kind of like "Congraduations." It is a horror that has grown on me.
"Congradulations, gradutas! So happy you gratuated with honers!"
I think it's a test. If the graduate can spot the errors, then you know they've truly succeeded.
Well, at least the writing is nice in the preschool and Navy ones...
WV - distasin: a combo of distaste and sin, perfect for these wrecks!
How comb nUn ov thoz peepel no how 2 spel GRAJEWAYSHION?
What are honers? And exactly how do you eat a cupcake with more than 4 inches of solid icing on top?
Milarious Hisspellings! Litched Swetters? I love it all!
*tsk, tsk* So SAD people have to resort to paying for these mistakes- just goes to show even if you might not need Math to frost/decorate a cake, STAY IN SCHOOL! ;o) You definitely need English though... That's for sure!
I was writing congratulations on a cake the other week and had my husband in the background telling me to make sure I spelled it correctly so that I didn't create a wreck! I'm only a hobby decorator and had the word spelled correctly on a piece of paper in front of me. I guess it would be too much to ask the same of the "pros"! Too funny!
LOL - the grad cap on the cookie looks like something from Mr. Men.
Ohh, that's a grad cap. I couldn't figure out why there was an arm coming out of a diamond shaped black hole
Sad. So sad. Yummy but sad.
Congrats to all those graduating this year. Hope ya'll can spell, uh, something, anything?!
Oy vey.
Okay...I confess...I almost always write "congradulations" when addressing a graduate. But, I always write it correctly for anyone else.
Now, when I say congratulations to a graduate, I like to call them a grad-GEE-ate. It sounds really ed-ju-mah-kate-ed.
Shameful. Really.
Love, love, love your blog! It sounds strange, but my father's lifelong nickname was Sus!
Susan (after my father)
It's like "No cake left behind."
Oh great! After all that cake wreckery I can no longer remember how to spell congratyou . . .congrad . . . congr . . . good job.
You'd better watch out! That cookie is a double black diamond difficulty cookie! Big Bird already lost an arm on it...
There was an episode of Three's Company where Chrissy was making a banner that was supposed to say, "Congratulations On Your Graduation," but it didn't fit, so she put, "Congraduation!" on it instead. Maybe that's what started it.
Having just ordered a graduation cake last week, I have to say this cracks me up even more. Right on the order form they have a big, bold reminder to the decorators to CHECK ALL SPELLING before putting the messages on the cake.
Is that an arm coming out of that cap? To strangle the cake decorator, perhaps?
Angie (from over at www.HalfAssedKitchen.com)
When DD was just learning to decorate cakes, the manager of her shift came in one afternoon, soundly castigated her in front of the other employees, and made her SCRAPE OFF the "T" in "Congratulations" and put in a "D" on each and every one of the three dozen cakes she'd finished that morning.
She would not listen to anyone else, including all the other employees, as to the correct spelling.
When the customers came in to pick up their cakes and complained about the error, manager maintained that she was correct, and again yelled at DD that they must have just been upset that she perhaps hadn't done the substitution NEATLY ENOUGH.
The one with the 'truly epic grad cap' looks like some creepy little arm monster about to crawl out of the void.
This is the highlight of my morning routine. Thanks for providing the snort-worthy belly laughs. I am stunned on a daily basis that people actually charge money for some of these things!
WV: uncedl - I am always uncedled when people congradulate the gratuate.
can i just say for the record, that i think pre-school "graduations" are completely stupid and unnecessary? they just started these a few years ago, and it's ridiculous. next we'll have 2nd grade graduations, 4th grade, 6th-into-jr. high...it's ridiculous.
so, of course i loved the messed-up Pre School cake.
It really has become more common place with the D, though I still maintain it will never be correct.
I'm used to "Gratz" as a short, which is a gaming thing I think, and I'm waiting for some of THOSE to show up here. :)
Should we create SOL tests for cake decorators?
How on earth do these cakes see the light of day?! But without them there wouldn't be Cake Wrecks and that would be the REAL tragedy!
Wow. You know, I don't think people are actually meant to eat the CCCs. There must be some code all CCC Makers follow. "I solemnly swear to ice all of my Cupcake atrocaties with at least two inches of icing, and to dye the icing such a ridiculous color, with/and/or place truly dizzying and sickening airbrushing on top.
Yours truly,
The CCC Makers every where.
Holy crap, that's a lot of icing on the CCC!
thanks jen for doing the grad theme!
I have in fact made a cake with congratulations spelled with a 'd' and not a 't'. But it was conGRADulations! So that the misspelling was shown to be on purpose. Don't know if that makes it any better. Probably not.
The mangling of "congratulations" and related words never gets old.
Love the "honers."
Would con"grad"ulations be better? I have to admit, I usually go with "congradamalations," just for kicks.
Despite the spelling error on the Navy cake, the handwriting is quite impressive.
Oh todays blog entry brought me some memorable laughs... I specifically remember a high school friend, who worked in a greeting card store, telling me that congratulations and congraduations were both words, one being specifically for graduates. Nearly 20 years later and I STILL remember laughing right at her, telling her she was WRONG.
She's probably still congraduating graduates. Moron.
As I scrolled to the last one all I could think was, "Is that frosting a foot thick?!?"
Bakers need a commonly mispelled words poster in their kitchens, but it probably still wouldn't help.
yotacooks.blogspot.com
You have to admit the Navy Commission cake had beautiful writing on it...
Must ... have ... honers ...
Because I've figured out that "honers" is a new word for gobs of yummy icing. (At least it better be yummy!)
How to frost cupcakes:
Open a new frosting drum,
grab your mortar trowel . . .
Fudgie the Whale Lives!!!!
Oh, the Navy commission one is soooo sad! So close, but in the end an epic wreck.
Hey, you have to give the guy credit. It IS pretty clever the way he got around the CongraTulations/CongraDulations debate..... just leave out the offending letter!
JK, these are awful.
The Commissisionaingharing cake was a sad story. The whole time I was reading it (seconds and seconds) I was thinking OK! OK! SPELLED RIGHT! THIS IS GOING TO BE GOOD! YOU'VE DONE IT! ONE WORD TO GO!
oh.
darn it.
For the second last cake, the Colourful Things looked a tad unnecessary. I admit, it looks rather good. The spelling? Not so much...
Honestly, you guys are so quick to judge! Obviously the orange/brown decorated cake was for a graduate of a school that had a tiger for its mascot. "ConGRAULations" should have been "ConGROWLations." And graduating with "honers?" Who's to say the recipient wasn't a harmonica performance major at Julliard, hmmm?
That's why you stick with "Congrats". It's MUCH safer, well for most of these cakes.
For some reason, every time I go back to the graduation "with honers" my mind insists of substituting the word "boners". Which I suppose would also make for an interesting graduation party...
gotta say, though, that's some of the prettiest writing I've ever seen on that Navy cake.