What We Have Here Is A Failure To Communicate
December 3, 2014 I'm always fascinated by the breakdown in communication that can occur when you order a cake. I love figuring out what went wrong just by looking at the cake; it beats any crossword puzzle or word jumble.
As you can see, there is in fact a "Coca Cola can/bottle" on this cake.
Other times there's a severe misunderstanding from the get-go:
I like to think that if they'd spelled "capital" correctly they might have figured it out.
Sometimes you specifically ask for little plastic "Happy Birthday sticks" stuck in your order of cupcakes:
Other times you're just not specific enough:
And sometimes, on wonderful, rare occasions, you get an amazingly talented baker. A baker with mad piping skills, a steady hand, and perfect spelling. A baker who, incidentally, is also a little hard of hearing. So, when you get this baker, and you want to order a giant Gerber daisy on your cake, just be sure you enunciate really, really well.
Because otherwise...
You might get the Gerber Baby.
(Yes, really. Scout's honor.)
*****
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Reader Comments (42)
Why we need coffee:
If you can't say something nice
Gerber baby it.
The fourth one is obviously for Missy from Doctor Who.
I'm a child of the seventies when dinosaurs and polyester and the Coke song ruled the earth.
I'd like to teach the world to bake and decorate some cakes
And read an order form so there would be no more mistakes
I'd like to send a cake with flowers-with no face of a child
Though when Sticks sees his cupcake cake I'm sure he will go wild
It's my wish for now
and it's something so nice
But it comes at a price
It's an unwrecked cake
Except that's it's a gerbera daisy. ;p
Classic XD
The last one's not that bad, considering that the real Gerber baby is 85 years old. It doesn't look a whole heck of a lot like a flower, though...daisy or otherwise. Why don't the people just bring a photo of what they want WITH them, when they want something more complicated than... Just bring a PHOTO. Even if you just want words. Bring a photo of the words. If none of that works, make your own darn cake. At least they didn't get a cake covered in a Berber carpet. =^-.-^=
Writing's nice and neat on the Coke cake.
Gerbera Daisy. That's where the confusion started? And they put roses, not daisies on the cake. Are you sure they didn't want this baby on the cake? The Gerber baby is bald, isn't it? Well done, I must say.
To be fair, it's a gerbera daisy. So I'd call that one 50% baker, 50% customer.
I'm here just to high five CreepyTribble.
What gets me with cake #1 is that they mimicked the Coca-Cola font, but they do that?
Well, at least the Gerber cake is very well done. Can't say that for the second one. I don't think I'd touch it even if it were blank. Frosting should not be shiny.
I thought there were going to be hard boiled egg cakes. (ha)
"What we've got here is [pause] failure to communicate."
There's the problem. As others said, it isn't a "Gerber" daisy at all! What else would you put on a cake when asked to put a "Gerber?" A baby of course! Want a daisy, ask for a Gerbera daisy, or best yet, just a daisy.
I admit it freely: I don't get the second cake. At all. What were they asking for?
The second cake is obviously made for He-Who-Must-Not-Be-Named's birthday! Orange was always a favorite color of his...
Maybe Kelly is a Labyrinth fan?
You know...you remind me of the babe...
Sorry!! couldn't resist it Jen.)
@SuBee: your comment about being a child of the seventies when dinosaurs ruled the earth reminded me of an incident that happened in college. It was 1993. At this time, I was a senior and still living in the dorms; there was a 70's-themed party going on that night. Two empty-headed freshmen (they were even blonde) knocked on my door and asked me, not to come, but if I had any 70's clothes they might wear. I remember staring at them, and finally saying, "How old do you think I AM?"
Now, of course, my kids (all of 11) ask me what Marco Polo looked like, but still seem shocked when told there was no Internet in my youth.
@ sending the clowns
Bring a photo. Get a printed color copy (edible paper optional) plasted on top of cake, maybe will frosting on the edges to anchor the masterpiece. Done. Will that be cash or credit, dear?
Cake #2 puzzles me as much as it does Christine. All I can think of is an attempt at Roman numerals gone completely awry.
At least the baby was nicely rendered, and the lush head of curls means that Gerber's copyright attorneys can't actually prove anything. :p
Looks like someone accidentally another Coca-Cola bottle.
Gerber baby, Gerber baby, Gerber baby. Try saying that three times fast!
@SaraCVT, that remindis me of my (about 40-year-old) friend who went to one of the chain drug chains looking for perfume for his wife. The very helpful cosmetics girl showed him several on his list and he picked one and then asked the price. He was shocked. The girl said, "Well, if you come on Tuesday, you can get your discount!"
He looked at her quizically then it dawned on him that she mean that he should come in on Senior's Day which is every Tuesday. He asked, rather indignantly, "How OLD do you think I AM?"
What's so puzzling about cake #2? Clearly, they asked for the decorator to write "in capitals, L V" Maybe it was a birthday cake for Lord Voldemort, or maybe it was for a Latin teacher who's turning 55. That doesn't matter. What matters is that they didn't expect "in capitals" (or even "in captial") to be written out.
What is heaven's name is a gerber baby??
@lost: Gerber is a line of baby food and supplies in America.
https://www.gerber.com/our-story/meet-the-gerber-baby
Plot twist: they used gerber baby food instead of icing
*mad giggles*
The second one was probably supposed to be a Louis Vuitton cake, I'm guessing.
And to you "Gerbera daisy" snobs, nearly EVERYONE pronounces it "Gerber". It's not as much of a travesty as you're making it out.
@ Mia
The pronunciation must be regional, as I've never heard it pronounced any other way than the correct "Gerbera". I've also never heard it referred to as a "Gerbera Daisy", either - it's just a gerbera, or "those huge flowers that were everywhere in the late 90s".
(Oh the irony - my browser spellcheck seems to imply that Gerbera is incorrect and should be Gerber.)
...And the plot sickens--er, thickens...
That'd be the GARDEN plot...
You know ~ where the daisies are groan... (heh...heh.)
*laugh* Love the cakes! Or at least, I love laughing at them... =-)
@TheCreepyTribble - I think you're right!
@SuBee and @SaraCVT - I remember telling my then four-year-old son a story about something that happened "in '79"... Child of the new millennium that he is, he looked at me wide-eyed and said "You were alive when the years only had two digits??" /sigh...
What we have here is a failure to commune a cake.
In the Deep South where I live, that type of daisy is a Gerber (which sounds like Gurrburr here in Alabama.) My master gardener friends say Gerber daisy, except for a
Michigan transplant who retired here. She says Gerbera. The Gerber baby cake isn't too bad, except I'm pretty sure the baby had less hair.
Am I gong to be the first to bemoan how people have forgotten to communi-cake?
I'm going to epcot the gerbera daisy comment.
I'm not sure who started the "gerber daisy" thing, but it's prevalent in the wedding industry as well. Every time one of my brides asks me if I know a florist who does pretty "gerber daisies" I barely refrain from rolling my eyes.
Please, people. GERBERA.
Carrie,
I am in the South as well. People here also say "pacifically" instead of "specifically." The fact that it's common doesn't make it CORRECT. It isn't.
Oh geez. Well the gerber baby cake is kind of cute lol. As for the rest of them.. I will just have to make my own cakes from now on just so this can't happen to me lol.
That top one looks just like a classic Coke bottle cap - yes, with both "bottle" and "can" written on it.
@TheCreepyTribble,you are a genius.
I really can't fault the person who made the Gerber baby cake. The cake requester must have assumed that everyone is an expert on horticulture. If I had a request that sounded like that, I'd interpret it as "Gerber baby" as well. I hadn't even heard of "gerber daisies" until a few years ago when there was a similar item on Cake Wrecks and a commenter pointed out he almost made a similar mistake when a customer asked for a "gerber daisy" on a cake.
Perhaps the cake decorator should have asked the customer if they meant a "gerbera hybrida" daisy or a "gerbera viridifolia" daisy. Or perhaps a "gerbera jamesonii" daisy?
Y'know, I'm not convinced the Gerber Baby cake really IS a Gerber Baby cake. On checking the logo against the actual cake, the Gerber baby is younger, has less hair, and isn't wearing a pink shirt.
The more I look at this, the more I'm convinced it was a portrait cake of the recipient Kelly. The quality is just too GOOD for this to be an error!
You can look at a fairly good image of the Gerber Baby logo here to compare: http://elitedaily.com/wp-content/uploads/2012/11/g1_mjmlw.jpg
Love the site, its amazing how many fails on cakes exist. You can get a good laugh from reading some of the bakeries errors.