Customer Reviews

Cake Wrecks: When Professional Cakes Go Hilariously Wrong

5 star:		(86)
4 star:		(14)
3 star:		(8)
2 star:		(2)
1 star:		(3)

 

 

First off, as an avid fan of the CakeWrecks blog I had extremely high hopes for the book. I expected nothing less than hilarious pictures and side splitting commentary to match. Jen Yates went above and beyond!! This book is a MUST HAVE for anyone and everyone. It will make an excellent conversation starter and I'm sure all your friends will thank you for introducing them to the wonderful world of cake wreckage. I recommend this book completely and 100%.

I was worried that this book would simply be a reprint of the blog entries, but not so! Even though some of the cakes are familiar, the commentary is all new. The book is wonderful, and I highly recommend it.

I bought this book on a whim. I saw it when I ordered "Bent Objects" and thought, "hmmmmmnnn... why not?" All I can say is that it had me in stitches from the cover. I found myself laughing hilariously and in some parts, couldn't catch my breath. I recommend this book wholeheartedly, for those people who might need a chuckle, guffaw, or whooping laugh.

Cake Wrecks, the blog is a favorite of mine. Who knew that cake decorating could be so funny when it goes wrong. Now, Jen has turned the concept into a book.

There is plenty of new, exclusive content and commentary that has not been in blog. But some of the best stuff from the blog has also made its way into the book. There is also some great background on the Cake Wreck classics.


(Jen sent me a copy of the book to review.)

I am not much of a chef, but I decided to get this book when I read the great reviews. I'm always up for something amusing, and I have been to the cakewrecks website and know that's there's some very funny stuff there.

Well, this is a funny, pretty little book. (Odd shaped for your bookshelf - it's short and wide.) The cake mistakes are filtered into 12 various chapters, with labels such as Holiday Horrors, Beyond Bizarre, and Oops! My personal favorites are ones that are the accidental mistakes - the ones that end up looking like, well, something you wouldn't exactly want to eat.

But here's the thing - as funny as some of these cakes are, I'm not sure that the book is worth the cost. It no doubt would make a cute little coffee table book, or a great present for friend who likes to bake. But for me personally, once I chuckled at the various designs, I was done. It's not something that I think I'm going to keep, and in fact I'm giving mine to my mother-in-law. But if you really the cakewrecks website and want something permanent in book form for your home, then this should make you happy.

As a fan of the blog for years, I wanted to get the book on my new Kindle 3. Although the content was hilarious (I did laugh out loud many times while reading), there were two main problems with reading it as an ebook. First, the lack of color. It *did* matter for many of the photos. Granted, I knew this might be a problem when I bought the Kindle version. The second problem, though, wasn't my fault...many of the photos were not where you would expect them to be in relation to the text. For example, there would be witticism about photo 1, witticism about photo 2, then on the next page photo 1, then witticism about photo 3, then on the next page photo 2 and photo 3. It definitely messed with the flow of reading. I hope this kind of problem can be resolved for future books of this type.

Jen Yates is a GENIUS! This is the funniest book I have ever read! I caught my Mom trying to take it home with her...guess what she is getting for Christmas. I am a fan from the blog and even sent one of my own over-the-top (but well made) cakes in. It not only made the blog, but the book too. And YES I am proud of it. Some of us like to make crazy (but well made) cakes. Buy the book, you won't regret it!

Whether you prefer the "literal LOLs" (cakes where the decorator took his instructions a little too literally), the "dreaded CCC" (cupcake cake), the "poo phenomenon" (in which decorators don't seem to notice that piles or extrusions of brown icing look... wrong), "holiday horrors"--it's all in here, along with plenty more. Creepy cakes; bizarre cakes; the "say what?!" cakes and the "how on earth could the baker not realize how WRONG that is?!" cakes. You'll read the story of the naked baby carrot jockey that has become the mascot of the blog, and tales such as the bride who said she didn't care what kind of bachelorette cake she got as long as it wasn't a [...] cake. So of course, she ended up with a cake on which the words "not a [...] cake" were immortalized in icing.

Mind you, Cake Wrecks wasn't created to be mean to bakers. Jen anonymizes the wrecks, and sometimes bakers actually deliberately share their own wrecks with her. She also isn't going to be mean to your Aunt Edna, who once baked a cake for your birthday because your mom asked her to; these are professional wrecks, where either the bakers should have known better, or the customer specifically asked for something bizarre.

The book includes some fun background and extra tidbits on how the blog started, what it's been like running it and dealing with issues like trolls, how Jen defines a wreck, and so on. Jen's writerly voice is entertaining no matter what she's writing about, so this material is every bit as enjoyable as the wrecks themselves.

"Cake Wrecks" makes a perfect gift book, particularly for someone who needs a bit of laughter!

I've been a fan of Cake Wrecks blog for a long time. I tend not to buy books based on blogs because I can get all of the content on the blog. Furthermore, once I see the blog entry, I have had my fill and don't need to read it again. However, Cake Wrecks makes a great book for the coffee table ready to entertain your company.

I read the whole book in one sitting and had a grand ol' time not caring that family members thought I had lost it. What's a cake wreck without snarkism? Jen Yates writes lots of fresh snarky for bonus laughs. She also adds lots of great new material that isn't in the blog -- make it worth the dough (pun intended). Two "thumbs up" for this wreck.

I just have to say that this book had me cracking up! How did these cakes go so horribly wrong? What were they thinking?? I had to wipe the tears from my face several times from laughing so hard. This book would make a great present for anyone... Everyone needs a good laugh! For fans of the blog, it also includes some back story of Jen Yates, commentary on things like blog trolls, and Cake Wreck stories. If you like this style of book, consider checking out The Gallery of Regrettable Food and Gastroanomalies: Questionable Culinary Creations from the Golden Age of American Cookery by James Lileks.