As the founder of Cake Wrecks, Jen Yates is something of an expert on really bad wedding cakes.
“For a lot of people, weddings’ wrecks are their favorite kind of wrecks,” she muses of toppled tiers, misspellings, laughably slopping icing and other oddities featured on her blog and new book of the same name. “People get a big kick out of those because it’s such a big day, it’s so tragic.”
The site — which documents “when professional cakes go horribly, hilariously wrong” — is all for laughs, but should serve as a reminder that “professional” cakes don’t always look the part.
To avoid being featured on Cake Wrecks, Yates advises researching bakers and making sure their portfolio photos are legit. “Theft is rampant — get references,” she warns of bakery websites that use photos stolen from other sites. “Unless the baker is standing in the photo, you don’t know.”
But if a mess of fondant does end up at your reception, Yates might still be able to help. “They’re all upset on some level,” she says of the brides who submit photos. “But some of them have found it funny, and I think that’s part of the healing process.”
