Bakers make cake with image of flash drive instead of image in flash drive

Person orders birthday cake, gives baker a flash driver containing image. Baker makes cake with image of flash drive. (Thanks, Stefan!)

[#1 posted by TongBei , February 3, 2009 1:34 PM]

To quote Hank Hill - "Do I look like the kind of person that knows what a jpeg is?"

[#2 posted by rollerskater , February 3, 2009 1:39 PM]

pure rofflage.

[#3 posted by Ned613 , February 3, 2009 1:44 PM]

I hope it didn't ruin the party.

[#4 posted by Anonymous , February 3, 2009 1:44 PM]

That flash drive is ENORMOUS!

[#5 posted by Xopher , February 3, 2009 1:46 PM]

I think somebody musta been baked. So to speak.

Don't they have edible-ink inkjet printers for cakes now? Don't you HAVE to give them an image electronically for them to use one?

[#6 posted by Paul Merrill , February 3, 2009 1:51 PM]

This reminds me of when I brought a disc into Kinko's a few years back to get some business cards printed. When I came to pick them up, they handed me a black and white photocopy of a business card. Pure genius!

[#7 posted by Brainspore , February 3, 2009 1:54 PM]

Funny mix-up, but who shows up to a bakery with a digital storage device instead of a printout? It's a confectionery, not a Kinko's.

[#8 posted by angusm , February 3, 2009 1:56 PM]

The territory is not the map. Or something like that.

[#9 posted by Stefan Jones , February 3, 2009 1:57 PM]

In turn I credit Dr. Rob Downes for sending me the link.

There are all sorts of variations of this debacle. Once an employer ordered a batch of CD-ROM discs. We sent the fulfillment house an ISO file . . . a disk image.

They were delivered with the fancy label done up right . . . and the ISO 9660 file as the only contents.

[#10 posted by Gary54 , February 3, 2009 2:02 PM]

I am reminded of the movie "Spinal Tap" and the stage prop plans for Stonehenge drawn on a napkin.

[#11 posted by JoeKickass , February 3, 2009 2:06 PM]

@Brainspore
What would they do with a printout, glue it to the top of the cake? Yummy.
Perhaps you should read blog post associated with the picture.. the bakery asked for the file on a datastorage device.

[#12 posted by Orky , February 3, 2009 2:21 PM]

#8 posted by Stefan Jones Author Profile Page, February 3, 2009 1:57 PM

> ... and the ISO 9660 file as the only contents.

I got some CD-Rs that way from some IT guys once...

[#13 posted by adam , February 3, 2009 2:23 PM]

As someone who occasionally has digital workflow handoff issues, I nearly fell off my chair.

[#14 posted by dross1260 , February 3, 2009 2:23 PM]

At least he didn't ask for it to "scale". Would have missed out on all that "grey" icing. ANd where's the original file? Did it go well with the green piping?

[#15 posted by Bloodboiler , February 3, 2009 2:44 PM]

How many iPhone cakes have you seen on blogs?

What if these stupid misunderstandings happened because of the number of strange cakes that are ordered.
Maybe cake makers write so many strange inside jokes and obscure quotes on cakes that writing "It is a grill" on a cake is just another day at the bakery.

[#16 posted by cory , February 3, 2009 2:45 PM]

#8, #11: This mistake actually isn't all that hard to make. Lots of CD burning software has different behavior depending on whether you double-click the image or drag it on top of the project. Drag, and you might get that result.

This is where some sort of QA process would have come in handy.

[#17 posted by Phikus , February 3, 2009 3:10 PM]

Zoolander come to life.

[#18 posted by Scuba SM , February 3, 2009 3:15 PM]

Whoa whoa whoa, Cory. QA costs a ton of money. Besides, we haven't had any issues before.

:p

[#19 posted by Anonymous , February 3, 2009 4:09 PM]

This exact thing happened to me and some friends a few years back at a Wal-Mart except involving a computer disc.

They were advertising their big 'we print photos on cakes' and when we asked if they could read a disc and get the image off that she went back to check and then came back and told us she could.

We then come back to a cake printed with a scanned photo of the disc.

[#20 posted by heydemann3 , February 3, 2009 4:11 PM]

As a professional baker I can easily relate to this-the counter staff had some odd methods of telling us what was supposed to be on the cakes. And the decorator was probably working on a different shift, etc.
As for the ink-jet printed images, the system is kind of pricey, and the paper used is an edible rice paper that basically melts into the frosting. If it doesn't melt it can be peeled off. It's just about tasteless.
I just hope the poor recipient was able to laugh about the situation, not throw a tantrum.

[#21 posted by heydemann3 , February 3, 2009 4:14 PM]

Actually having read the post at Cake Wrecks-a wonderful site-it's even more understandable. The counter person couldn't even be bothered to make sure the decorator knew which image to use, or what was going on. Not uncommon at all, alas. Still pretty dang funny.

[#22 posted by Boeotian , February 3, 2009 4:49 PM]

#9, #12: imagine if instead you got from them CDs with ISO 9001 files!

[#23 posted by DukeOGlue , February 3, 2009 5:43 PM]

They should just connect the flash drive cake to the PC cake and get the actual image cake from inside it.

[#24 posted by Big_Bollocks , February 3, 2009 6:56 PM]

I have a new word for this poor baker: Technodolt

[#25 posted by zuzu , February 3, 2009 7:42 PM]

@8 Angsum

The territory is not the map. Or something like that.

This is not a flash drive?

[#26 posted by TheChickenAndTheRice , February 3, 2009 7:54 PM]

I hate those kids who yell "F4KE!!11" as much as the rest of us, but it strikes me as more likely this was a deliberately made cake by some funny people who then had a funny idea to post a funny story on the interwebs.

Just sayin'.

[#27 posted by Nawel , February 3, 2009 8:18 PM]

WONDERFUL! hahahahahahhaha!

(mmm... fake? maybe the story, the cake might be real and made for a super-geek dude)

[#28 posted by JohnMc , February 3, 2009 8:40 PM]

I can't believe that no-one is making the connection with this classic of digital-custom-cake failure, one of my favorite BB posts ever:

http://www.boingboing.net/2007/01/19/cake-printer-barfs-u.html

[#29 posted by eclectro , February 3, 2009 9:39 PM]

This is complete awesomeness, it has to be better than the image on the flash drive!

[#30 posted by Anonymous , February 4, 2009 2:36 AM]

Thing I don't get is how come the flash drive is so massive and the cake is so tiny?! Barely a mouthful, surely.

[#31 posted by TheChickenAndTheRice , February 4, 2009 4:27 AM]

Nawel - yes, that's what I meant. I don't doubt the authenticity of the cake. The story, on the other hand, is a little too cute.

[#32 posted by cfurrow , February 4, 2009 5:27 AM]

Reminds me of the time I was getting a t-shirt printed, and had special instructions in the email message. So, in the "notes" area, I wrote "see email". When I got the shirt, weeks later, it only had the words "see email" printed on the front.

[#33 posted by Matt Deckard , February 4, 2009 6:05 AM]

@26 - my thoughts exactly.

How hard would it be to go take a picture of the flash drive, take it to the bakery and tell them that's what you want on the cake. Then make up the backstory and generate untold lulz.

[#34 posted by gtron , February 4, 2009 7:05 AM]

maybe there is a need to realize that about 90% of the folks out in the real world are not up to speed on all/most matters tech... most here keep up, but this is a small population, and tech moves too fast for the masses. i've made award winning websites, and have NEVER used a flash drive! OMG! there's too much info out there and it becomes tiresome to those who don't need it - i know a guy with a 2500$ macbook pro - he only uses it for email.

[#35 posted by LB , February 4, 2009 8:19 AM]

There is no need to realize anything - read the OP. The bakery told them to bring in the image on a jump drive. Period.

[#36 posted by dagfooyo , February 4, 2009 11:16 AM]

I had a similar experience as a kid. My 5th birthday party was Knight Rider themed. My mom brought a paper plate with a picture of Kitt on it to the supermarket to make a cake. The lady took down the information and wrote "Car - plate" as instructions. So the baker made a cake with a licence plate on it.