Sharon Green, a mother from Bolton in the United Kingdom, wanted to celebrate her three-year-old daughter’s induction into the Anglican church. So she bought little Tahlia a cake from Occasion Cakes, which, as you might expect, tailored the cake for the event.
It was a box cake, flanked by adorable, pink-ribboned teddy bears. In front of the teddy bears, building blocks spelled out “T-A-H-L-I-A.” And in front of that, in icing, read the message “On Your Christening Day Tahlia Rose.”
And, to hear each of the guests at the after-party tell it, each of the adorable little teddy bears had a little teddy bear vagina.
We don’t have the rights to the original cake images–you can see them here–but Occasion Cakes does have another teddy bear vagina cake up on its Facebook page, which is the image below:
“It is completely inappropriate,” contends Green. “The cake is supposed to be for a three-year-old girl.”
And, as Green pointed out, “It is not just me who thought this, it was a talking point at the christening — everyone was commenting on it.” (Which doesn’t mean the cake was too offensive for Green to serve it in the first place.)
She complained directly to Occasion Cakes with a since-deleted Facebook post. Thanks to the magic of the internet, though, there is a screen shot of her contention, and Occasion Cakes’ response:
“When I had taken the cake home,” said Green, “I was horrified to discover that both teddy bears on the cake had been given totally inappropriate detailing regarding their gender by your cake decorator. I find this detailing offensive and completely inappropriate….Please contact me to discuss this matter.”
Occasion Cakes manager Steve Howarth was both measured and steadfast in his response. According to him, the teddy bear vagina is actually the spot on the teddy bear where it would have been stitched up after being filled with soft, fluffy teddy bear stuffing:
I must express my complete amazement at the reason for your complaint and can assure you that the crease in the teddy on top of your cake is supposed to represent the seam where the bear has been sewn together. For anyone to think it is anything else I find incomprehensible–it’s a teddy bear!
I also believe you managed to get our assistant at the Wigan shop to come back after she had closed and she agreed to put some strategically placed flowers on the cake so yet again–even putting aside the fact the mark is supposed to represent a seam and is exactly the same as we do on boy…teddies as well.
Occasion Cakes has not offered Green a refund, and does not plan to. Instead, their most recent Facebook update is one of thanksgiving:
A really big thank you to the thousands of people from all around the world who have posted overwhelmingly supportive messages in the past few days . Our faith in human nature has been restored by an incredible deluge of kind thoughts. Thank you again from all at occasion cakes.
(Photo credits: Occasion Cakes)
