W?hen your child asks you to bake them a cake, you give it your absolute best shot... and sometimes it doesn't quite pan out.
And sometimes, even the professional bakers at the cake shop get it wrong. ?
From nightmarish hedgehogs to discombobulated princesses, here are 9Honey's best collection of birt?hday cake fails.
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W?ith eight simple words a father in the UK admitted defeat. Somewhat.
Rob Davies, a reporter with The Guardian based in London, was working on a Bluey cake for his son's birthday when he snapped a photo and shared it online.
"God help us all, what have I done?" Davies wrote.
"Halfway through making a Bluey cake for my son's birthday and I think it might be the hardest thing I've ever done. ?I nearly cried at one point when the fondant tore."
Davies's Twitter profile was flooded with a torrent of messages.
Some offering sympathy, others empathising by sharing their own cake fails.?
"I cry and shout every year while making Anna's cake - she describes it as a "birthday tradition," one person wrote.
"I recall my wife crying doing the fondant on my son's Iggle Piggle cake. I spent most of the night acting as emotional support," another person wrote.
Davies shared he was quite good at baking, but "abysmal at crafts".
A few hours later Davies shared an update that he had "got the scalpel out" to help craft Bluey's face.
He then shared a photo of the rapid devouring of the cake.
"The end result: 14 six-year-olds who will be a nightmare to put to bed," he said.?
A? first birthday is very special for parents, and one many like to celebrate as a memorable occasion.
One family will certainly be remembering their son's first birthday for years to come - though unfortunately for all the wrong reasons.
The aunt of a little boy, called Zayeem, shared the ultimate cake fail to Twitter, where she revealed that a cake company not only managed to get her nephew's name wrong, but also decorate it with some 'inappropriate' images.
In a post comparing the cake she had ordered and the one she actually received, it was clear the baker didn't quite get the memo.
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The first issue was that poor Zayeem's name was spelt incorrectly as the cake read 'Happy Birthday Yazeem'. ?
And while lack of colour matching to the original could be forgiven, the rude pictures could not.
The heart-shaped balloons that were requested to be added to the cake using frosting, looked more like swimming sperm.?
"What my nephew's birthday cake was meant to look like vs how it turned up," his aunt captioned the reveal.
Thousands of people were shocked by the cake fail.
"That is unbelievably awful," said one. "Did they scrape the writing off and redo it as well??"
"It's definitely birthday themed? Maybe a little too much focus on the reproductive bit," another person replied to the post.
"No way," said a third. ?
Another tried to find at least one positive, "At least it came¡?"
One mum's spectacular cake fail has left people entirely baffled as to what the creation was actually supposed to be.
Posting to Reddit, the unnamed woman shared the photo of a very misshapen white-coloured (questionable) animal cake with (what we think are) walnut ears and candy eyes and nose.
Her caption simply read: "Nailed it."
"What is it supposed to be?" asked one.
"The rare albino possum!" joked one fan.
"The more you look the better it gets," said another.
"Mmmm, road kill cake!" said a third. "I love it so much."
After the comments, the good-natured baker replied with: "Easter lamb cake. First attempt, I should have heeded the warnings about inserting a wooden skewer in the neck before baking.?"
"I laughed so hard I'm crying. Did you have a reference picture?" said another critic.
"I used a cast iron lamb cake mould. I thought it was going to be a piece of cake to decorate.
"I am humbled."
Even when you give someone clear instructions, things can still go horribly wrong. ?
One ?man has learned that lesson the hard way, sharing a spectacular birthday cake fail to Reddit.
Posting an image of popular discount store Costco's 'Special cake order form', his simple instructions for a 'White Cake' are clearly displayed, with a request to 'please see back'.
On the back of the form, he drew a picture of his cake request with two bullet-point clarifications.
"Costco will give you exactly what you know you didn't need," he captioned the photos, alongside the astounding cake reveal.
In the third photo, he shared the actual cake he received.
And yes, there was a photo of his drawing on the actual cake ¨C right down to the most specific details.
People on Reddit were stunned. ?
"The good news is they did read both pages of instructions," said one. "They nailed it."
"I'm speechless, honestly. I mean, they even drew all the unevenness of the drawing. Incredible," commented another.
"I'm crying laughing, I'd lose my mind if this happened to me," said a third.
"I'd personally have the note about what was ordered framed right beside the cake when I go to serve it. That's hilarious," commented a fourth.
"This person better win employee of the month."
Others were quick to point out the cake was, in fact, ordered on April Fool's Day.
"I mean, what did you expect? Look at the date for pickup," laughed one.
"You asked for it, you got it. I'm actually impressed at the accuracy."
A little cartoon cattle dog called Bluey is a true global icon - beloved by kids and parents alike.
However, when one woman tried to recreate a Bluey birthday cake made by professional baker Tegan 'Tigga' Maccormack - it went spectacularly wrong.
?Sharing her creation to the Facebook page, Woolies/Coles Mudcake Hacks Lucy clearly found the cake way harder to execute than it appeared to be in the baker's video.
The original cake ?looked exactly like his cartoon counterpart - with perfectly-matched colours and featuring adorable marshmallow eyes and triangle wafer ears.
"Enjoy this absolute abomination - it looked easy on TikTok," she wrote, alongside a photo of a somewhat sad and deflated-looking blue cake.
People found the cake hilarious - thanking Lucy for sharing it. ?
"Nailed it," said one. "This is brilliant."
"Thank you for posting this. It's made my morning," said another.
"?It's very cute despite not being like the picture," commented one supportive person.
"I just showed my seven-year-old, he says, 'keep trying!'. Then he says to me, 'but it looks so bad she should probably eat the whole thing'. It's amazing," said one mum.
"Bluey's had a rough day!" joked another. "I love it and I'm sure whoever you made it for loved it too!"?
Spare a thought for this parent, who ordered a monkey, but was handed a bear with a slightly-melted face.
Sharing the cake fail on Reddit, they showed a picture of what they had asked for, along with the resulting cake, showing some serious creative licensing on behalf of the baker.
"?The ice cream cake we ordered vs what we received," they captioned it.
The cake has the monkey's ears atop its head, different-shaped eyes smooshed into one another and a lopsided mouth. They apparently forget its nose entirely.
"This was an ice cream cake from Baskin Robbins," the mum explained. "They usually come out exactly as pictured online, but this time was truly spectacular."
While many of the 3,300 commenters were impressed with the piping detail of its fur, they were gobsmacked by how the craftsmanship slipped when it came to its facial features.
"Where's his nose though?," enquired one. "I think it's the splurge of fur that stands upright between the eyes," added another.
"I swear, whoever made this was well baked. So lost in the fur detail but forgot the nose, gave bear ears and the mouth is so wonky. They must have been having fun making it," joked another.
"Oh, how I laughed. This is scary and funny all wrapped into one silly cake," said a third.
Others argued that although the parent had wanted a fondant iced cake, the buttercream they were given would at least have tasted better.
"I went to a kid's bday and the cake was stunning!! Once I had a piece, I threw it away after a bite. It was the most disappointing piece of cake ever," one said of fondant.
"Nobody realises those cartoon-looking cakes are just fondant packed and food coloring. It's great for social media, but everyone at the birthday is disappointed and anyone who spent money on the cake doesn't know how to cut it," agreed another.
The poster explained in the comments that they'd ?ordered it from a well known ice cream chain, whose cakes had previously 'come out exactly as pictured online'.
Describing it as 'truly spectacular', they managed to see the funny side.
"?It's so far from what we were expecting, but I absolutely love it. My family got a big laugh out of it since we're used to these being practically perfect."
"Well played, Baskin Robbins! Made our night."
It seemed like a simple brief: make a bunny cake.
An although the mum behind this, ah... creative cake has clearly lovingly crafted the bunny ears and arranged the whiskers and eyes, somewhere along the way it turned from a sweet kids' cake to what one person described as 'nightmare fuel'.
Posted to Reddit with the caption: "?Those eyes rub me the wrong way", the cake gave many the creeps.
"It's still alive put it back in the oven?," declared one. "Take it out of its misery," added another.
The cake has recently been horrifying a whole new group of people ?after being posted on the Awkward Family Photos Instagram page.
"Why does it have lips?," one person asked. "It puts the icing on its skin," joked another, referencing the horror movie The Silence of the Lambs.
"Oh my word!" another adult bluntly declared. "I'm traumatised."
This blurs the line between sleep paralysis demon and hedgehog...
T?his one is actually pretty good but we can't figure out why the hair is smooth and the skin is textured.
Another nightmarish hedgehog.?
A terrifying emoji cake.
"I tried and it's the thought that counts, right?"
This Reddit user said "A Thomas the Tank Engine cake, how hard can it be?"
"My brother failed the bar exam. Therefore ¨C fail cake."
A? Baby Yoda birthday cake with an all too realistic nose...
The cake that was ordered and the cake that arrived.
"The cake was supposed to be Tina Fey raising my friend on the throne proclaiming her the queen of comedy."