cake drama

Bakery’s Trans Ken Doll Cake Is the Latest LGBT Dessert ‘Outrage’

Let them eat pink cake. Photo: Freeport Bakery

A Sacramento bakery owner says dessert vigilantes have turned her playful Ken doll cake into yet another comically high-stakes “family values” debate. Freeport Bakery gave Barbie’s boyfriend a makeover for a birthday-party order, dressing him in the custom tiara and edible pink dress you see at left. Bakery co-owner Marlene Goetzeler tells Fox 40 she thought her staff’s work looked “really cool,” so she posted a pic on the bakery’s Facebook page with the caption “Ken’s looking good.” She assumed it wouldn’t be “that unusual” since they “do doll cakes all the time.”

That turned out to be a bad assumption: All-American Ken in drag actually proved to be quite the conversation starter. Within days, trolls had left hundreds of mean comments, and she noticed the page was now hemorrhaging likes. People upset with Ken’s fashion sense commented that the doll had finally revealed his last name (“Jenner”), suggested Goetzeler’s morals were “for sale,” and just generally hated everything about it (“the most disgusting cake ever made 😡💩💩😱🙀 will never order anything from you”). Initially, Goetzeler was “shocked that somebody would be offended,” but she decided this was worth taking a stand for. She began weeding out the “rude” stuff. Usually, that makes trolls feel their side is underrepresented, but according to Goetzeler, the cake’s supporters have started putting negative commenters on blast right away, making things uncomfortable enough that “a lot of the negative people are deleting themselves now.”

Anyway, Ken was a win at the party. An attendee said it looked “fantastic” and that the recipient wasn’t transgender or even trying to be political with the theme. Sort of like the 4-year-old girls who just wanted a Hulk princess cake, the feeling at the party was “It was just cake.”

Bakery’s Ken Doll Cake Sparks Latest Dessert ‘Outrage’