What do cakes and knits have in common?

There has been recent discussion in the blogosphere about the tendency of some blogs to be a bit too "nicey-nice" or pretty. If you haven't already seen them, and you're at all interested, check out the links on blogging in this post.

If you just fancy some proof that this is not the case (and perhaps a little giggle) check out the sites below, both of which celebrate in their own way the not nice and the not pretty.

As you might remember, I'm sharing with my sister the arrangements for her wedding next year... So I've been looking at cakes. And in the process I came across:

Cake Wrecks
when professional cakes go horribly, hilariously wrong

Pumpkin Parade

It's hard to choose because most of them are just wrecktastic, and the commentary often has me laughing out loud, but some of my favourite posts on the site are:

• Missed the Mark- don't worry D, we won't order your wedding cake from this bakery!
• Inspiration vs. Perspiration - or this one
• Dial a Wreck - we definitely won't describe what we would like over the 'phone
• What we have here is a failure to communicate - to avoid this
• Cake Writing 201: Congratulations - and we'll send a dictionary along if necessary

Jen, the blogger at Cake Wrecks, does attempt to balance the picture in her Sunday Sweets posts, which really do present some fantastic examples of what cake artistry can look like...

The other site is this one:

Why would you knit that?

This ain't Grandma's afghan

Dissected Rat

Okay, so what do you think? I have to admit to thinking exactly "why. on. earth. would you knit THAT?!" And for those of you who prefer amphibians to rodents, there's a dissected frog too...

Bizarrely (well it seems bizarre to me) it also has a post that's a tribute to Cake Wrecks and features... Oh yes, you guessed it... knitted wedding cakes. I'm sorry, but have I just completely missing the main point of wedding cake?! This being that one should be able to eat it?

Some of my other favourites are:

• It's Yoda! - I love Yoda! Yoda doesn't look too convinced though
• Wearable Lapghan - I had an afghan like this when I was a child (it was purple and lilac and I loved it) but I never thought of doing this with it
• Is this what Dolly Parton was talking about? - I'm all in favour of both colour and texture... Love it actually. But does this work? Really?

Now, I would like to mention (for the sake of full disclosure) that I neither bake nor knit to speak of so it's probably not fair for me to relish these (and giggle) quite as much as I do. I have no doubt when I look at that rat and those knitted cakes that there's way more skill involved than I could ever muster. And I can appreciate that.

And even the worst of the cakes is probably better than I could ever produce. Although I probably wouldn't be trying to sell them. I'm also sure some of them taste quite good despite what they look like.

But still. They are funny. Or am I just warped?