A California bakery is facing public criticism and customer defections over its decision to bake a controversial specialty cake featuring a transgender version of Ken, the Barbie doll’s male companion.
A customer ordered a birthday cake modeled after transgender Ken from Sacramento’s Freeport Bakery — complete with a pink dress made of frosting, a sash, a tiara, and jewelery.
The bakery, which is known for its doll cakes, posted a picture of the doll cake on Facebook and started to experience a backlash, according to Marlene Goetzeler, co-owner of the bakery.
“I started getting some negative comments … Then a couple days later I noticed there was a big dip in unlikes. I was kind of surprised,” said Goetzeler to KTXL.
The post went viral on social media, but the bakery’s Facebook page lost dozens of “likes” and potential business as a result.
“After posting this we had a ton of people unliking our Facebook page. I deleted the rude remarks, thank goodness not too many. Our customer was thrilled. Share this for us!” the company posted.
One customer responded: “It,was meant to be a joke. People have wayyyy to much time on their hands to be offended by a cake seriously. We have bigger problems to worry about. The cake made the customer happy and that’s what’s important.”
“Naively, I guess I just thought this is a really cool cake, and look at how great they did with the butter cream,” said Goetzeler. “What’s wrong with a Ken cake?”
The customer who bought the cake said the cake was meant to be for a friend’s birthday, according to KCRA.
Chad Graham, a member of the party where the cake was served, said the cake was meant for someone who was not transgender and did not want to make a political statement.
“I thought it was a little ridiculous. It was just cake,” said Graham.
COMMENTS
Please let us know if you're having issues with commenting.