After making a transgender Ken doll birthday cake, a bakery in California came under fire from many in the local community - but the business claims it was all a misunderstanding.
According to KTXL-TV, Freeport Bakery in Sacramento baked a buttercream-frosting cake with a Ken doll wearing a pink dress made of frosting, a sash, a tiara and some jewelry. Thinking it was a "really cool cake," bakery co-owner Marlene Goetzeler posted the creation on the bakery's Facebook page and was shocked when the post was flooded with negative comments.
"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," she added. "I was shocked that somebody would be offended...What's wrong with a Ken cake? I really didn't think it was going to have blowback - call me naive."
The cake sparked a fierce LGBT debate, and the bakery lost dozens of Facebook likes and received boycotts threats. Goetzeler feared it could damage her business, all because of the post.
Others, however, were quick to defend the bakery, pointing out that the cake was clearly meant to be a joke.
"People have wayyyy to much time on their hands to be offended by a cake seriously," wrote one commenter. "We have bigger problems to worry about. The cake made the customer happy and that's what's important."
"You certainly didn't lose me as a customer over this," added another. "I bought a Fruitbasket cake at your bakery this morning. Thank you it was delicious as all of your cakes are."
Chad Graham who attended the birthday that the cake was meant for, expressed shock over the controversy, as the recipient of the cake isn't transgender nor was the cake supposed to be a political statement of any kind.
"Oh, I thought it was fantastic," he said. "I thought it was a little ridiculous. It was just cake," Graham said, reports the New York Daily News.
In a later Facebook post, Goetzeler thanked the local community for its support, and announced she deleted the negative reactions which "weren't things that would serve any good."
"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 new post read, and has so far garnered more than 1,800 reactions.
