Bakery hit with backlash over 'deeply offensive' Hitler cake
Warning: Contains content some readers may find offensive.
A Massachusetts bakery has come under fire for producing a ‘deeply offensive’ cake depicting a popular cartoon character as Adolf Hitler.
Sweet Stuff Bake Shop in Norton, a town in Bristol County, is a made-to-order bakery where experts create ‘high-quality, custom baked goods for all occasions’, according to its website.
The business allegedly received a leaving cake order recently for someone who reportedly shared the same birthday as Hitler, who was born on 20 April.
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"I've done several cakes for this company, and it's always been inside jokey, for the employees," the owner Melanie Barrick told WJAR on Tuesday (2 June).
Despite not being ‘super comfortable’ depicting the Nazi dictator in cake form, Barrick went ahead to create the edible item anyway.
Instead of modelling it on the politician, who is responsible for instigating World War II and the Holocaust, where the Nazi regime murdered around six million Jewish people, Barrick opted for South Park’s version.
In ‘The Passion of the Jew’ episode of South Park, which debuted during the adult cartoon’s eighth season in March 2004, Stan Marsh and Kenny McCormick pursue Mel Gibson to get their money back after watching The Passion of the Christ.
Meanwhile, Eric Cartman uses the movie to start his own neo-Nazi movement, even going as far as to don a Nazi-style uniform at one point in the episode.
He also dressed up as Hitler for Halloween in a chapter of season one called ‘Pinkeye’, which aired in 1997.
South Park Elementary School principal Victoria was offended by the costume, making him change into a new one.
For the employee’s leaving present, Barrick piped icing to create Cartman dressed as Hitler giving a Nazi salute.
It also featured a quote bubble that read: “HEIL KATIE!!!”
The American business owner initially posted a photo of her bizarre creation on social media, but later took it down after backlash.
"That was certainly a choice. Sometimes it’s okay to say no," commented one Facebook user.
A second said: "I am very disappointed after having giving you my business for four years while my son was at Wheaton in Norton.
"Anyone with even the tiniest brain would have realized that this was an unacceptable thing to do. Very sad. And if you had not gotten the outrage, you would’ve thought nothing of it," a second said.
Someone else added: "2 poor choices - it was a choice to make the cake and it was a choice to proudly post your creation. I don’t think you are hateful and I truly hope you take the time to be introspective."
On 1 June, an apology was uploaded in its place. It read: “To our loyal customers, we would like to apologize for posting a cake we made for a customer this weekend.
“We hadn’t considered the feelings of the greater global community. Please know that we would never willingly wish to disrespect any portion of the world population.”
Additionally, they claimed that there was ‘no ill-will intended’.
When asked whether she thought the decoration was 'wrong', the cake maker claimed: "When I'm making a cake and I work anywhere from 70 to 100 hours a week it becomes a process and it really becomes a box check. The art work gets done."
Speaking to WJAR, Rabbi Yossi Kivman, Manfield’s Chabad Jewish Center, said the cake was ‘deeply, deeply offensive but not as a Jew as an American’.
"If someone thinks its a joke then they need to be educated."
He said that he and his wife had ‘reached out’ to the bakery regarding the controversial treat and offered to have Barrick meet with a survivor of the Holocaust.
The publication wrote that Barrick, who plans on retiring at the end of June, is ‘not opposed to education’.
When asked if she believed she 'did anything bad', she added: "I'm not necessarily sure that if a fair question people are going to slaughter one side or the other of that comment."
FOODbible has contacted Sweet Stuff Bake Shop in Norton for further comment.
Topics: US Food, Social Media
Ella Scott