Photo By Gail

While strolling down Clinton Street on the Lower East Side recently, I passed a neighborhood bakery that I affectionately refer to as the “ghetto bakery” — mostly because the cakes in the window rarely look like anything you’d actually want to eat. Case in point: this Pink Barbie-themed Kids’ Birthday Cake.

At first glance, it has potential. The swirls of pink frosting that make up the voluminous skirt are impressively extra, studded with metallic candies and flanked by fluttering  pink butterflies. But then… there’s Barbie. Or rather, half of Barbie. Her lone upper torso rises from the center of the frosted ball gown skirt for a cake that might’ve been charming if she didn’t look like she literally rolled out of bed five minutes ago. That hair is giving less “Birthday Princess” and more “Help Me.”

And the price? A cool $160 — for a cake that doesn’t even include a full doll. I’m sorry, but that’s a hard pass. Cute concept, questionable execution, and a price tag that deserves its own reality check. This one’s a Pink Birthday Cake Fail, folks.