Austrian Baker in Hot Water Over Sept. 11 Cake
A cake depicting the Twin Towers, replete with two airplanes crashing into them, has an Austrian baker facing backlash.
The baked sculpture features two buildings reminiscent of the World Trade Center with two airplanes colliding into them. There are even globs of gray and red-colored frosting in the center of each building to show the impact of the planes. The buildings are labeled SPÖ and ÖVP, the initials of two Austrian political parties.
Thomas Kienbauer, who owns the Alexander patisserie in Vienna, says he didn’t intend for the baked sculpture to offend anyone.
“I know about the sensitivity of 9/11 and I certainly did not want to ridicule the tragedy,” Kienbauer told The Washington Post.
Kienbaur told newspaper Kronen Zeitung he was unhappy with Austria’s ruling party, and used the cake to express that. According to RT.com, he told the paper, “Sometimes, you have to present an exaggerated view of the situation if you really want to make a point.”
He said the idea came to him after a customer mentioned that this year’s elections in Austria are being held on Oct. 11 (10/11), a date similar to 9/11, Fox News reported.
“I acknowledge that my portrayal of the situation is dramatic. However, to encapsulate the implications one is forced to depict them dramatically and to exaggerate,” Kienbauer told The Post.
Unsurprisingly, the cake has not been received well. Tweets (written in German) feature words like “awful,” “unbelievable” and “offending,” RT.com reported. If your German is up to snuff, you can check out a few here.
Kienbauer seems unmoved by the outcry. He told the Washington Post in an email, “My customers have predominantly reacted positively to my latest creation,“ Kienbauer said. He told the paper he has no intention of destroying or removing the cake.
This is not the first cake to cause a stir. In 2011, another Austrian bakery called Tortendesign in a village near Vienna offered a cake decorated with swastikas and a baby raising its hand in a Nazi salute.
And in 2012, a cake served at a Swedish museum that depicted the torso of an African woman prompted a bomb scare.
