A Northern California bakery is under fire after making a transgender Ken doll birthday cake.
KTXL-TV reported Tuesday that the Freeport Bakery in Sacramento baked the cake. The Ken doll wore a pink dress made of frosting, a sash, a tiara and some jewelry. Co-owner Marlene Goetzeler said it wasn’t one of the most unusual cakes the bakers have ever made.
"Naively, I guess I just thought this is a really cool cake, and look at how great they did with the butter cream,” Goetzeler told the station. “What’s wrong with a Ken cake?”
Goetzeler posted the creation on the bakery’s Facebook page and was immediately hit 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.”
The cake sparked a fierce LGBT debate. The bakery lost dozens of Facebook likes and Goetzeler feared it could damage her business, all because of the post.
Chad Graham who attended the birthday that the cake was meant for said the backlash took the group by surprise.
“Oh, I thought it was fantastic,” Graham told KTXL-TV.
He said that the birthday party for a member of a group that meets once a month for a dice game. He said the recipient of the cake isn’t transgender nor was the cake supposed to be a political statement of any kind.
"I thought it was a little ridiculous. It was just cake,” Graham said.
The station reported that there have been some people defending the bakery in the midst of the cake controversy.
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