Tara Welch's cakes

I can find almost no information about these cakes or the artist responsible, beyond the fact that she studied printmaking in Texas and her name is Tara Welch. Annoyingly, there are quite a few Texas-based photographers named Tara Welch, so unless she is now working in wedding photography and portraiture, the Tara Welch who took these photos has vanished into the wind.

As elusive as the artist seems to be, these cake images can be found circling the internet, I *think* they were done some time in the early 2000s, up to about 2004, but to me they feel very 90s - the way the photos are edited (I can't identify anything specific because I am not a photographer) gives them the same feel as a lot of birthday photos from my own childhood.

I think these images are honestly really funny. There's something about these very hostile messages written on really cheerfully decorated cakes, colourful cakes laden with icing and sprinkles, that make me really happy. They are very clearly birthday cakes, and almost all of them are cakes made for small children, according to the candle count, which I think is really great.

I think we can all agree that young children are pretty selfish. I can't imagine being in charge of a human person and having to teach them things like sympathy and empathy, but I reckon that after a lifetime of being catered to young kids aren't necessarily willing to accept the idea that the world doesn't revolve around them. I think the fact that women are holding these cakes is really important, because we assume (or at least I do) that the cakes are being presented by the mothers, which feels really jarring as mothers are supposed to be nurturing and endlessly understanding. Also quite funny, because it's probably how mothers really feel sometimes.

Are these the words of the moody teenager or the mother who is sick of being unappreciated by the moody teenager? The way the model is positioned doesn't scream enthusiastic.

This cake is almost aggressively feminine. So much pink! The candles, the icing, the doily detail, even the ballerina. A seventh birthday cake for girl who has perhaps been taught stereotypical femininity to the point that she has learned to be helpless. I really like this one.

The only image I've seen where the cake is presented by a man. Bit aggressive, but unnerving.

"Ungrateful little bitches"

This one gets me because I can 100% imagine that these within the snacks at a little girl's birthday party. Pink-wearing, tutu-clad, glitter-covered little girls running around screaming and singing 'Barbie Girl' or something similarly irritating. I love the very homemade look of them, like someone's mum had a bit of a breakdown while making jelly. They're great.

Here's where I would tell you to go and look at the rest of Welch's stuff but she seems to have left her artist days behind. If you can find her, let me know.