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Celebrity Baker Says Trump Stole His Design For Inauguration Cake, Bakery That Made It Gave All Profits To HRC In Protest

By Patricia Ramirez
Published on: 12:59 PST, Jan 22, 2017

Donald Trump went into inauguration day mired in controversy and protests; amid all of the drama, however, his inauguration cake really stood out. Not, however, for the reason the new POTUS might have hoped. That’s because the Trump inauguration cake was as familiar as it was impressive. And it was familiar because it was a dead ringer for a cake baked for the second inauguration of President Barack Obama in 2013.

The original cake was baked by celebrity pastry chef Duff Goldman, and he immediately noticed that the Trump inauguration cake bore a striking resemblance to the cake he’d baked for the 2013 Commander in Chief’s Ball. As The Washington Post reports, Goldman took to Twitter to share the copycat cake situation with the world.

It didn’t take long for social media users to weigh in on the Trump inauguration cake situation, with many immediately agreeing that some serious pastry plagiarism had gone on. In fact, some were appalled that Donald Trump or his inauguration planning people would rip off Obama’s decadent and impressive inauguration cake, “right down to the last star.”

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FT1rVlgsr1A

The blatant cake design theft was front and center at the Salute to Our Armed Services Ball, as President Trump and Vice President Pence made a big show out of cutting the nine-tiered behemoth with a sword at the event. In fact, people were so shocked that the story began to dominate social media trending news lists, and many were wondering how such a thing could have happened. Because Donald Trump has had very few positive things to say about President Obama, a lot of folks were incensed that he would copy the outgoing president’s inauguration cake so obviously.

While Duff Goldman was willing and even eager to use social media to point out that his Obama inauguration cake had been ripped off, he hasn’t answered questions about “cakegate,” ignoring media requests for further comment. He did, however, turn to Twitter once more to address the Trump inauguration cake situation, and he didn’t appear to have much actual anger over the situation.

The Trump transition team isn’t taking about the pilfered cake design, either. In fact, it has been reported that media outlets have been getting the runaround. On Saturday afternoon, the Trump team began directing media queries about the cake to inaugural ball planners at the Department of Defense. In turn, on Sunday department spokespersons said they weren’t the people to answer such questions.

There is one player in the Trump inauguration cake saga that is talking, however. As AV Club reports, the bakery that actually created the knock-off cake has chosen to spill its guts on the situation, and D.C.’s Buttercream Bake Shop openly admits that they did copy Obama’s cake. According to the bakery, they were hired to do precisely that. They say that just two weeks before Inauguration Day (an incredibly tight timeframe) they were contacted by inauguration planners to bake a cake that looked just like the Obama inauguration cake of 2013.

In fact, the bakery claims that they were provided with pictures of the original to make their job that much easier than the plagiarism much more precise.

Rather than turn down the job, Buttercream Bake Shop agreed to replicate the cake. And they also got into the anti-Trump spirit, despite fulfilling the request. The bakery explained their mini inauguration protest on their Instagram page.

The bakery that created the Trump inauguration cake at the center of all the controversy decided to metaphorically “stick it” to the Trump/Pence team by donating all proceeds from the project to the Human Rights Campaign, which does a lot of LGBTQ advocacy group.

“Because basic human rights are something every man, woman and child – straight, gay, or the rainbow in between – deserve.”

It’s a fairly fitting protest against an administration that, as one of its first acts, removed the LGBTQ page from the WhiteHouse.gov “Issues” section.

What are your thoughts on the situation? Is it appropriate to simply rip off a high-profile cake design? Should the Trump transition team have come up with something original, or at least gotten permission to copy the cake? Do you agree with the Bakery for donating all proceeds from the Trump inauguration cake to HRC?

[Featured Image by Alex Brandon/AP Images]

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