To think Waitrose shouldn't be categorising their children's cake like this?

[IWantADinosaurCake]

Just looking at cakes for upcoming birthdays on the Waitrose website, and I was disappointed to see that they had classified their children's cakes into Girls Cakes and Boys Cakes.

Girls Cakes consists of cupcakes, barbie and ladybirds, and Boys Cakes includes fire engines, pirate ships and dinosaurs.

I know you don't have to follow the categories, but I find it so sad that Waitrose have designed the categories in this way - what's wrong with just 'Children's Cakes'?

www.waitrose.com/shop/Browse/Groceries/Bread_and_Cakes/Personalised_Cakes_Made_to_Order/Kids_Birthday_Cakes

[sleepyhead]

How bizarre

So a chocolate dinosaur cake is not for girls.
A ladybird cake is not for boys.
But a spotty dog cake is for both.

Seems like they just created more work for themselves there.

[MegMogandOwlToo]

Some people do prefer to shop this way though, which is why stores categorise products into boys and girls.

You can still buy things from each category though, although it is frustrating!

[Tangoandcreditcards]

YANBU

Also they are being even more U for "out of space cake"

[ouryve]

It's an utterly pointless categorisation, though. Who on earth end up paralysed with indecision because they can't decide whether or not a cake would be suitable for their little boy?

[SkaterGrrrrl]

YANBU.

This drives me mad. My daughter likes dinosaurs. She hates Barbie.

Breaks my heart to see little ones put in constrictive little gendered boxes.

[ClawHandsIfYouBelieveInFreaks]

YANBU and I think someone needs to let them in on the Let Toys be Toys for Girls and Boys campaign!

[LegoCaltrops]

Ha. DD would not choose any of the girl cakes, only the boy or neutral ones.

[SmileAndNod]

I've just bought Lego at asda and it went through the till listed as 'Boys toys'. Surely just 'lego' would have done!

[noblegiraffe]

The spotty dog and the spider cake say "James" and "Daniel" on them so they clearly think they are boys cakes really even though they shoved them in the girls section too. I suspect that they realised that having 10 boys cakes and only 6 girls cakes was rubbish so they tried to even it up.

[sleepyhead]

I didn't notice the spider cake was in both as well.

So... spider is a unisex minibeast, but ladybird is for girls. Curiouser and curiouser.

[MonstersBalls]

This makes me so cross . What's the bloody point in genderizing cake ffs. Why should my DD feel she's making the wrong choice when she chooses her birthday cake.

My 6yr old DD has so far had a pirate cake, a fireman sam cake and a football cake. Thankfully I didn't get them from Waitrose!

[FishCanFly]

Black cat cake is not for boys? How weird

[Whippet81]

YANBU

It makes me cross too.

[Bulbasaur]

Cats are for girls, but spiders are for both...

Huh.

Interesting way of breaking them up. There's not even that many cakes. You could fit them all on the same page.

[foodfiend]

YANBU. It's ridiculous. I hate that people buy into this crap, like the parents at a recent PTA cake sale, 'Ooh, no I can't get that one for [boy's name] - he'd be really cross if I got one with a heart on it.' Right, he'll hate the CAKE, with the heart-shaped SWEETIE! Because boys just hate love, sweets and cake, (or at least they probably learn to if they hear grownups saying guff like this. Grrr.)

[mommy2ash]

I guess my dd would be their target market as all the ones she would pick are in the girls section. she would see the ones in the boys section as for boys without a classification and im ok with that

[KurriKurri]

Usual Waitrose craziness.
And the prices are insane, - 48 quid for a cake ????? Does a bit of sponge and fondant icing cost more if it includes lazy gender stereotyping?

[foodfiend]

dd's birthday cake. Consumed by both boys and girls...

[SophieBarringtonWard]

What a load of crap. I am disappointed in Waitrose. DD2 had a "pirate" party for her birthday, enjoyed by both boys & girls, even the pirate cake! Shock horror.

[MiddletonPink]

But if your DD likes dinosaurs go to the boy cake section.

There isn't a problem is there?

I couldn't care less about boys or girls sections.
I would just go to the section where the cake is I wanted.

[noblegiraffe]

The fact that they have struggled to classify some of the cakes by gender just shows what a stupid thing it was to be doing in the first place.

[Theorientcalf]

How on earth is a ladybird considered girlie?

[noblegiraffe]

It's a ladybird. Hence a girl thing. My DS was obsessed with ladybirds for a while so I bought him a dress up costume. It was in the girls section and had a frilly tutu thing.

[sleepyhead]

...or, Waitrose could have saved themselves some time, just had a section called "Children's Cakes" and put all 16 cakes in there.

Then when they add new cakes to the range they wouldn't have the headache of deciding whether, for example, a caterpillar cake was a girls cake (potential butterfly? Is that "girly"), or a boys cake (but... caterpillar is a creepy crawlie - so boy!), or for both (y'know, like a spider, but not a ladybird. Or a dinosaur).