This dad was left seriously unimpressed by his son's 'frog cake' decoration

You'd think it wouldn't be too hard to put together a child's birthday cake.

Children are easily amused, kind of dumb creatures, and all you have to do is lob an animal or a cool cartoon character on a piece of cake, and things should be mostly good. But time and time again, cake makers go so wide of the mark, that I kind of have to wonder how they did so.

But as ugly or as unintentionally offensive as these cakes can be, one thing you can't accuse these bumbling bakers of is a lack of effort. They may have accidentally made your one-year-old's birthday cake in the shape of a giant penis, but you know that they spent many hours creating that catastrophic failure. They always get an A for effort.

Credit: 881

But sometimes, you come across a cake with so little effort put in, you probably could have saved yourself the stress and disappointed your young child for free. That's probably what this Australian dad is thinking, after he asked local supermarket chain Woolworth's to help him out for his son's third birthday party.

Shane Hallford, a 43-year-old living in Tamworth, New South Wales, just wanted a lovely cake for his son Mason's birthday. Shane's little man was turning three, and for his frog-themed birthday party, Shane wanted a frog-themed cake, shelling out $49 AUD (£28) to make sure this happened.

"I went down to the store three days before my son’s birthday to order the cake. I explained to them we wanted a frog theme, as my son loves frogs. They told me it could done, no worries at all. He wrote down everything I said and said it would be ready by Sunday morning. I was very excited to see it."

Should be simple enough, right?

Wrong.

Shane was pretty annoyed (and understandably so) when the cake arrived on the big day, and instead of a colourful, entertaining frog, this three-year-old had to do make do with some sort of minimalist interpretation of a frog-themed birthday cake.

"I just assumed it would be fine," lamented Shane of the "pathetic" cake design, knowing all too well with hindsight that things would decidedly not be fine.

"When I got home, I opened it up with my wife and we were both mortified. They had this tiny little number three, along with a smiley face, all written in green icing. It would have taken five seconds to do. Amy was very upset, as our guests were arriving in a couple of hours. We thought we would have to try and bake something else."

Luckily, Mason wasn't too put off by the design despite not being a huge art appreciator; after all, for a young child, cake is cake, and this one apparently tasted quite good.

Credit: 3178

But when Shane and his wife Amy called up Woolworth's to complain that they'd paid nearly $50 AUD for something which could have literally been done by a three-year-old, they were told by the supermarket chain that they do not "decorate" cakes. Which raises a few questions as to why they accepted money to decorate a cake.

Anyway, at least Mason's birthday wasn't ruined, and he'll have a funny story to tell when he's older.