"It's all in the details," they say. But sometimes even the most well-explained details can backfire. Don't believe us? Costco's recent cake failure is proof of it. A customer who ordered a cake from the wholesale chain did not know his details would be miserably misconstrued.

On April 2, 2023, a Reddit user named Stephen Walker (who goes by the name u/FlipDemStocks on the platform) posted a collage of photos in the r/funny subreddit and the post instantly became a laughing stock. Walker shared how the cake he recently ordered from the local Costco turned out. The post caption read, "Costco will give you exactly what you know you didn't need." He shared three images of his cake order and also the result of the order. The first image showed Walker's request for a half-sheet cake, where he specifically mentioned he needed a cake with no write-up or design. The order request was seemingly simple. The customer wanted only the red frosting on the top and bottom cake perimeters.

A note attached to it read, "Please see back." The phrase was even highlighted so Costco does not miss the instructions. At the back of the form, the customer drew a cake sketch of how they envisioned it. The image showed an isometric rendered shape of a cake with lines drawn in red to further specify it. Easy-peasy, right? But the cake Costco made was [literally] one of a kind. Walker told TODAY, "I used a black pen to draw a quick sketch of what I thought a cake would look like." He added that he immediately grabbed his daughter's red magic marker and colored the borders of the sketch. "I was like- I got directions and a little illustration here. They can't mess this up. Right?" the customer said. But the baker followed the instructions to the T (which he was not supposed to.) The order went awry, and the baker drew the cake sketch and placed it neatly onto the original cake.

The Costco cake artist was so meticulous in his design he even copied the black lines from the sketch and dutifully completed the cake. However, there was no red frosting on the perimeters. Reddit users were in stitches about this epic Costco cake fail. A Reddit user, @Odd-Jupiter, wrote, "Lol, I am impressed that they even transferred the flawed perspective." Another user, @Bogmanbob, commented, "And the two-tone. It's really impressive how that decorator got those details but completely missed the big picture."

A user, @Southern_Name_9119, spoke in Costco's defense and wrote, "The crappy drawing confused them. They assumed it was an odd shape for some inside joke." @Scoobz1961 quipped, "I can just picture that minimum wage employee laughing their ass off making this." The pick-up date for the order was Saturday, April 1, 2023. So some social media watchdogs assumed it to be an April Fools Day prank. But later, it was clear that it was Walker's daughter's 3rd birthday. He said, "I picked it up Saturday morning and was in a time crunch." Walker even joked when the cashier asked if he could inform the bakery about the mishap but he refused. "We were in a hurry, so I was like, 'Well, I will just scrape it off.'"