A cake or cake-like dessert, such as a cupcake or delectable cookie-cake, that represents, inspires, or responds to a catastrophe. Such artistic desserts were first imagined in the salons of
late-18th century
Paris during discussions of the plight of the Sans-culottes. The oft-repeated "let them eat cake" reflected the aristocratic belief that the Parisian
poor should indulge in cakestrophe so that they might come to understand the futility of resisting the
will of the Second Estate. Because the discourse of these educated salon-frequenters was primarily grounded in esoteric cake theory and not in practice, caketastrophe remained a largely conceptual dessert until the innovations of Brown University undergraduates in the fall of
2007. These brave students, inspired by the
work of Hemmingway and certain gay fantasies, struggled against the forces of uncooperative
frosting and poorly calibrated dorm ovens to produce the first recorded caketastrophes.