“Apology to the In-Laws”

Alcohol-based Marker on Paper, 6”x6”, Summer 2026

130: Something Very Bad is Going to Happen, 2026

The origin of the mid-century, American sheet cake is theorized to have evolved from a cultural hybrid of the 19th Century jellyroll cake and the 20th Century, Southern tradition of a Texas Funeral Cake. Texas Funeral Cake or Texas Sheet Cake (also referred to as “Sheath Cake” based on a regional malapropism) is a rectangular, minimally layered cake, frosted and decorated with a broad surface area. It’s simple ingredients and sprawling dimensions established the sheet cake as an affordable staple for funeral receptions, birthdays, and potlucks, providing generous space to include decorative messaging for any occasion. The convenience of today’s modern sheet cake, available at any local grocery store or bakery, has made the dessert a very common gesture of celebration or emotional declaration on a whim. As opposed to the planned booking of a customized wedding or birthday cake, the sheet cake can be utilized for a sudden expression of sympathy, thanks, inside jokes between friends, or an apology to one’s future in-laws for your paranoid suspicions.