Touching story behind viral photo of 'ugly' Elsa cake

A photo of an "ugly" cake resembling Elsa from Disney's "Frozen" has spread quickly over the internet, but the baker says there were sweet intentions behind the decorative disaster.

The pretty terrible Elsa imitation was posted to Reddit on Tuesday with the caption: "The cake that was ordered and the cake that arrived."

The perfect princess cake on the left-hand side was made by a professional baker and blogger.

The so-called scary Elsa on the right was made by a volunteer for Icing Smiles - a charity that makes birthday cakes for very sick children.

After the photo went viral, volunteer Lisa Randolph-Gant addressed the story, saying she had just lost her grandmother and had spent the day comforting her mother.

She says that left her only two hours to make a cake that normally takes 20 hours.

Randolph-Gant went on to say she knows it wasn't her best work, but she wasn't about to let a sick baby down.