Happy 75th Birthday Batman!

cakelava.com

On the evening of Wednesday, July 23rd, 2014, an enormous four-day pop culture media festival called Comic-Con opened at the San Diego Convention Center. Comic-Con is a much anticipated event each year with more than 100,000 attendees coming together to celebrate the best in pop culture film, comics, video games, costumes and more. Coinciding with the kick-off of Comic-Con, DC Comics, the publisher of the Batman comic book franchise, declared July 23rd as "Batman Day" honoring the 75th anniversary of the creation of the Bob Kane and Bill Finger comic book hero.

Outside of Comic-Con, Batman Day was celebrated throughout America. Local theaters showed special screenings of  Batman movies. Fans of the caped crusader threw parties in his honor, and at cakelava, Rick was hard at work making a special cake for a woman who adores Batman!

Our client wasn't kidding when she said she loves Batman more than anything. She said she has felt an affinity with Batman for years and has a Batman tattoo. She calls her apartment "The Batcave" and has Batman items throughout - pictures on the walls, Batman tchotchkes on the shelves, and Batman dolls. In honor of Batman's 75th birthday, she and a group of her friends would attend a special film screening of the original "Batman" movie (with Michael Keaton and Jack Nicholson) from 1989, then going back to her place to celebrate with treats and cake!

For her cake, our client knew exactly what she wanted - a 3D sculpted "Chibi" Batman modelled after a doll she owns. We didn't know what a "chibi" version of Batman was but thankfully, Google does and was all too happy to help. Our client brought her coveted Chibi Batman doll to our shop, still in the box and sealed. We knew what this doll meant to her and when she told Rick he could open the box to access the doll, we felt honored.

Rick sculpted the Batman out of chocolate cake. He spent a lot of time sculpting the body and it's gigantic head. The doll had subtle nuances in its shape that required special attention to get the look just right, and he had to build a specials structure for the standing figure. We were thrilled with how it turned out and thought our client would think it was too cute to cut. It turns out she did!

She greeted us outside her building wearing a sleek black outfit with a patterned jacket and leggings - Batman themed of course - and squealed when she first saw the cake! As far as reactions go, a big grin is a huge plus but a squeal is an impulsive, kid-like reaction that cannot be contained and it is the ultimate reaction for us to witness! The cake was well-admired as we walked through the building to her apartment. We didn't know her guests were waiting inside and when the door opened, we were swarmed with a room full of people who instantly pulled out their phones to snap photos. This was one well-photographed cake!

In addition to her amazing Batman cake, party guests enjoyed her homemade Batman sandwiches and black lemonade served in mason jars with chibi Batman heads on top. How cute!

That's one happy Bat-group posing with the cake!

Batman Cake

June has been one big amazing blur of cakes! One of those months where we're constantly looking at the calendar trying to remember what date it is. If the dates weren't defined by the cakes we have, we might never know what day it is! According to our June calendar and the client's order, the Batman cake above was made for a birthday party on Monday, just four days ago. It feels like much more time has passed than four days.

This sculpted Batman Dark Knight cake was made for a man celebrating his 21st birthday. His parents ordered the cake as a surprise for their son, who loves Batman, superheroes and comic books around the same time they ordered a Harry Potter themed cake for their daughter. Rick chose to model his Batman cake after the comic book rather than movie character, going more old school than the Hollywood movie version. Rick also happens to be a huge fan of Batman and comic books and was excited to make this cake for their son. As part of the birthday surprise, his parents brought the birthday boy into our studio to pick up his cake. He knew he was getting a cake but probably in his wildest dreams never thought he'd be picking up a Batman cake. He looked extremely happy and probably thought at that moment, his parents were the coolest people on earth!

Aloha, 'til next time!