3-D is all the rage and you can now celebrate you birthday in grand 3-D fashion with cakes like this Castle of Fantasy (S$200) from Coffee Bean & Tea Leaf
3-D is all the rage and you can now celebrate you birthday in grand 3-D fashion with cakes like this Castle of Fantasy (S$200) from Coffee Bean & Tea Leaf

Three-dimensional or 3-D is all the rage. From 3-D televisions to games, movies and even t-shirt designs, everyone wants their experiences to be as life-like as possible. So when it comes to celebrating the occasion that is quintessential life itself – the birthday, going 3-D is only natural. That is why 3-D cakes have become so sought after.

The tradition of celebrating the day of your birth with a cake goes back to Roman times when flat, round flour cakes representing the moon and made with leavened yeast and honey were offered to Artemis, goddess of the Moon.

Today, the ritual includes a birthday song and candles atop the cake. The light of the candles are said to represent the light of life while the smoke of the blown-out candle is believed to carry prayers for the birthday person to heaven.

Action-packed Adventures

3-D cakes for little boys have a few tried and tested themes. Pirates, for some reason, are very popular. Secret Recipe and emicakes both offer pirate-themed 3-D cakes. The Secret Recipe version is a treasure chest made of either Moist Chocolate Cake or Plain Butter Cake and covered in chocolate cream raked to resemble the timbre of the wood. The gold-covered chocolate coins spilling out of the chest add to the realism. emicakes also offers a treasure chest but their design looks a little cartoonish with gaudy coins and jewellery. What takes the cake (pun intended) is their 3-D pirate ship, Ships Ahoy. The details included are laudable: canon, treasure chests, waves and even sea creatures all in miniature and all perfectly edible. All of emicakes’ 3-D cakes are priced between S$241.70 and S$305 depending on the choice of flavours.

Sports is another favourite theme with soccer and basketball being the game of choice. Secret Recipe and Coffee Bean & Tea Leaf both have soccer-themed cakes but the one from Secret Recipe (shaped like a ball with a scarf warped around it) is the more impressive of the two because it looks less like a conventional square cake masquerading as a 3-D creation. If you want something different, emicakes has tennis and basketball-themed cakes. Dunk, the basketball-themed bake, is particularly striking because of the vibrant red, orange and blue. The concept for the cake (a basketball falling through the hoop) is also very imaginative.

Since boys love cars, planes and trains, locomotives is yet another theme for 3-D cakes for boys. Secret Recipe, Bengawan Solo and Coffee Bean & Tea Leaf all have train cakes. But the winner has to be Coffee Bean & Tea Leaf’s Choo Choo. Not only is it the cheapest, it also comes with carriages filled with candy. Kids will find it simply irresistible!

On that note, Coffee Bean & Tea Leaf also has the most number of locomotive cakes: car, ship and tanks. Pamper your child with these 3-D delights that look as good as they taste.

Girls Rule!

Every little girl longs to be a princess at some point in her life. There are princess cakes aplenty to meet her longings. If you want choice, Swee Heng offers the most. They have 14 different princess designs featuring different coloured gowns and hair. At S$80, it is also among the cheapest.

Continuing the princess theme, Coffee Bean & Tea Leaf offers two types of castle cakes. The Candy Castle has Inside ’s vote because while it may not be as elaborate as the Castle of Fantasy that has turrets galore, it is topped with crunchy candy and is less than half the price of the other cake.

After the royal theme is exhausted, the girl-inspired cakes come in a hotchpotch of designs, such as butterflies from Swee Heng and mermaids from Bengawan Solo and Coffee Bean & Tea Leafs.

Animal Magnetism

Because of their high cuteness quotient, animal 3-D cakes are very sought after. While Secret Recipe has only two types: a bumble bee and a ladybird, their cakes are particularly pretty The choice of fondant instead of icing also makes the cake neater looking although fondant is not particularly tasty.

Once again, Swee Heng trumps when it comes to choice. It offers a zoo of animals, some real (puffer fish, clown fish, rabbit, mouse, panda and cow) and some cartoon (Doraemon and Ninja Turtle).

No (Age) Limit

3-D cakes need not be limited to children. The bakeries have a respectable selection of adult-friendly designs. Coffee Bean & Tea Leaf’s My Purse, a giant pink bag with accompanying make-up set is almost too pretty to eat. The café also features a Chinese-themed longevity peach cake that grandpa or grandma would love.

For those with a sense of humour, emicakes offers a sexy lingerie-clad female torso and a muscled man 3-D cake just to be fair.

Chillax

Finally, ice-cream cakes also come in 3-D designs. Swensen’s ice-cream cake lets you pick two flavours per cake, a definite bonus given the fact that most 3-D cakes are either chocolate or vanilla flavoured.

Some points to note about choosing 3-D cakes. When you opt for a cake with so much dramatic visual effect, some things have got to give. In this case, it is the taste. The flavours for 3-D cakes, even amongst bakeries known for their dynamic choices, are usually unadventurous. In addition, because of the copious amount of icing and decorations required of such cakes, they are usually overly sweet. For another, 3-D cakes are huge. They usually have to be upward of two kilograms to holdup the design. So, be prepared to share. But these are minor grouses that are entirely forgivable when you look at the creative designs.

So, whatever the age, when it comes to your birthday, why not let your imagination go wild and let ‘em have (3-D) cake!

Dine with us:

Bengawan Solo
www.bengawansolo.com.sg
Bengawan Solo
www.bengawansolo.com.sg
Bengawan Solo
www.bengawansolo.com.sg
Bengawan Solo
www.bengawansolo.com.sg
Bengawan Solo
www.bengawansolo.com.sg
Bengawan Solo
www.bengawansolo.com.sg
Coffee Bean & Tea Leaf

www.coffeebean.com.sgCoffee Bean & Tea Leaf

www.coffeebean.com.sgemicakes
www.emicakes.com.sg
Secret Recipe
www.secretrecipe.com.sg
Swee Heng
www.sweeheng.sg
Swensen’s
www.swensens.com.sg
Swensen’s
www.swensens.com.sg
Swensen’s
www.swensens.com.sg
Swensen’s
www.swensens.com.sg
Swensen’s
www.swensens.com.sg
Swensen’s
www.swensens.com.sg
Swensen’s
www.swensens.com.sg