Liz Charm and her son, Jordan Long, have come up with a creative, new update to an old party idea—having something (or someone) pop out of a cake as an entertaining surprise.
Apparently, this idea goes back at least to Medieval Europe, when light dishes called entremets were served between the main courses. These became a form of entertainment, including pies containing live animals such as doves or frogs. Remember the old nursery rhyme about the four and twenty blackbirds baked into a pie that would fly out and start to sing? It seems that wasn’t just a fantasy after all!
The mother and son team aren’t suggesting that you put frogs or blackbirds inside a cake, which would obviously violate a lot of health codes in these modern times. Instead they have created a way to hide a present or other fun item inside a cake, and a means by which the surprise can pop up safely out of the cake.
Liz Charm says the idea came to her when she was thinking about fun ways to make her daughter’s 13th birthday party really special. Her daughter was getting her first cell phone. Liz wanted to have the phone inside the cake and make it ring just after her daughter blew out the candles!
She sealed the phone in a plastic bag and hid it under layers of icing. When the phone began to ring inside the cake, everyone was completely surprised and it was a big hit. Liz wanted to make it possible for others to easily incorporate this type of surprise into their celebrations.
Jordan Long had studied engineering, and the two began collaborating to design something that would work easily, but also conform to health and safety regulations. Food safety requirements prevent placing non-edible products inside cakes and so they created the Popping Cake Stand.
This stand gives the illusion that the gift is popping out of the cake itself, and the gift is contained in a plastic tube that is 6 inches tall with a 2.8-inch diameter. The stand is also made of plastic and holds a cake up to 10 inches in diameter, or 18 standard size cupcakes.
A separate music box is also available to attach to the stand that operates in the same way as a jack-in-the-box toy.
The Popping Stand is a perfect way to make any party special—for a birthday, anniversary, gender reveal, or to pop the question!
