We all have been there. Trying to have the perfect party for one of our kids but there’s only so much one can do. And when I will love to outsource everything for the party so I can have time to enjoy the actual party, at the same time, I want to do it everything so I can feel like the perfect mom.

Trying to be smart with my time and money as well as being honest with my skills to do one or the other thing, I decided cake decoration was far from my comfort zone. I’m pretty good at baking but I know how important visuals can be on people’s minds when it comes to try something vegan, reason why I went on the look for a baker/bakery with mad decorating skills that could offer vegan options which proved to be quite the challenge (at least around my town).

If you wanna take a closer look at her work and options you may have to choose from, just check her Instagram feed. Down below is one of the MANY options she has for you!

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A post shared by Karen's Cakes Ltd. (@karens_cakes_ltd)

But going back to my story…what I asked her wasn’t an easy cake, favor wise, I guess it was pretty simple, vanilla and strawberry jam but the decoration was a little…intense, lol!

It was a cake for a 2 year old who loves cocomelon and if you don’t know cocomelon it means that you are not a parent and that is fine 😉 but for some context, Cocomelon is just one of the most subscribed YouTube channels for kids (when is not the first one) which means they have videos for every topic you can imagine, including of course, a birthday one. And that was the challenge. To recreate the very same cake it appears on the 13th anniversary of the brand (?) which is colorful, vibrant, full of details and also not all details are fully visible from every angle so the back of the cake remains a mystery for everyone.

But this wasn’t a problem for Karen! It was an invitation to be creative and playful with the elements present on the “other side” of the cake and oh boy! she delivered. In every angle and to the delight of my 2 year old which to this day keeps asking for her “happy (birthday) cake”, which not only had the details on the pic that I sent but some other to complement the theme and make it look like it was part of the whole thing from the beginning (check the tree on the pics).

My guests didn’t ask anything about the cake until they saw me eating it, which I guess triggered the reminder that I’m vegan so If I’m eating it, the cake should be too. So I got the obvious question “Is it vegan?” which to my delight I had to say “yes! It is” for everybody’s surprise but me.

And I understand their shock, how can a vegan cake can be so…normal, and with that I mean, I wasn’t heavy like some vegan cakes can be, it wasn’t made with extravagant flours or crazy flavours that altered the final taste or texture. No, it was beyond that, flavour was on point! not to sweet even with the strawberry jam and the vanilla flavor on the sponge wasn’t overpowered by the jam, anyone could tell it was vanilla. My friends and family said it was impressive how good it was, they never thought that a vegan cake can be so tasty, fluffy and beautiful. I got asked a lot about single ingredients “is the fondant vegan?, is the cream in between layers vegan?…so is the whole can vegan?” so I answered, yes, yes and yes! A completely vegan cake 🙂

I guess I was lucky to be “rejected” by many bakers because I found Karen and with her…a baker I can trust for any of my future baking request 😉 so if you are in or around Oxforshire get in touch with her so she can bake for you the perfect vegan cake that will please vegans and non-vegans!! Here are all her social accounts, go and follow her but be careful not to drool so close to the screen 😉

Love

TEVG