Just Cakes

When I was a kid my mom used to make an amazing cake for my birthday every year. (She made a different one for my brother too.) Mine was two layers of yellow cake with whipped cream and strawberries in the middle and chocolate frosting on top. We’d pick one of those candy decoration sets from the grocery store with a big candy flower or ballerina to put in the middle, and candy candle holders to go around the cake. And sometimes we’d get a decorating kit to write Happy Birthday or draw our own flowers on the sides or a border around the top.

I can’t remember what any one in particular looked like, I just remember the magic of all those different kinds of sweet—the sugary, soft chocolate frosting, the light and creamy homemade whipped cream with just a little less vanilla extract and sugar than I wanted to put in, the naturally sweet and slightly tart strawberries cut in perfectly random sizes, and the fluffy, relatively neutral yellow cake from a box—it was the magic only a mother can make, and magic that made the presents and the getting older almost peripheral. I loved how all those elements and all that mess from all over the kitchen came together to make this love-packed, flavor-packed rectangular bliss.

You’d think I’d bake a similar cake now for my fiancée. But I don’t. At least not this year. For some reason with the presents and making a card, and his family and the boys coming for brunch, and a long run that morning at Ken-Gar, and just plain laziness, it seemed easier to leave the cake to someone who knows what they’re doing. And I’d been driving past Just Cakes for a few months and wondering what they’re about, so I decided to get something from them.

My mother was in town and we went in together to place the order, and of course the minute you walk into the shop the sweetness wafts over to greet you. In addition to their cakes, they have a deli case full of tarts and single serving cakes you could take home any day of the week as a special treat for after a special dinner, or after an average dinner, or even just for dinner I suppose. They also carry a seemingly arbitrary selection of sauces, dips, jams, pottery, baking kits and linens that you can by as gifts or whatever, and you make your way through all of that to get to the counter.

I knew that I was going to get a bike on the cake and I knew I wanted some variation of my childhood birthday cake. 8 inch cake, yellow cake, chocolate butter cream frosting, strawberry butter cream in the middle, and Happy Birthday on top. What I didn’t anticipate was the effort they’d put into the bicycle on top. See, M- has this contraption he rides with the boys. There’s a trailer bike for the older one and a sidecar for the toddler, and that way the three of them can all make their way down the Capital Crescent Trail or to a park together without one of the little ones straying somewhere he shouldn’t. While a sidecar was too much to ask, the team at Just Cakes was actually willing to attempt a triple trailer bike with M- and the two boys, with one boy smaller than the other so we’d know who was who and so nobody would be offended.

As you can see, it came out beautifully (the cake, not the pic). Personally, I think $50 is a lot to spend on a cake. But $15 of that was an art fee due to the complexity of the design, and for as well as it turned out, I have to say it was absolutely worth it. I wouldn’t get a cake like this for kids (but then I wouldn’t hire a clown or rent a trampoline or a fire truck either), but for people old enough to appreciate it, it’s really a fun indulgence. In fact, with enough money and an occasion every week I might even make a habit of it. I think they could do just about anything well. I will say that the cake itself is a little dense for my taste, but they’re the experts and I’m sure it’s exactly what they intend it to be. It certainly won’t keep me from going back. It is after all “The Better Batter.”

Just Cakes, 4849 Rugby Avenue, Bethesda, 301.718.5111 They also host birthday parties and cooking classes.

Comments

[CCFoodie]

This place is a joke. They may know how to bake but they don't know how to run a business. I went in to buy a cake for a friend's birthday. Not fussy - pretty much any flavor would do. They had maybe 2 cakes and a handful of cookies available for sale. It wasn't close to closing time - it was just after lunch time. And I'd called ahead to ask if it was necessary to order in advance and was told that it wasn't - that they always had a variety of cakes on hand for sale. They also didn't even have their hours on their website at that point and when I mentioned it to them, they seemed amazed that anyone might want that information. If they haven't already gone belly-up, I am sure it is just a matter of time.