 |
| Hopefully the person jumping out of your cake won't look as bored as these two! |
For a major scene in my book, How Kirsty Gets Her Kicks, I wanted my main character Kirsty to try and get close enough to someone who would immediately have her killed if he saw her.
I racked my brains about how to do this without her being found out and when it emerged he was having a birthday party, I thought it would be awesome if she could hide in a cake.
I don’t know about you, but I have never seen anyone jump out of a cake before, so I didn’t know where to start. That’s when the good old Internet came to the rescue.
Here are some fun facts I discovered -
It's actually quite straightforward to hire a pop out cake, as cakes designed for jumping out of are called.
Pop out cake are usually three tier cakes that resemble wedding cakes, you can even make your own. They can also be square.
Note, I said make and not bake your own because the only similarity between these cakes and real ones is the edible frosting they may have on the outside.
Quite often, a table cloth is placed over the bottom the cake to hide the fact there is no bottom and that’s how the person inside gets inside. Other cakes sit on a platter or stand and have wheels so that the cake can be wheeled in with the person inside.
A section of the cake can open like a door to allow the person to get inside with ease.
The top comes off and that’s how the person inside jumps out.
A pop out cake even featured in Xena Warrior Princess.
To hire a cake, it’s best to approach a prop hire company like this one.
Book description
A tale of skullduggery that plays out on the mean streets of Glasgow…
One-legged barmaid Kirsty is in a shit-load of trouble after she kills one of gangster Jimmy McPhee’s enforcers with a stiletto heel to the head after he gets a bit too handsie.
Now she’s on the run from the gang boss who loves to torture his victims before he kills them, with a safe-load of cash she stole from him and a hot gun. And she has company—a choirboy barman Jamie who just happens to be the only witness.
She needs to survive long enough to spend the cash.
~~~
Out now in paperback and Kindle at all good book stores and on Amazon
Note - This post was first published in 2011 which shows what a long road publishing can be. I'm reposting it to celebrate How Kirsty Gets Her Kicks being published 8 years after it was first due to be published by Pulp Press.
Thanks go to Shotgun Honey for publishing it.
