National Stationery Show® Summer 2019

Our story by Sarah Neal

Growing up in the U.K., every family birthday was celebrated with cake, a card and a photo of us blowing out the candles. That’s just the way it was. Simple and sweet – these constants went together as naturally as sprinkles and frosting and became a favorite and familiar part of our family story. 

 

My love of food emerged early as a baker at age 6 trying to convince my first food critics/aka my two brothers to eat my creations.  “No really, they’re dee-licious” I would tell them! As I grew, my interests and abilities translated into an education in Food Technology then working with one of the largest frozen food suppliers in Europe before taking the leap into life as an entrepreneur.

 

In 2001, my husband and I picked up and moved our lives across the ocean to beautiful Vancouver Island, Canada. A region known for its back-to-nature, farm-to-fork mentality struck a chord within us both and we knew we’d found our new home.  

 

But moving away from family and friends left a void when it came to birthdays.  I tried sending cakes overseas – tricky to package so that it arrived intact and ridiculously expensive to mail. And a card alone just didn’t seem like enough. 

 

But what if I could send a cake mix with a card?  Was that even possible? Two years later I’m thrilled to report that it is!  Introducing the InstaCake Card!

 

Clever in design, easy to make anywhere with just 3 tablespoons of water and a minute in a microwave – now people can have their cake in a card and eat it too!  

 

But for me it had to be more than a novelty – it had to be a celebration in a box. Now when someone receives the card, they make the cake, blow out the candle and share it with their social media community.  Everyone gets to share in the moment!  

 

And of course I wasn’t going to send the people I love a cake that tasted like cardboard ... it had to be delicious too!  That’s why our cake is made with real eggs, sugar, butter and rice flour. Even the frosting is made with real butter, icing sugar and the higest quality vanilla. Countless blind taste tests of this light, fluffy and flavourful cake confirmed what I knew – this takes a birthday card from ho-hum to oh yum! 

 

I hope sending this sweet surprise to your family, friends, colleagues and customers brings joy, photo-worthy moments and lasting memories. For me, the creation of the InstaCake Card has been a labor of love but totally worth it. Because in my world, nothing says “Let’s Celebrate” more than a shareable experience with cake and a card!