Where Is Fun Cakes From Shark Tank Today?

One of the myriad tasks that engaged couples set for themselves when getting married is to pick the perfect wedding cake. After all, the wedding cake is a time-honored tradition dating back to ancient Rome, per Gastronomica. Back then, it was considered lucky to break a cake over the bride's head. That practice never really vanished, it just gradually evolved into something else. Nowadays, having a multi-tiered wedding cake that the couple cuts into and then shares with all their guests is expected by many. There's just one problem — wedding cakes are expensive.

That issue isn't resolving itself anytime soon. As reported by CNN Business, inflation hit a 40-year high in 2022, and that has especially affected wedding budgets. It doesn't help that the global supply chain is now unreliable and quarantines caused wedding demand to build up for some time. Besides, there's too much money on the table for the wedding industry to forego its markups. So, folks are turning to micro weddings and virtual ceremonies, sometimes even uninviting previously welcomed guests when the costs add up too high. Fortunately, it turns out there exist elegant alternatives to the traditional wedding cake, and that's at least one way to save money!

Back in the mid-2010s — when inflation wasn't as bad, yet a recent recession was still making folks feel frugal — two contestants went on "Shark Tank" with their very own alternative to traditional wedding cakes. The business was called Fun Cakes, and it made money by renting out display cakes — styrofoam objects covered in real fondant and gum paste. Its founders came up with the idea back in 2007, right around the time the recession started and people began doubling down on pinching pennies. However, guests still expected brides and grooms to cut up their cakes, so these replicas have a secret compartment in the back, where a slice of real cake can be staged. That way, engaged couples can still pretend it's real, then serve affordable sheet cake afterward.

The Sharks did not want to have their cake and eat it too. The mother and son creators of Fun Cakes, Kimberly and Koray Aya, asked them for $285k in exchange for a 25% stake in their business (via Hulu). The idea was lauded as clever and brilliant, but the low sales numbers gave the Sharks cold feet. Lori Greiner said she didn't want her 'something borrowed' to be cake. Mark Cuban accused the duo of not being go-getters. Robert Herjavec told the mother and son they didn't know numbers, while Kevin O'Leary claimed their product causes divorces. To top things off, Barbara Corcoran asked the Aya's if they were nuts. Whoa.

Is Fun Cakes secretly a sweet deal, or is it truly just a bunch of nothing dressed up to look fancy? There hasn't been much officially published about Fun Cakes since its appearance on "Shark Tank." Yet, in the immediate aftermath, ABC13 did report the company was receiving hundreds of calls, and for that reason, Kimberly Aya claimed the "Shark Tank" experience was worth it.

Additionally, the Fun Cakes website provides some more recent updates, painting a fairly pretty picture of things. It states the venture has been in business for 15 years now, and indeed, you can still order cakes through its website for shipping via FedEx. Notably, however, the pandemic has changed the business model so that cakes can only be purchased now, not rented. Furthermore, the company can service corporate events with customizable fake cakes, and businesses like Dow Chemical, Ford Motor, and Macy's have taken the company up on this offer. 

The company has made other media appearances, too, including Inside Edition, where it's vaguely mentioned yet goes unnamed. Fun Cakes also claims to have made it into Amazon, Jewel-Osco, and SpartanNash in the late 2010s, but "Fun Cake" searches on those three websites currently turn up nothing relevant. The Sharks were perhaps a bit mean, but they might have been right that the fun factor of these fake cakes could be overblown.