The Tomte Cake on 'Shark Tank': What is the cost and how to buy the new children's book about tiny gnome
REDMOND, OREGON: Miranda Vaughn is poised to present her innovative children's book, The Tomte Cake, in Episode 8 of 'Shark Tank' Season 15.
Many of us cherish various holiday traditions, with building a gingerbread house being a popular one. However, constructing a gingerbread house is no easy task.
Ensuring the correct sizes for the house parts, assembling them properly, and making them taste good can be challenging. Despite these drawbacks, these traditions are an integral part of our holiday celebrations. Vaughn's The Tomte Cake offers a novel solution for gingerbread house construction.
In the upcoming episode, Vaughn will introduce her distinctive product to the Sharks, hoping to impress the panel, which includes Mark Cuban, Barbara Corcoran, Kevin O'Leary, Lori Greiner, and Daymond John.
What is The Tomte Cake?
The Tomte Cake is a beautiful children's book featuring Tomte, a tiny sweet gnome who accidentally falls into some cake batter and gets baked into a gingerbread house. Rest assured, he comes out healthy and happy.
The gnomes' and Tomte's surprise turns into good fortune, establishing an annual tradition in the gnome's village. You can simply bake a gingerbread house cake and hide Tomte inside to bring the story to life.
It is said whoever manages to find Tomte in their piece of cake has good luck by their side for the rest of the Christmas season.
As per the brand's official website, the children's book narrates, "A vibrant story and beautiful illustrations with one of our favorite things, gnomes! I'm recommending this to all my friends this Christmas."
We must say, The Tomte Cake might be a perfect product for those who love holiday traditions like making a gingerbread house.
One Tomte Cake Set includes The Tomte Cake - Original Storybook, Die Cast Aluminum Cake Baking Mold (Creates two gingerbread houses), Die Cast Aluminum Tomte Gnome Figurine, and Gingerbread Tomte Cake Recipe Card.
On the other hand, when we shed some light on the dimensions, the baking pan's dimensions are 10"x6"x6", meanwhile the Tomte Figurine is 3" tall and the dimensions of the book are 7"x10".
Who is the founder of The Tomte Cake?
Miranda Vaughn is the founder of the gorgeous children's book called The Tomte Cake. One evening during the 2020 Christmas season, she was just talking to a friend of hers about their favorite holiday traditions. Soon after, the topic of decorating a gingerbread house came into the picture.
However, Vaughn knew that making a gingerbread house came with a set of cons like it didn't taste good, portions were too big and it was frustrating to get everything assembled correctly. She didn't like the drawbacks but she loved the tradition too much to let it go.
Then, she questioned, "Why doesn't someone invent a gingerbread house baking pan?"
She added, "There could even be a cute kids story to go along with it to bring some new life to the activity..."
The idea of The Tomte Cake was born 2 weeks later in a hotel room in Redmond, Oregon. Then, she shared the idea with her two children and noted down all the words that came to her mind while going through the pages of my daughter's unicorn coloring book using a purple crayon, the only writing tool available to her at the time.
Vaughn penned down the whole story in an hour. She spent the next whole year illustrating the children's book. In the end, it took her around 2 years and a lot of determination to breathe life into her idea.
During an interview with Boo and Lu, Miranda talked about writing, self-illustrating, and publishing the book and she said, "I originally set out to find an illustrator for the book."
She further added, "I paid and got samples from some local artists but couldn’t find the right look I wanted so I started playing around with some illustrations myself, mostly just to try to hone in on what I wanted so I could better communicate that to whatever illustrator I might work with."
Vaughn continued, "I ended up having so much fun with it I just wanted to keep going, so I spent the next year illustrating it myself, and self-publishing the book about a year and a half after it was written."
She hopes that "this book, this activity, this tradition - becomes a source of joy and beautiful memories for every family it reaches."
What is the cost and how to buy The Tomte Cake?
We know you can't wait to get your hands on The Tomte Cake. When we talk about the cost of the Tomte Cake Set, it costs around $60.
In addition to this, the customers can also obtain additional baking pans for $35 and additional Tomte Gnome for $18.
You can simply buy The Tomte Cake Set from its official website.
The product has garnered good feedback from the customers.
A customer named Tracy said, "My family absolutely loves this set, and so do we! We baked our kids' birthday cakes in the molds as well! Fun to decorate, and even more delicious for eating! We love the story that comes along with it too!"
Another customer Melissa added, "This set is absolutely *glorious.* The pan is well constructed and comes with a very clear gingerbread recipe. Definitely opt to get the book as well—the illustrations are beautiful and the story is both cute and clever. This whole set is a treasure!"
Kate went on to say, "Such a cute idea. The baking pan and gnome figure are such good quality- definitely something that will be able to be passed down. I can't wait to bake this little house with my toddler! I love gingerbread houses, but every year it's a headache to put together, especially with little hands that are less than gentle. I think decorating something more sturdy like a cake will be so much more enjoyable for both of us!"
Where is The Tomte Cake now?
The Tomte Cake is thriving in the market right now. At the time of writing, it has more than 2k followers on Instagram. These numbers are expected to witness a big jump after Miranda's appearance on ABC's show 'Shark Tank.'
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Who will seal the deal?
Miranda Vaughn is ready to pitch The Tomte Cake to a panel of 5 Sharks: Mark Cuban, Barbara Corcoran, Kevin O'Leary, Lori Greiner, and Daymond John in the forthcoming episode of 'the business show 'Shark Tank.' She'll have to pull all her stops to persuade the Sharks and convince them that her product deserves an investment.
Lori Greiner may show interest in The Tomte Cake.
'Shark Tank' Season 15 Episode 8 airs on ABC on Friday, December 8, 2023, at 8 pm ET. Catch the latest episode featuring products like Snow in Seconds, Pick up Bricks, and Black Paper Party.
Did you miss an episode? Been wanting to catch up? Episodes can also be viewed the next day on demand and on Hulu. Not just that, you can also watch old seasons and episodes on Amazon Prime Video and iTunes.