• By
  • Katy McLaughlin

Comedian and ventriloquist Jeff Dunham recently got married, which explains why he needed artistic cake-maker Elin Katz to make him a Batmobile-shaped cake for 80 people, with likenesses of him and his bride-to-be dressed as Batman and Catwoman, etched into buttercream frosting on a platform shaped like the Batcave.

For a story on Ms. Katz’ detailed process of making her cakes, we spent several days observing how Mr. Dunham’s cake came together.

Elin Katz, owner of Rosebud Cakes in Beverly Hills. With a background in art, Ms. Katz has spent over 30 years making amazing cake creations
Mr. Dunham provided a toy Batmobile he wanted the cake to resemble
Ms. Katz hacked and whacked and pushed and mushed at the cake. In about a half hour, it looked roughly like the toy car


Work began on a Saturday, when Ms. Katz sculpted white velvet cake with cream cheese filling, and marble cake with caramel cream, into the shape of the Batmobile.






This is the cake car.
This is the toy car.

We returned on Tuesday. The cake had by that point been covered in black fondant, a stiff icing. Ms. Katz was now detailing the cake, etching into the fondant with a scalpel, and molding chocolate to create tires, a jet turbine and other accessories.


To create the jet turbine on the front of the Batmobile, Ms. Katz remembered a container for microwavable ramen  she once used. She pulled it out of her molds closet, filled it with chocolate, and decided it would work just fine.


As she worked on the Batman cake, all around colleagues worked on jaw-dropping cakes.  Anyone who stops by Rosebud Cakes gets a bunch of cake samples.  That includes this reporter.  The cake was delicious.  I was there for several days.  I ate a lot of cake.






The next step for Ms. Katz was making figurines to represent the happy couple.  Using photos of Mr. Dunham and his fiance, plus a movie version of Batman’s butler Alfred (it’s the actor, the late Michael Gough), Ms. Katz painted their faces in buttercream on cutouts.




Head cake decorator Cory Pohlman created a Batcave cake platform and painted it with buttercream frosting.  The cave was fitted with small lights in cones to look like stalactites.  Ms. Katz carefully moved the cake onto the platform and began final decorations.



The cake, nearly finished, was pretty awesome looking.  It was served at Mr. Dunham’s rehearsal dinner a couple of weeks ago.  A publicist for Mr. Dunham assured us that it was astounding.

[Note: An earlier edition of this post misidentified Alfred.]
Watch: To make the ultimate Batman cake for comedian Jeff Dunham, cake designer Elin Katz sculpts in white velvet, molds with chocolate, and etches in sugar dough.

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