Cake Mania


Cake Mania is a cooking time management video game developed and published by Sandlot Games in 2006. The Wii version is known as Cake Mania: In the Mix!. The PlayStation 2 version is known as Cake Mania: Bakers Challenge which consists of Cake Mania and the sequel, Cake Mania: Back to the Bakery. This port also includes a mode called "Bakers Challenge", allowing the player to modify Jill's kitchen, customers, and the business hours.

Plot

Jill Evans, who was inspired by her baker grandparents, developed a love for pastry cooking and went to a culinary school. When Jill comes back from culinary school, she finds her grandparents' bakery, Evans' Bakery, closed. Jill decides to open her own bakery and work her way up the business ladder so she can buy back her grandparents' bakery. She also learns how to deal with some very tricky customers along the way. In Cake Mania: Back to the Bakery, Jill tries to win her grandparents a Hawaiian cruise vacation while renovating the bakery. In Cake Mania 3 Jill is about to get married but gets sent back in time to different periods including prehistoric dinosaur times and ancient China.

Gameplay

The player controls Jill, a baker. Customers come in and line up, giving Jill their orders. The player must then direct Jill to create the cake each customer wants, hopefully before the customer becomes tired of waiting and leaves. Jill can use other items such as cupcakes and a television to help keep her customers patient while they wait.
Virtual money earned in the game can be used to buy additional baking equipment such as a second oven, better frosting machine, cupcake microwave, or even faster shoes to keep Jill ahead of the orders.

Reception

The review aggregator website Metacritic gave Cake Mania a score of 55 from 100 based on 23 critics' reviews. Metacritic categorised the score as "mixed or average reviews."