Miranda Vaughn gives the Sharks a taste of The Tomte Cake, her bake at home gingerbread house kit, in Shark Tank episode 1510, the season 15 “Holiday Special.” Miranda came up with the idea for her as yet un-named gingerbread house kit during Christmas, 2020. She was making a store bought gingerbread house with her kids. Not only was it tricky to put together, it tasted like cardboard. There had to be a better way.
She thought an accompanying story would go well with her new, still imagined kit and a few weeks after Christmas, she wrote it in a little over an hour. She spent a year or so finishing the illustrations for the story and sourcing materials for the baking kit.
The baking kit costs $60 and comes with The Tomte Cake Storybook, 2 diecast aluminum house molds, an aluminum gnome and the gingerbread recipe. The gnome gets slipped inside one of the gingerbread houses and is revealed when you dig in to eat it. Once the houses are baked, you can decorate them any way you like. Miranda hopes to create a new holiday tradition for families and she wants a Shark to help her spread the word.
Company Information
Posts about The Tomte Cake on Shark Tank Blog
Tomte Cake – A Wholesome Gingerbread Adventure for Families
The Tomte Cake Shark Tank Recap
Miranda enters the Shark Tank seeking $200,000 in exchange for 10% equity in her company. She says it was the month before Christmas when she received the worst gift: the useless gingerbread house decorating kit. They’re no fun, we all know why they suck. They’re impossible to assemble and the children hate the stale, cardboardy taste. What a waste. So she decided to create a new Christmas tradition, The Tomte Cake.
It’s a 3D gingerbread house pan that lets you make gingerbread houses, fresh out of the ovenn and ready for your kids to decorate. Each set comes with an original children’s story about a pocket sized gnome named Tomte who accidentally falls into the batter and gets baked into the gingerbread house cake. Tomte makes it out OK and if you find him in your piece of cake, you’ll have good luck for the rest of the Christmas season. Each set comes with everything you need to recreate the storyline of the book and begin a brand new Christmas tradition. She asks the Sharks, “who wants to have a lucky Christmas with the Tomte cake?”
Samples and Questions
The sharks all have a cake and they like it. Tomte is a Swedish gnome. One of the Sharks will have a Tomte in their cake. Mark gets the lucky cake and finds Tomte. She got the idea while putting together a kit gingerbread house with her kids. She thought there had to be a better way and why not just have a house shaped cake that you could decorate and wouldn’t have to assemble. Having a story to go with it would be fun too.
Each set comes with the house shaped baking pan, the gnome and the book. She sells direct to consumer for $60 per set. Each set costs $15 to make. The company launched in October, 2022 and sold out of all 5000 sets she’d ordered in just 35 days. She sold $200,000 worth of goods with $40,000 in Facebook ads. She’s been a stay at home mom the past 8 years and she home schools her kids. She left a religious cult she was raised in. They didn’t celebrate holidays growing up and now she’s “Christmas obsessed.” When she left and experienced Christmas for the first time, she was blown away by how magical it was. When she had her own kids, she wanted to immerse them in their own traditions. She thinks Tomte could be the next “Elf on the Shelf.”
Anybody In?
She has rave reviews and kids absolutely love it. Miranda wrote and illustrated the book. Daymond asks what she wants from a Shark besides money. She says wants mentorship. She’s creative and wants to come up with another concept off of this and she’s not a business person at heart. Miranda invested $170,000 in the business by mortgaging her house and taking a loan against the car.
Kevin thinks it’s simple and elegant. He offers $200,000 for 25% and every time Miranda takes a dollar out to pay herself, Kevin gets twenty five cents. She’ll use the money to bulk up inventory and pay for purchase orders. Her heart is telling her to go into retail. Lori says eventually Miranda can branch off to Valentine’s Day with a Valentine’s house with a heart inside. Lori offers $200,000 for 33.3%; she knows it’s steep but it’s going to take some work.
Mark says he’ll clear the deck; he’s out. Barbara thinks Miranda needs a team around her. She offers $200,000 for 20%. She calls Miranda a wonderful business person. Daymond offers to join Barbara and Lori but they both say no thanks and he offers $200,000 for 25%. Barbara says she has a lot of holiday businesses and they cross pollenate each other. Miranda asks Lori to go to 25% and Kevin lowers his offer to 15%. Miranda asks Lori to go to 20% and Lori says no. Miranda takes Kevin’s offer.
The Tomte Cake Shark Tank Update
The Shark Tank Blog constantly provides updates and follow-ups about entrepreneurs who have appeared on the Shark Tank TV show. After the orginal air date, Mirands sold over 20,000 units leading into Christmas. As of July, 2024 – about 6 months after the original air date – there is no evidence the deal with Kevin closed. Miranda is having a “Christmas in July” sale at this time and is offering a 25% discount.
The Shark Tank Blog will follow-up on The Tomte Cake & Miranda Tompkins as more details become available.
