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.[14]
Gameplay[edit]
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, before the customer becomes tired of waiting and leaves, whereupon Jill loses a life. If Jill runs out of lives, the player loses the level and must try again from the most recent checkpoint.[15] Cakes in Cake Mania are created using the oven and the frosting machine; the cake has to be a specific shape and have a certain color of icing for each order.[15] If the wrong cake is made the player can throw it away. In later levels, cakes are more complex to make, such as orders requiring several layers of cake and extra cake decorations.[15] Different customers have different gameplay quirks (such as preferring a certain feature on their cakes) and differing levels of patience, and Jill can use purchasable items such as cupcakes and a television to help keep her customers patient while they wait.[8] Each level takes place in a different month, and holiday-themed customers appear such as Cupid and Santa Claus in February and December, respectively.[8][16] 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 faster shoes to make Jill move faster.[8]