Conn. Baker Sees Outpouring of Support for AR-15 Birthday Cake Called 'Insensitive' by Others

In mid-March a Connecticut baker was hired to make a birthday cake. But not just an ordinary yellow cake with chocolate frosting. Elizabeth Mais wanted to give her husband a realist AR-15-themed birthday cake that would be showcased at the local NRA dinner.

The NRA blog reported that Mais hired Jennifer Montalto with Jenny-Lu's bakery in Middlebury, Conn., for the job after several other bakers simply refused to make the cake she wanted.

(Photo: Jenny-Lu's/Facebook)

"Jennifer brought my vision to life, creating the most beautiful cake I have ever seen. She truly is a cake artist," Mais wrote, according to the NRA. "My husband’s reaction when first seeing the cake was Oh my God, that’s a cake? The joy on his face was worth all the aggravation I went through."

But in the days since the cake featuring a realistic looking AR-15 and a Gadsden flag was presented and photos of it began circulating, Jenny-Lu's bakery saw some criticism. The Woodbury-Middlebury Patch reported a reviewer on Yelp calling it “insensitive” and said it was “ridiculing the tragedy in Newtown.” This comment and several others appear to have been removed as of April 1 and only positive comments about the bakery remain on the Yelp post.

A photo posted March 15 on Facebook of the cake with more than 2,000 likes, 600 comments and 2,600 shares similarly shows a majority of supportive comments about cake.

Some comments from the Facebook photo.

Montalto talked about her cake on the NRA News radio, saying she got a few "eye rolls" but overall the response was positive:

On the NRA's blog, Mais explained that she wanted an AR-15 cake because she and her husband "love ARs" and because of the proposed gun bans.

"In light of the ridiculous gun bans proposed here in CT, I thought an AR cake with the Gadsden flag draped over the rifle case was fitting," Mais wrote. "Both Bill & I strongly oppose any ban that restricts Americans from enjoying the best sporting rifle created. Bill has even testified at the state capital fighting against such restrictions."

To the Patch, Montalto said she understood why some might have been upset by the cake but noted that she doesn't involve politics in her baking.

“To each their own — if someone enjoys it, that doesn’t make them an evil person,” she told the Patch. “Don’t make someone out to be evil over a cake.”