Sweet Lady Jane shines in Alice in Wonderland ad

Usually the original book is better than the adapted play.  The play is better than the movie.  The movie is better than the tv show it spawned.  And anything is better than Jersey Shore. 

But we digress.  One instance that breaks the rule is Tim Burton's  "Alice in Wonderland."  In Chapter VII  of Lewis Carroll's 1865 book "Alice's Adventures in Wonderland" Alice attends the Mad Hatter's tea party, where only tea is served and most of it is poured on the hapless sleeping Dormouse.  But Tim Burton knows how to improve upon the original -  Johnny Depp's Mad Hatter's tea table is laden with gorgeous cakes and tarts.  And because Sweet Lady Jane on Melrose Avenue knows how to pump up the fantasy factor in her baked goods, it's no surprise she got the call to supply the eye candy. 

Upon close study of the movie poster one can see some of Jane's most fanciful creations.  Her high-as-a-beehive lemon meringue tart is placed in front of Mia Wasikowska's Alice.  To Helena Bonham Carter's left is a whimsical yellow polka dot cake.  A three-tiered ribboned custom wedding cake is behind the conducting mouse.  Anne Hathaway presides over floral cupcakes, and Jane's fruit tarts with pastry cream are dotted throughout.  And no Lady Jane display would be complete without her signature Triple Berry Shortcake - standing proudly on the cake pedestal to Alice's left.

When we were a child, we wished we could be transported to a place where cream-frosted cakes, fruit-heavy tarts and tea were served in unending abandon.  It's great to see it in a movie.  But we prefer to eat at Jane's.

Info:  Sweet Lady Jane Bakery, 8360 Melrose Avenue, Los Angeles 90069 (323) 653-7145

Tim Burton's "Alice in Wonderland" opens this Friday March 5, 2010.  Click here for locations and showtimes in your area.

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