This Pasig bakery offers a 'rice' cake for your own simple celebrations

A home-based bakery in Pasig is offering a rice cake apparently inspired by the viral photos from President Rodrigo Duterte's 76th birthday celebration.

On Facebook, Nicelybaked posted photos of a 4x2-inch "rice cake" complete with a lit candle on top.

At first glance, it looks like the cup of rice with a candle on top, similar to that seen in photos of Duterte's birthday lunch.

But other photos posted by the bakery showed that the rice was actually only an exterior that contained red velvet chiffon.

"Simpleng cake para sa mga simpleng handaan," Nicelybaked wrote in the caption of their post.

According to the owner of Nicelybaked, Carlene Junsay, she was scrolling Facebook when she saw the viral photo of the President on her feed.

"I thought it would be amazing if I could recreate the  the cake but this time making it an actual cake that looks like a cup of rice on the outside. So I decided to take it as a challenge for myself," she told GMA News Online in a text interview.

The Nicelybaked cake is all of 4x2 inches, or what they call a lunchbox cake, and it sells for P450 each.

Customers can choose between two flavors, red velvet or chocolate. Both contain a chocolate ganache filling and buttercream frosting.

According to the 22-year-old baker, the cake is frosted with swiss meringue buttercream. The rice exterior is fondant.

It looks like the "rice cake" is a hit. As of writing, the post has generated over 17,000 reactions and more than 9,000 shares.

Echoing Nicelybaked's more recent post, Junsay told GMA News online that she was still "in a state of shock" over the success of the post. She said plenty of orders are already placed with clients reserving slots for months ahead. 

"I don’t know how to handle everything on my own. I am a one woman-team but I had to call for back up so I can attend to all inquiries," she said.

Nicelybaked will continue accommodating orders and inquiries on Wednesday after being flooded with messages on Tuesday.

"I am honored to be able to share my craft with a lot of people. I always do my cakes with passion and I always pay attention to their qualities. I would love to share the cakes, they are my happiness," she said. "Wouldn’t it be great to share my happiness so they could bring happiness to other people."

On Sunday, photos of the President's makeshift birthday cake — a cup of rice with a birthday candle planted on it — went viral on social media. — LA/GMA News