Jewel Changi Airport birthday wish comes true for 1-year-old after viral Reddit post

Get ready for some waterworks. Literally.

A Jewel Changi Airport waterfall-inspired birthday cake got almost 4,000 upvotes on Reddit, after a father posted photographs (Jan 22) of his masterpiece.

Wishing to create a memorable first birthday, Reddit user @Snerrot, whose real name is Adam Torrens, personally baked – on his first try – a cake for his son Jai's favourite attraction: the iconic 40-metre high indoor waterfall also known as the Rain Vortex. 

My son turned 1 today and his favorite thing in the world is the waterfall at Jewel. So I made my first cake for him. A Jewel cake with train line, slides, foggy bowls, garden and, of course, the center waterfall. from r/singapore

The viral post caught the attention of Jewel Changi Airport, who surprised the father with tickets for the attractions at the Canopy Park on Level Five, a birthday pin and a Jewel Mascot toy.

Torrens uploaded a photograph of his son sitting down and looking at the waterfall with awe on Reddit subsequently, when they visited the complex on Sunday (Jan 31). 

In a comment on the post, he recalled how Jai gets excited as soon as he sees that waterfall. 

"Every time we pass a restaurant or a shop that has a window to the waterfall, he points and calls out for both his mum and I to look at the waterfall," Adam Torrens told AsiaOne.   

"When we go inside a shop that doesn't have a direct view to the waterfall, he is always trying to bend his head to look out for it", the 36-year-old teacher said.

The cake feature was made using a "$10 fish pump from an aquarium store", which was then tied to the frame of the cake with two cable ties, he explained in a comment on the Reddit post. 

To recreate the waterfall effect, he decided to cut a hole in a plastic bowl and attach it to the pump. 

For the frame itself, it was made by cutting triangles out of folded plastic sheets by hand, which mirrored Jewel's surrounding glass dome. He added in the comments that this handicraft was less than $40.

When asked how long he took to built this, he told AsiaOne that the entire process took one week – mostly at night after office hours.

When Jai saw the cake, his reaction was exactly the same to when he first saw the waterfall at Jewel.

"He points and calls out in a series of short sounds," Torrens added, "which is the sounds he usually makes when he wants us to carry him somewhere."

Jewel Changi Airport holds a special place in the hearts of Torrens and his wife. "Each time we visit, it's a reminder of how fast [Jai] is growing", he said. 

qistina@asiaone.com