Step back in time and feast your eyes on some of the most amazing birthday cakes ever captured on film. From towering 1930s royal confections to edible architectural masterpieces crafted for Hollywood's leading stars in the 1950s and 60s, these vintage photographs reveal how cake design has evolved over the decades.
Click or scroll through our gallery to discover 23 showstopping birthday cakes from yesteryear, ranked to the most spectacular of all.
Legendary French singer and actor Maurice Chevalier celebrated his 68th birthday in 1956 while filming the romantic comedy Love in the Afternoon, directed by Billy Wilder. He's photographed here on set with his co-star, iconic British actor Audrey Hepburn, holding a large placard displaying his age in front of a beautifully detailed birthday cake. The six-tier sponge creation is adorned with candles, while the fondant-covered base is decorated with a musical score, paying tribute to Chevalier’s enduring contributions to the musical-comedy film genre.
American baseball player Hank Aaron, who played for the Atlanta Braves, was celebrated for breaking batting records once held by legends such as Babe Ruth and Ty Cobb – achievements that earned him a place in the Baseball Hall of Fame. Pictured here in 1973 on his 39th birthday, Aaron poses with his cake at the Braves’ stadium in Atlanta. The intricate design paid tribute to his sport, featuring a miniature baseball field complete with a catcher’s box and tiny figurine players frozen mid-game.
In 1933, Dutch American silent film star Jetta Goudal celebrated her husband, art director Harold Grieve, with a birthday dinner at a small Mexican café on Los Angeles’ Olvera Street. True to the evening’s theme, his cake was crafted in the shape of an enormous sombrero, its upturned brim formed from stacked layers of sponge and intricate icing. In this photograph, Goudal and Grieve cut into the playful creation together, while guests and musicians look on from the background.
In 1980, friends and family of Luciano Pavarotti gathered in the heart of New York City to throw a surprise party for the Italian tenor's 45th birthday. Pavarotti is pictured here blowing out the candles on an impressive slab cake decorated with a portrait of the singer, along with depictions of his favourite pastimes and interests. The design included a racket and tennis ball, as well as an artist’s palette – fitting symbols of his well-known passions for tennis and painting.
This remarkable arch-shaped cake was created for the joint birthday celebration of Swedish actor Ingrid Bergman and French American actor Charles Boyer, two leading stars of Hollywood’s Golden Age. Presented to them in 1946 by director Lewis Milestone on the set of their film Arch of Triumph, the cake echoed its namesake with an architectural likeness to Paris’ Arc de Triomphe. Designed by restaurateur Prince Michael Romanoff and baked by Chef Lucien Heyraud, the towering confection weighed 150lbs (68kg).
Italian French actor Denise Grey’s 89th birthday in 1985 was marked with an extraordinary tiered cake coated in pink and white frosting, embellished with bead garlands and crowned with a pink dome. A second, identical cake was also made to celebrate her 70 years in the entertainment industry. Grey began her career as a can-can dancer in a Parisian cabaret before rising to prominence on the stage in the 1920s and later making her mark in French cinema, with roles in films such as Allô... je t’aime and Devil in the Flesh.
This 1932 photograph shows Alice Hargreaves on her 80th birthday – the very Alice who inspired Lewis Carroll’s beloved classic Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland. Carroll, a close family friend, first told the tale during a boating trip in the summer of 1862, when he entertained Alice and her sisters with an improvised story that would go on to grow into the world-famous novel. In a fitting tribute, her birthday cake echoed the whimsy of Wonderland: its staggered tiers, draped in fern fronds and greenery, formed steps that led to a charming tableau of Carroll’s characters, artfully arranged across the top.
The most famous child star of Hollywood’s golden age, Shirley Temple shot to stardom in the early 1930s, beginning her career at just three years old with films such as War Babies and Bright Eyes. This 1936 photograph captures her at 20th Century Fox Studios in Los Angeles on her seventh birthday, her signature pin curls framing her face as she admires an elaborate cake. The towering confection is crowned with a maypole wrapped in flowers rising from the top tier, its six ribbons cascading into the hands of dancer figurines arranged around the cake.
This 1983 photograph captures the 41st birthday party of French radio and television presenter Michel Drucker, held at Europe 1, the station where he hosted his own show. His elaborate cake, however, paid tribute to a different programme he presented: Champs-Élysées, a French TV variety show filmed at the Pavillon Gabriel, near the Arc de Triomphe. The famous arch – the show’s emblem – was recreated in confectionery atop the cake, accompanied by a miniature figure of Drucker perched on what appears to be a radio.
American country music star and television host Glen Campbell proudly displays his birthday cake in this 1973 photograph. A true showpiece, the sponge layers were sculpted into the shape of a lifelike guitar, complete with a fretboard, strings and pick guard crafted from confectionery. In front of the novelty creation, fondant scrolls spell out "Happy Birthday Glen". Just two years later, Campbell would become a global household name when his hit Rhinestone Cowboy soared to the top of music charts around the world.
In 1933, Swiss physicist and aeronaut Professor Auguste Piccard was celebrated at New York City’s St. Moritz Hotel with a birthday luncheon in his honour. Renowned for his pioneering explorations of the upper stratosphere and his record-breaking hot air balloon ascents in a vessel of his own design, Piccard turned 49 that year. His birthday cake paid tribute to his achievements, featuring a scale model of his famous balloon. In this photograph, he's seen measuring the miniature craft with a ruler, ensuring its proportions are true to life.
American actor Elizabeth Taylor celebrated her 50th birthday in style in 1982 with an extravagant party at London’s Legends nightclub, where her twice-ex-husband, Welsh actor Richard Burton, made a surprise appearance. The former couple is pictured here with Taylor’s remarkable birthday cake, designed to resemble the front page of The Times newspaper. Astonishingly detailed, the headlines highlight events from the star’s life and her well-known love of shopping, while an advertisement promotes The Little Foxes, the play in which Taylor made her Broadway debut the previous year.
Few people have marked milestone birthdays on quite the same scale as Chuck Berry. The American rock ’n’ roll pioneer celebrated his 60th in 1986 with not one, but two concerts featuring music legends including Etta James, Eric Clapton and The Rolling Stones’ Keith Richards. His birthday cake was equally memorable: captured here at one of the events, Berry poses beside a yellow guitar cake modelled after his beloved Gibson semi-acoustic, nicknamed Maybellene. Every detail – from the bridge and tuning keys to the twin F-holes – was faithfully recreated.
Perhaps unexpectedly, the UK’s King Charles III – then Prince Charles – chose to celebrate his 40th birthday in 1988 at a converted tram shed in the industrial city of Birmingham. He was joined by 1,500 beneficiaries of grants from his Youth Business Trust for the occasion. As a nod to the venue’s past, an ornate three-tiered cake was rolled into the celebration on old tram tracks. Appropriately crowned with a regal topper, the grand design featured fondant images of trains, streetcars and local landmarks. The top tier was reportedly set aside for a private family party at Buckingham Palace.
When Princess Irene of the Netherlands turned 12 in 1951, her birthday was marked with an extraordinary nautical cake commissioned by the Royal Netherlands Navy. The creation featured an edible ship complete with masts and turrets, sailing on a sea of fondant dotted with water lilies and lily pads. This photograph shows master pastry chef Pieter Barnas adding the final meticulous rows of piping at Noordeinde Palace in The Hague, just two days before Princess Irene's special day.
This 1981 photograph shows attorney Roy Cohn – whose clients ranged from future US president Donald Trump to mafia boss John Gotti and shipping tycoon Aristotle Onassis – celebrating his birthday alongside New York Yankees owner George Steinbrenner, Senator Alfonse D’Amato and lawyer Tom Bolan. The party took place at New York City’s Seventh Regiment Armory, a grand 19th-century building on Manhattan’s Upper East Side. Cohn’s architectural birthday cake paid tribute to the venue itself, complete with towers, battlements, a distinctive roofline, windows and brickwork.
This 1930 photograph shows a team of bakers adding the final rows of icing to an extraordinary six-tier cake. Each layer is adorned with delicate frosting, crowned at the top by a majestic stork carrying a gift in its beak. The cake was created in honour of Queen Charlotte, wife of King George III of Great Britain and Ireland, whose birthday is marked each year by the grand Queen Charlotte’s Ball – a British debutante ball. Although Queen Charlotte passed away in 1818, the tradition has endured; rather than curtseying to the absent monarch, debutantes at the ball pay their respects to a magnificent cake.
Pictured here in 1940 is the moment President Franklin D. Roosevelt was presented with a remarkable birthday cake in the Oval Office by the Bakery and Confectionery Workers' Union. Weighing 300lbs (136kg), the creation boasted beautifully detailed tiers, including one modelled on the colonnaded façade of the White House. Although its flavour was never revealed, Roosevelt’s favourite confection was said to be fruit cake. The cake’s journey to 1600 Pennsylvania Avenue wasn't without mishap: the day before this photograph was taken, it broke en route and had to be returned to the bakery for repairs.
Former British prime minister Sir Winston Churchill’s 80th birthday in 1954 was marked by a national fanfare of tributes and celebrations – including not one, but two cakes. Photographed here is one of the creations: a 100lb (45kg) design adorned with 80 candles and white fondant roses. Atop the cake, a posy of flowers is framed by the inscription: “He is a man, take him for all in all, we shall not look upon his like again", a nod to a line from Shakespeare’s Hamlet. The cake was so large that the doors of 10 Downing Street had to be measured to ensure it would fit. Its creator, Maria Floris, proudly pictured here, went on to become the baker of choice for London’s wealthiest, including the British royal family.
Here, Harry S. Truman, the 33rd president of the United States, is seen cutting into a layer of his magnificent 70th birthday cake alongside his wife, Bess, and daughter, Margaret. The spectacular five-layer design is enrobed in fondant garlands and roses. The cake took centre stage at a prestigious birthday dinner held in 1954 at New York City’s Waldorf-Astoria Hotel, organised by the Harry S. Truman Library. A seat at the event cost $70 – equivalent to around $839 (£631) today – with proceeds going towards the construction of the Harry S. Truman Library and Museum in Missouri, completed in 1957.
British actor Charlie Chaplin, who rose to fame during the silent film era, was presented with a towering five-foot (1.5m) cake on his 77th birthday in 1966 at Pinewood Studios near London. At the time, Chaplin was filming the romantic comedy A Countess from Hong Kong, and he's pictured here with his co-stars – silver-screen icons Sophia Loren, Marlon Brando and Tippi Hedren – as well as his wife, Oona, and three of their children. Adorned with fondant flowers, the cake’s top tier paid tribute to the film: a figurine of Chaplin’s famous Little Tramp character stood proudly at its pinnacle.
This incredible cake, comprising 30 layers and topped with a sugar replica of the White House, was created for President John F. Kennedy’s 44th birthday in 1961. Baker Myer Keizerstein crafted the colossal confection, which weighed an astonishing 3,000lbs (1,361kg). The cake required 450 dozen eggs, 500lbs (227kg) each of flour, butter and sugar, 200lbs (91kg) of apricot jam, and 1,000lbs (454kg) of frosting. It was so enormous that the front window of Keizerstein’s bakery had to be removed to lift it out. The precious cargo was then escorted by armoured car to Washington DC’s National Armory, where it's pictured at Kennedy’s birthday celebration dinner.
A year after the release of the epic adventure-comedy Around the World in 80 Days, the film’s producer, Mike Todd, celebrated its first anniversary in 1957 with a spectacular event at New York City’s Madison Square Garden. 18,000 people attended the televised extravaganza, which featured an enormous 14-foot (4.3m) cake with five oversized tiers, blue icing and a towering candle. American actor Elizabeth Taylor, Todd’s wife and one of Hollywood’s brightest stars at the time, is pictured here on a specially built platform, poised to cut the 1,000lb (454kg) confection.
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