An Old-School Photo Birthday Cake

Hi! I’m actually gonna make this tomorrow and I wanted to ask, did you make two cakes and layer them or cut one and add frosting in between?

Thanks!

My mom made me a Big Bird cake as a kid, and the cake mold was just Big Bird’s head. Without hesitation, I told her I wanted the eye. She surgically cut around the circular eye (which was in the center of the take) – not easy to get to! One of my best childhood memories, and it was fun to think about it when reading about Toby’s choice. It’s a whole different era, but some things about kids never change :)

You can also ask your local ice cream cake shop for an edible sheet and it will probably be much cheaper. I used my nearby Carvel to make a “wallpaper cake” for my daughter’s birthday. Just called, emailed the pic, and ready same day.

I love photo cakes! I’ve never had one for myself, but years ago, I planned a surprise 40th Anniversary party for my parents. I had a photo of their wedding picture on a large sheet cake (from Stop & Shop) side by side with a more recent photo of them. It looked great and they were surprised!

so sweet! also potential favorite part of the whole thing: is little tobes wearing two different shoes? the best!

My favorite part is that he is wearing two different shoes in the picture :)

I totally forgot about photo cakes!!! Definitely bringing this up as an option for my next kid birthday (the teenager – wonder what she’ll think!?)

Still do this a lot in the UK. Usually an embarrassing baby/school photo for an 18th/21st/40th or above birthday cake!

This is so cool – can’t wait to try it! (Also thanks for the reminder about dirt cakes – would be fun to revisit.)

I’d forgotten about these kinds of cakes! We’ve done it in the past ! Back in the day Baskin Robbins used to do it, not sure if they still do. But what’s more fun than your picture on an ice-cream cake !!!

Thanks so much for sharing this. We are a nut free house due to my sons allergies, and after checking cakes n’ shapes website I found they are a nut free kitchen. Hooray for the allergy aware!!!

I want to try this! So curious – how did the picture part of the cake actually taste??

This is a MASSIVE thing already in the UK, alot of stores do it while you wait! Great idea, I guess it’s a revelation to some in the US?

Hate to be the “one who does this,” but I feel like your instructions are a bit off. You’d have to email them then wait for it to come to you in the mail, no? Then bake the cake, etc. Am I missing something? Super cute idea, though!

This is so cute!! Definitely going to do this!!

Awesome. Definitely keeping this in my back pocket for just the right occasion. Our most recent birthday cakes have been: age 8 – Pusheen the cat (round marble cake, painted the pusheen on with homemade buttercream frosting), age 7 – emjoi party with cupcakes decorated by the 7yo with customer emoji faces on each, age 6 – the moon landing on a two-layer chocolate cake with blue frosting (that was the specific request – the moon landing was accompanied by plastic astronauts and an american flag), age 5 – castle (convinced grandma to make this one)… before that – we bought the cakes.

Filing this tip away, as I have a great opportunity to put it to good use! I had an M&M lined cake in the 80s, and my four-year-old self snuck the M&Ms off of the cake one at a time, until it looked sparse during cake cutting and pictures :)

The Betty Crocker Castle Cake was the be all end all coolest cake when I was a kid. I would stare at the photo in Betty’s cook book on a regular basis.
I remember my mom making one for my 6th or 7th birthday and feeling like a TRUE queen, and so my sister and I obviously made one for my grandpa’s birthday soon after.
Multi-layered, pink icing, marshmallow stone details, and ice cream cone turrets, does it get any better? I may have to bring it back this summer.

The fact that he is wearing two different shoes takes this photo to the next level. So cute.

Why did this trend go away? It is so fun. Love that you introduced the next generation to it :) Happy Birthday, Toby!

Sooo sweet!!! I love how thoughtful he is and how you nurture that ??

Love it! I made two cakes for my nephews 2nd birthday almost 2 years ago, and he still talks about it (how does he even remember?!) where I’m from it’s common to use whipped cream instead of frosting, so that’s what I did. Added a road and a ”big pile of sand” of crushed digestive cookies, and a small toy tractor on top that scooped up some of the sand. On the other cake was a truck with a lifty-thingy (you know like a grip) that lifted and loaded blueberries. It was. Insanely easy (just cake and + two small toys basically) and it blew his mind and everyone was SO impressed, haha. So YES to toys on cakes! (Just use new ones or clean them properly first, because, germs)

So, I ordered a cake from a bakery for my grandparents’ 60th wedding anniversary. My grandmother wanted their wedding photo on the cake. It looked so beautiful when we picked it up. However, the bakery didn’t tell us the photo part was inedible! Yikes! We didn’t know until someone tried to eat it. So beware!

Aww I love this! Happy birthday to Toby! This reminds me of my birthday back in 2012, when my family surprised me with a photo cake with a huge photo of Jeremy Renner splashed across it- complete with homemade Jeremy Renner party hats to boot! That was around the time that the Avengers, MI4 and Bourne Legacy had come out and I was absolutely smitten with him, and everyone knew it. Even though I was a fully-grown 23 year old woman at the time, I felt like a kid again. We all got such a kick out of it, and it was such a little thing, but honestly I was so moved- I felt so known by them, and accepted even despite my objectively weird obsessions.