We adore our customers, but every so often someone walks in with an idea that makes us sit up a little straighter. Kimberley did exactly that. For her 60th birthday, she was hosting a Barbie-themed celebration at the Union Club on Frith Street in Soho — and not a whisper of irony in sight. Just unapologetic pink, high heels, and a refusal to age quietly. We were in.
There’s something rather glorious about marking sixty with the colour most people associate with six. No muted neutrals. No “tasteful” beige. Just full-throttle fabulousness. Kimberley commissioned a custom cake that fused elements of our Pink Flamingo with the sweetness of the Pink Ballerina from our birthday cake collection — three tiers of confident, joyful excess.
If unapologetic pink is your brief, our pink birthday cakes bring together hearts, florals, ballerinas and statement designs for every age.
Each tier had its own character: Cookies & Cream for indulgence, pistachio for a little grown-up nuttiness, and pink vanilla for that nostalgic sweetness. The top tier wore its decorations like jewellery — macarons, chocolate feathers, candied popcorn — crowned with a golden fondant tiara and an edible gold chocolate shoe. Because if you’re doing Barbie at sixty, you commit.
The shoe was a small labour of love. We sprayed the mould with gold lustre before pouring in perfectly tempered white chocolate — and yes, it has to be properly tempered or it sulks and clings on for dear life. Once released, we refined the edges with a gently warmed palette knife until the silhouette felt just right. Under the soft lighting of a Soho dining room, that gold gleams in a way that photographs never quite capture.
Decorating it was pure joy. Pink on cake always wins, but it’s the placement that makes the magic — the swoops of buttercream, the sculpted swirls, the final flourish that pulls everything together. When it stood assembled, tall and gloriously OTT, it didn’t whisper “milestone”. It declared it.
Kimberley also requested cupcakes crowned with edible Barbie-inspired decorations, alongside raspberry and vanilla macarons in every shade of pink imaginable. We’ll keep those under wraps (big brands can be sensitive souls), but suffice to say the dessert table was a sea of blush and brilliance.
Everything was delivered fully assembled to the Union Club in Soho. A cake this confident deserves a venue with a bit of swagger. And if turning sixty looks like this — glittering gold shoes, tiers of pistachio and pink, friends gathered in Soho — then frankly, we can’t wait.
If you’re planning your own moment of delicious defiance, explore our cakes or dream up something entirely your own. Some birthdays deserve subtlety. Others deserve a tiara.
What this commission shows
This was a very specific brief: a Barbie-themed 60th in Soho, built around the customer rather than a generic milestone formula. It stays in the archive as a case study in translating a theme into flavour, colour and scale. For designs currently available, see our 60th birthday cake collection.
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