Cake Trends We Love To Hate: Photo Cakes

Lazy, boring, narcissistic – can you tell how much we hate the photo cake trend?!

There are a few cake trends that really have us rolling our eyes. Cake smash photo shoots are awful for one, and don’t even get us started on gender reveal cakes. Shudder. Another absolute offender? Photo cakes. Everything about this trend makes us despair. You take a basic sheet cake – usually a sad, white-iced rectangle – and slap your face on it. Boring on the outside, boring on the inside, and unimaginative right the way through.

There are SO many joyful things you can do with a birthday cake – croquembouches, cakescapes, even a decadent drip cake. Yet people keep circling back to this trend year after year. Imagine being confident enough to believe people want to eat your face. We’re all for celebrating the birthday person, but we draw the line at munching on their eyeballs.

The other thing that really gets us is how terrible photo cakes look. However gorgeous you may be, you are not going to make a cake look better than buttercream, piping, sprinkles, and the billion other lovely ways to decorate. Let’s call it what it is: photo cakes scream laziness. They look cheap, they feel tacky, and honestly? Everyone deserves better.

Photo Cakes: A Celebrity Trend

Of course celebrities are all over the photo cake trend. They love their face so much they put it on a sponge. And as usual, no one ever tells them no. Want a rundown of serial offenders? Oh, we’ve got you.

Drew Barrymore

Drew, we adore you, but you were old enough to know better. For her 43rd birthday, she blew out candles on a cake topped with a photo of her younger self. There is something quietly creepy about a cake featuring a child’s face that is moments away from being cut into.

Kylie Jenner

Kylie had her face plastered across her 20th birthday cake. Worse still, it was a photo of her with her tongue out. Imagine eating a slice of someone’s tongue. No thank you. The eyeballs are bad enough.

Harry Styles

Harry can usually do no wrong. We love the sparkles, the jumpsuits, the floppy hair. But for his milestone 21st birthday? A massive photo cake featuring his childhood mug, backwards cap and all. It felt strangely random for someone usually so original.

Fergie

Fergie once had a cake with her face on it too. But she took it further. Her photo was propped upright, just in case anyone missed it.

How to Do Photo Cakes Well

Now that you’ve seen how NOT to do them, let us show you how to make a photo cake actually charming. Yes, it’s possible.

Caricature Cakes

Your photo, but as playful artwork instead of flat narcissism. A caricature cake feels personal without veering into cringe. It’s fun, expressive, and a brilliant way to make a birthday cake feel truly yours.

Burn-Away Cakes

Picture this: an elegant cake, seemingly innocent…until it’s set alight. A dramatic burn-away reveal shows your photo underneath. A burn-away cake delivers shock value, spectacle, and a moment guests will actually remember.

Got a cake-trend gripe? Tell us. Love a photo cake and feel the urge to defend it? You can try… but you’ll be wrong.

Love,
Reshmi xoxo

If you're dreaming of something truly original, explore our hand-made celebration cakes.