Sixty years of memories, printed on the cake

Some cakes are about the decoration. This one was about the pictures.

For a 60th birthday, the family gathered up photographs from across the whole six decades — childhood, weddings, holidays, grandchildren — and we put them on the cake itself.

How it works

The photographs are printed onto edible sheets and applied to the buttercream, then framed with black ribbon around each tier. Two tiers gives you room for a proper run of them, so the cake tells the story the whole way around. You have to walk around it to see them all, which is exactly the point — it turns the cake into something people gather at.

A glittered 60 sits on top, and a black bow ties the two tiers together.

I kept the styling deliberately simple. When the photos are doing the work, the frosting shouldn't be competing with them.

What's inside

White almond cake with almond buttercream frosting.

White almond is a favorite for milestone birthdays and weddings — a little more grown-up than vanilla, and it holds up well under a two-tier build.

Sixty years

Every picture tells a story, and every story deserves to be celebrated. Happy 60th.