BakeKing's hyper-realistic cake creations
Ben Cullen has built a cult following for his mesmerizing illusion cakes that have popped up everywhere from Slowthai's recent music video to Jürgen Klopp's birthday party. He talks about how his career took him from graphic design to tattooing to cake art
If you want to remember how strange this year was, remember July when a deluge of videos of cakes disguised as everyday objects broke the internet. Kicked off with a BuzzFeed Tasty compilation from croc to toilet rolls sliced open to reveal layers of delicious sponge, the “everything is cake” trend quickly went viral and hailed as a symbol of our collective pandemic paralysis.
"I think it goes back to the age-old thing of magic, wizards and illusionists," says cake artist Ben Cullen, who saw interest in his spectacular illusion cake explode in response to the trend. "People love to be cheated on, and eating illusions work particularly well because food is available to all, so it's a very common practice to outsmart people right away."
Cullen, better known as The BakeKing, started his cake art business in 2014 and has since built a fan base of over 280,000 followers on Instagram. His carefully crafted, hyper-realistic designs have earned him a spot on Channel 4's Extreme Cake Makers show and a slew of celebrity fans, including Liverpool football manager Jurgen Klopp (Cullen created a bust of Klopp for his birthday in 2016).