No matter what the occasion, cakes have always been a staple of celebrations. From birthday cakes to wedding cakes, cakes have been enjoyed by people of all ages and cultures for centuries. From traditional favorites like chocolate cake and vanilla cake to modern creations like red velvet cake and rainbow cake, there’s something for everyone’s palate.

Cakes can be made from a variety of ingredients, from classic white, yellow, and devil’s food cake to fruit-flavored cake and gluten-free cake. Decorations for cakes range from simple frosting and sprinkles to more intricate fondant designs.

Bored Panda reached out to Lily Jones, the owner of Lily Vanilli, the creative East London bakery creating customizable dream cakes and bespoke wedding cakes, who shared some insights into the current cake trends, as well as shared the most unusual cake she created.

“We're seeing a huge trend for more artistic, asymmetrical, imperfect cakes, often with deliberately messy piping, misshapen and with fresh flowers artfully positioned/stuck into the cake,” Lily told us.

“This has been cool and strange to see in equal measure as they're very reminiscent of the cakes I was making for the first 5 years of Lily Vanilli (scroll right back on my Instagram to see). I had my first commission for one the other day and it was a really nostalgic experience."

Lily also said that it's been interesting seeing this go full circle: “In 2008 I was making messy cakes in response to the perfectly piped cakes that were around forever, it was all fresh flowers and rough around the edges, then since 2018, we got hugely into retro piping, and now we're seeing the response to that again!”

When it comes to ordering cakes for a special occasion, Lily said that the cake is such a statement that it's important to people that it reflects their unique tastes. “So they will consider the style and colors, all the way down to the tiny details that make it bespoke.”

“Beyond that, the flavor is hugely important, and multiple tiers allow people to cater to all their guests' tastes,” she added.

It's also important to consider how the cake will look in photos, Lily explained. “So positioning in the venue can be really crucial - it's always sad to see a spectacular cake with loads of story and thought behind it get placed in front of a speaker or worse, or somewhere it won't photograph well. Lighting is important too!”

When asked what was the most unusual cake Lily has ever created, she recounted her first book. “It was a zombie-themed, B-movie inspired, a comic book illustrated guide to cake decorating, so as you can imagine, for a while I was getting a lot of fabulously weird commissions. I've made a life-sized replica of someone's boyfriend's head, multiple heart and brain cakes, a cow heart cake for a music video, a dead pigeon... it's a long list!”