Art History Inspired Birthday Cakes

Hopefully your birthday party won’t feel like one of Bosch’s paintings (you know, the corruption of mankind by sin, with flying fish and all kinds of monsters).

But the artist’s chaotic scenes do make a beautiful cake.

Focusing on one of the Graces, this cake is inspired by Botticelli’s Venus and the Three Graces Offering Presents to a Young Girl.

Its texture even mimics that from a fresco painting.

A part of the Sistine Chapel, Michelangelo’s image of the hands of God and Adam so close to touching is a favorite of many.

An image that symbolizes the creation of human life to celebrate another year of life, perhaps?

A painter, an engineer, a scientist, a theorist, an architect… Leonardo da Vinci was many things in Renaissance Italy.

A multifaceted man, his works have inspired many throughout the years (including bakers, as you can see here).

Girl with a Pearl Earring is an iconic image from the Dutch Golden Age.

Representing the artist, Johannes Vermeer, in the process of creating the famous image, this cake is a work of art itself.

Cakes decorated with flowers are not uncommon, but this one has something special going on.

It is inspired by the flower compositions of Rachel Ruysch, one of the most successful female painters of the Dutch Golden Age.

A leading example of pointilism, A Sunday Afternoon on the Island of La Grande Jatte is composed by small distinct dots of color that form the image we see.

It is an artwork that presents the nature of class distinction, but you are certainly free to enjoy the inspiration for a relaxing and chill day!

The turquoise blue and mint green surround the arched bridge in this cake inspired by Monet’s iconic image of the Japanese bridge surrounded by waterlilies.

Many of Vincent van Gogh’s paintings were inspired by nature, so here is an artsy landscape idea.

This one is based on Van Gogh’s series of Cypress trees, painted during his stay in a Saint-Remy asylum.

Probably the most famous painting of Van Gogh, The Starry Night becomes here a beautiful five-layered cake for a celebration.

One last Van Gogh inspired cake, this time uniting two of the artist’s most famous paintings: The Starry Night and Sunflowers.

This Surrealist-layered cake puts together two main names of the movement known as Surrealism: Belgian René Magritte and Spaniard Salvador Dalì.

One of the most famous kisses in art history served as inspiration for the masterpiece that is this cake.

The Kiss becomes here a complex composition with multiple layers.

Even if you might not recognize the exact painting it is based on, Austrian painter Gustav Klimt‘s style is easy to spot.

His highly decorative style in this cake comes specifically from a detail of the painting The Three Ages of a Woman.

Frida Kahlo is known for many things, among these her paintings and self-portraits.

Inspired by the nature of her country, her self-portraits often displayed flowers and animals. Also, her famous and emphasized eyebrows, always present.

One of the most-influential artists of the 20th century, Pablo Picasso is considered to be one of the founders of Cubism.

This cake art echoes the dazzling visual and wild colors of the painting Girl Before a Mirror.

Grant Wood’s image of a man and a woman in front a farmhouse is a source for ambiguity, different interpretations, and several parodies.

This baked reinterpration of the American Gothic, though, hopefully doesn’t require a deep analysis to be appreciated.

If Klimt’s portrait of a kiss isn’t your favorite, how about Roy Lichtenstein’s?

From 1962, Kiss II belongs now to a private collection (but you still could have your own baked version of it).

Leading figure in the Pop Art movement, Andy Warhol produced many famous works.

One of these famous pieces is the album cover made for for The Velvet Underground & Nico, which depicts the classic banana design.

If you feel like embracing the rainbow and vibrant colors, Keith Haring‘s art is a great call.

The American artist’s graffiti inspired style is a legacy that still lives on.

Hokusai’s woodblocks might be the biggest legacy of Japanese art from the Edo period.

The Great Wave off Kanagawa, in special, being the most famous image of the artist’s series of Views of Mount Fuji.

Italian painter Amedeo Modigliani developed his own characteristic style of elongated figures (almost a surreal elongation of the faces and necks of his painting’s characters).

Once you’ve seen one of his paintings, it’s hard to look at one of these faces and not recognize Modigliani in them.

From around 1890 to 1910, the style known as Art Nouveau flourished. Long and sinuous lines marked different expressions of art.

The influence can be seen in architecture, fashion, illustrations, and jewelry design, but this beautiful cake is inspired by the remarkable glass designs of this period.

The 1920s saw the beginning of the movement known as Art Deco, marked by a sleek and anti-traditional elegance.

Reflecting an admiration for modernity, simple and clean shapes were noticeable, as well as geometric and stylized ornaments.

Jackson Pollock brought his own technique to the Abstract Expressionism.

Pouring and splashing paint in an open canvas got called as “drip technique” and marked Pollock’s name in the art world. Why not use a cake as canvas and drip some colors over it?

Costing millions of dollars each, Jeff Koons’ Balloon Dogs are five in total, and they are dispersed around the world.

The miniature version on top of this cake is hopefully easier to be made than the over 300cm works of mirror-polished stainless steel.

Piet Mondrian‘s square and rectangular abstract shapes make a minimalist yet interesting cake shape.

The black straight lines and the use of primary colors pay the perfect homage to Mondrian.

If avoiding controversy is your goal in a party, then maybe avoid this Maurizio Cattelan cake…

The expensive banana work titled Comedian tends to raise strong opinions and could take the spotlight away from the birthday one.