For the past few months, I’ve been designing birthday cakes for friends. Not real ones you can eat… but still pretty sweet. Each one is custom-made based on something personal, a profile photo, a cover image, or just a theme or inside joke that fits the person.
Sometimes it’s simple. Other times, I go all in and add a little figure of them on the cake. Those take more time, but they’re fun to pull off. I try to make something for everyone, but between work and real life, it’s not always possible. Some people haven’t updated Facebook in years, some days there are ten birthdays at once, and I can’t exactly spend the whole day baking digital cakes.
While it might look like these pop out of thin air, the process takes time. I’ve built a workflow where I can type in a name and a theme, and my custom AI setup (which runs locally on my computer) helps generate a bunch of options. Sometimes I get what I want quickly. Other times, I’ll render 10 to 20 variations before picking the best one and cleaning it up. Some require detailed descriptions, scene ideas, or even manual editing to get it right.
I’ve made hundreds of these now. It started as a fun little side project, but I kept going because the usual “happy birthday” post just doesn’t cut it for me. I’d rather send something that feels unique to the person, even if it’s a bit chaotic or weird.
If I haven’t made one for you yet, it might be because your birthday hasn’t come up, you haven’t posted a decent photo in a while, or I just didn’t have the time that day. Or maybe you need to step up your Facebook game.
Anyway, here are a few I thought were worth sharing. Not necessarily my favourites, since a lot of the really good ones are packed with personal jokes, but these are some that I think most people will find interesting or fun to see.
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