Move over, paper flowers. There’s a newer and even prettier trend heating up in luxury interior design as 2022 gets underway: the decorative fake cake. Or cupcake. Or really, any fake pastry. The experts at Architectural Digest have decreed that the whimsical maximalist fake cake – and the influential “bakers” who create them – are one of the top new trends being buzzed about among interior designers. Here are 5 of the most popular influencers on Instagram and the top Etsy sellers showcasing the new interior design home décor trend of fake cakes in 2022. We’re loving their adorable and hysterically funny designs. If you ask us, they totally take the cake.
fake cakes and cupcakes are the new paper flowers
Has the extended solitude of the COVID-19 era made us all a little crazy? Yes. Has the uncertainty and anxiety caused us to reach back to the simple charming things that delighted us as kids. Oh, definitely yes. And while some have taken to baking elaborate confections and artist-inspired bread, others are opting for the faux.
Enter fake cakes, now trending as eye candy on social media – and starting to show up in celebrity homes as a new kind of luxury interior design element. Marie Antoinette had it right all along . . . let ’em eat (or at least drool over) cake.
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The New York Times reports that Etsy has seen a 36% increase in searches for faux cakes on the site in the past three months, compared with the same time the previous year.
Why? Well, fake cakes satisfy our craving for nostalgia and whimsy. Like over-the-top maximalism, they’re bright, happy and photogenic. Writer Emma Hope Allwood coined the phrase “avant basic” to describe the interior design and home décor trend of “quirkiness in the age of mechanical reproduction” and “vintage without the effort.”
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Vice notes that fake cakes – or at least fake layers in a cake – are actually nothing new. Especially at weddings. For example, at the marriage of Queen Victoria’s daughter, Victoria Adelaide Mary Louisa, to German Emperor Frederick III in 1858, only the bottom layer of their tiered cake was edible.
In a recent interview with The New York Times, John Derian – founder of the eponymous home décor and decoupage line – confirmed that he has had a fake cake sitting in his kitchen for 14 years.
Intrigued, dear reader? Here are 5 of the most popular influencers on Instagram and top Etsy sellers showcasing the ever more popular interior design home décor trend of fake cakes in 2022.
fake cakes on Instagram and Etsy to buy to embrace the growing interior design trend in 2022
1. Jasmine Archie
Jasmine Archie seems to be the O.G. of the fake cake luxury décor trend. The founder of Pretty Shitty Cakes, a fake cake home décor brand, she was profiled in Architectural Digest in mid-2021 as a driving force behind the fascination with miniature ceramic cakes in bold, sassy colors. “When you think about cake, there’s always some kind of celebration happening,” she told AD. “Cakes go hand in hand with something happy.”
Pretty Shitty Cakes on Instagram.
After six months in operation, she reported selling around 400 fake cakes for $85–$125 each. Her website also features cupcakes, clocks, tissue boxes and vases featuring the super-saturated colors and “frosting” of her original creations.
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2. Happy Crappy Cakes
Based in the UK, Happy Crappy Cakes sells its fake cakes on Etsy. You can follow them on Instagram for a dose of whimsical and happy images of their confections.
Happy Crappy Cakes on Instagram.
3. Rebecca Uriarte
Also on Etsy, Rebecca Uriarte of Aunt Beck’s Bakery offers a wide variety of fake cakes. Looking ahead to Valentine’s Day, we love this pink and red delight.
Fake Valentine’s Day 2022 cake from Aunt Becks Bakery on Etsy.
4. Anamaria Morris
We love a statement clock, and now we know where to find one that looks like a retro cake (or a pie!). Anamaria Morris is a Brooklyn-based graphic designer and illustrator who also runs a freelance practice focused on book cover design and editorial illustrations. Oh, and she’s also a clock maker – a polymer retro cake clock maker, to be exact.
All Kinds is the Instagram account where you can follow and occasionally buy one of her creations. She told Architectural Digest that “the first cake clock was inspired by a cake I saw in a 1960s book on cake decorating. I love how colorful and saturated all of the books on baking were from that time.”
All Kinds cake and pie polymer clocks on Instagram.
She continues that she designs her clocks as “inedible, saturated, glossy versions of perfect baked goods—these emblems of ’50s-style domesticity.” And she freely admits that she doesn’t possess the skills to actually bake a cake. That duty falls to her sister. Echoing the thought of Jasmine Archie, she notes “There’s obviously a certain nostalgia associated with cake, since it’s linked to celebratory moments in time. I like the idea of freezing those moments to hold onto forever, while still watching time go by.”
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5. Ur So Fake Cakes
The Instagram account for Ur So Fake Cakes celebrates the fun of faux.
Ur So Fake cakes on Instagram.
fake cakes on Instagram and Etsy are trending in 2022
In her New York Times interview Sarah Archer – design and culture writer and the author of The Midcentury Kitchen – sums up the appeal of fake cakes as the latest trend in interior design and home décor best, we think. Fake cakes and other decorative faux foods are “a relatively inexpensive, easy and creative way to make your home joyfully wacky.” What could be more luxurious than that?
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For access to insider ideas and information on the world of luxury, sign up for our Dandelion Chandelier Newsletter here. And see luxury in a new light.
This article contains affiliate links to products independently selected by our editors. As an Amazon Associate, Dandelion Chandelier receives a commission for qualifying purchases made through these links.
Pamela Thomas-Graham is the Founder & CEO of Dandelion Chandelier. A Detroit native, she has 3 Harvard degrees and has written 3 mystery novels published by Simon & Schuster. After serving as a senior corporate executive, CEO of CNBC and partner at McKinsey, she now serves on the boards of several tech companies. She loves fashion, Paris, New York, books, contemporary art, running, skiing, coffee, Corgis and cats of all kinds.
