Duck cake, Australian Women's Weekly Birthday Cake Book Photo: Supplied
A book of 108 elaborate themed cakes has been sparking sugary fantasies for three generations of kids.
In the 1980s the cakes were as vital to Kiwi kids' birthday parties as fairy bread and pass the parcel.
Featuring a chip-lipped duck, a structurally unsound tip truck, and the iconic train cake on the cover, the Australian Women's Weekly Children's Birthday Cake Book has sold over a million copies since its release in 1980.
There are large Facebook groups dedicated to making the cakes.
For parents attempting to recreate the cakes, the experience is often a labour of love and engineering.
Long-time Women's Weekly food editor and test kitchen head Pamela Clark authored the book and spoke to Saturday Morning's Kim Hill.
Pamela Clark. Photo: supplied
The book was not an instant success in Australia, she noted.
"When we published it in 1980, it was very slow to take off in Australia. Not so in New Zealand and South Africa and the UK."
"It didn't sell for a couple of years, and then it slowly took off."
After falling out of print briefly, it is now kept steadily available.
"Now they just keep reprinting it because if they don't the flood of calls and e-mails is amazing."
However, she does not recommend would-be bakers attempt the tip truck cake, which has proved treacherous for many a cake maker.
"I have advised many people to glue those pages together.
"It's not impossible but it is a feat of engineering ... I made that, so I know it intimately - so I supported it with skewers."
It is more of a craft book than a recipe book, she agrees.
"The cakes, if you look at them closely, most of them are pretty rough and ready and I think that's part of the charm of the book because they look approachable.
"They look do-able, and so people give them a go."
Former Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern shared her struggle in 2020 making the piano cake and admitted to having to prop it up with a jar of lentils.
Jacinda Ardern with her attempt at a piano cake in 2020. Photo: Instagram / Jacinda Ardern
"The kids love them, they're not looking for perfection, they're just looking for the whole idea of the birthday cake made by mum or dad," Clark said.
The most popular cakes in the book include the train, the duck cake and the pool.
"I've even heard of the train cake at a wedding and they decided they'd build quite a complex scene for the train to run up the middle of the bridal table.
"They did send a photo ... it was amazing. It had way more carriages than the cake book has and they were with sparklers and all sorts of things that made it look incredible."
Many of them are complicated engineering projects, Clark admits.
"Anything that's sort of three-dimensional is a problem, really."
This year is the 90th anniversary of the Australian Women's Weekly and Clark will be taking part in the festivities.
"I think the Weekly has certainly moved with the times. It's certainly kept up.
"It never wanted to be cutting edge, it was always just that little bit behind the cutting edge, if you like, and that position is quite comfortable, really."
