A baker who made a life-size Taylor Swift cake for Sunday’s Super Bowl said it was the “perfect opportunity” to finally get around to making it.
The cake sculpture by Lara Mason, from Walsall in the West Midlands, has been viewed more than 3 million times on TikTok.
Her cake creation depicts Swift wearing a Kansas City Chiefs sweatshirt – the team her football player boyfriend Travis Kelce plays for – and holding the NFL Super Bowl trophy above her head.
Mason, 37, who runs her own business Lara Cakes, told the Guardian she had wanted to make the American singer a cake for some time, but it was her and her husband’s love of American football that made it “even more special”.
“I’ve always wanted to make a Taylor Swift cake because she’s been at the top of everyone’s list for the past five years,” she said. “I really like her, I’m not a diehard Swiftie, but I really appreciate her music and the fact that she’s a role model for women.
“I never got around to making a cake but obviously the Super Bowl is coming up and me and my husband really enjoy the NFL so to put the two things together it was the perfect opportunity to continue with it. She’s great, but the NFL connection made it even more special.
Making the vanilla-flavored red velvet cake took 38 hours over a week, using 130kg of ingredients.
Mason said her six-year-old twin daughters enjoyed watching her creative process, adding: “The girls love it because every day they come home from school I put a little more into the cake. They like to tell all their classmates that their mom is the lady who made the Taylor Swift cake.”
Mason said she started baking 13 years ago and watched American TV shows where people made “big, extravagant cakes.” She said: “I thought, how hard can it really be? Then I tried it and realized: yes, it is actually very difficult. At first it was just about the challenge.”
Her business has since taken off and her designs have been seen all over the world. A lifelike image of the Grinch proved to be a particular success online. “If something has ugly features, like the Grinch being green and having all the wrinkles on the face, that’s a little bit easier because even if you do something wrong, you still know it’s the Grinch,” she said.
“But when it comes to creating Taylor Swift, she’s obviously so beautiful and her facial features are so perfect that it’s so hard to do. People will pick apart little details because everyone knows exactly what she looks like.
Mason has not ruled out that her creation will be used as a snack. “It is still standing at the moment. In a way it’s a good thing that it’s so cold in Britain at the moment, because it will keep for at least another three to four weeks. She could be our halftime snack during the Super Bowl.