Man creates ‘crazy’ Claudia Winkleman caricature cake
Keith Scovell, who said he loves ‘off-beat’ cakes with ‘auras’, has previously portrayed other celebrities in cake form.
A “crazy” cake of Traitors presenter Claudia Winkleman has gone viral on TikTok for its striking features complete with Tic Tacs for teeth and black icing for her famous hairstyle.
Keith Scovell, 55, who lives in Kentish Town in north west London, is the creator behind the cake and has made caricature-style creations of various celebrities including US President-elect Donald Trump, British band Oasis, and the King and Queen.
The HR consultant said he enjoys seeing “people smile and laughing” and loves cakes with “auras” that look “off-beat”.
The amateur baker has been making his unique cakes since before the coronavirus pandemic, but only started posting his creations on social media at the end of last year.
His videos have been a hit with social media users, with his most recent Winkleman creation earning nearly 200,000 views and more than 30,000 likes – and counting – on TikTok.
Mr Scovell told the PA news agency: “I love Claudia, by the way, and I love the Traitors; I can’t get enough of it.
“I thought, actually, how characteristic her face is – the hair, the eyes, the smile – and then I just thought, actually, could I recreate that?”
“My cakes, to be honest with you, they’re just my imagination going a bit crazy.”
The cake features an abnormally large mouth spanning the width of Winkleman’s face, with stark white teeth made of Tic Tacs, and thick black icing to create both her famous fringe haircut and the dark eyeliner around her eyes.
“Personally, I love cakes with kind of auras to them or that are just a bit off-beat, so most of my cakes do have teeth,” Mr Scovell said.
“The mouth is never, to the cake I create, true to form. It’s always the comedy part, I think.”
He credits his ability to lip read as helping him create his striking cake designs.
“I think I’ve got a knack of looking at people’s faces because I was born almost deaf, so I do have a huge hearing (impairment),” he explained.
“I think because I’ve learned to lip read and learn people’s facial expressions and their faces I think that’s how you can pick up a point on somebody’s face, so that’s your reference.”
Mr Scovell said he is not a professional baker only making cakes for his friends and family, including a Taylor Swift cake – complete with fizzy cola flavoured straw sweets for hair, pink icing for skin and massive fingers to hold her microphone – for his niece’s 18th birthday.
I’m A Celeb presenters Ant and Dec offered their praises after Mr Scovell’s funny cakes of the duo were featured on ITV’s This Morning, which was broadcast on January 2.
He said people in the US and Australia have offered to pay for his cakes, but he quipped: “if I had my cakes in a shop window, they may scare small children”.
The HR consultant said the baked goods take around two to three hours to create plus the standard cooking time for a simple Victoria sponge, which is the base for all his creations.
He admits his baking skills are “very basic” and joked his cakes “look weird but it’s edible”.
He said he was initially daunted by the traction he was receiving on social media but quickly realised “the joy I got from seeing people’s faces and reactions is probably worth a million of those cakes”.
“If you look at the comments, there’s not one negative comment, which is rare in this day and age because people do like to slate somebody for doing something that they enjoy,” he added.
“It’s insane. I don’t know, if it ends tomorrow it’s fun. I’m still making cakes anyway, so it doesn’t matter. It feels weird.”
He plans to continue making cakes in hopes of making others smile and has urged others to spread positivity on social media.
“At any age, anything you do and it makes you smile, don’t keep it to yourself. Make others smile,” he said.
“If it’s made you smile, it’s going to make someone else smile, so it’s going to make someone’s day.”
