The ’80s was the decade we all started plugging into new technology. We had so many gadgets to make our lives more flexible! Boomboxes and portable audio cassette players meant you could turn off the turntable and take your favorite songs everywhere. With a personal computer, work and study could happen at home, not just at the office or library. The introduction of gaming consoles put an arcade right into your living room.

In fashion, styles also appeared in unexpected places, with activewear worn everywhere to reflect our on-the-go culture. People wore jumpsuits, legwarmers, cut sweatshirts and headbands with splashes of neon color. We made literal fashion statements, with badges and buttons worn as accessories that expressed any idea under the sun. Big hair was big news too, with styles like the perm and the mullet showing up everywhere.

It was a fast-paced time, and I wanted my ’80s cake design to show some of the elements that made it exciting. Wilton cake decorator Emily Easterly started by making a classic material girl topper using the Wilton Teen Doll Pick and Shape-N-Amaze edible decorating dough. The flexible dough made it easy to shape the perfect pose, then Emily added the colorful pleated skirt, legwarmers and jewelry using Decorator Preferred Fondant.

Beneath the topper are fondant-covered cakes with high-voltage colors and iconic shapes that are pure 80s. The graphic designs on the top tier are playful, with broken triangles and layered strips that move every which way.

The message buttons and cassettes on the bottom two tiers show that all kinds of bright colors could work together in the 80s to pump up the volume. Two kinds of cut-outs were used to make the message buttons on the middle tier. The layered circles were done with the round double cut-outs set. Hearts were cut with our ejector-style mini cut-outs.

We hope you like looking back through the decades as Wilton celebrates our 85th anniversary. Now we want to know what you think!