Alabama’s Cliff Simon created fabulous cakes for celebrities. Now he gives them away for free

Cliff Simon has made cakes for Diana Ross, Madonna, Pee-wee Herman, Liberace, Ella Fitzgerald, KISS and many other celebrities.

Now he’s making them for you.

This Alabama man whips up fabulous desserts in his home kitchen, then gives them away for free to people in Birmingham. It’s a community project, a way for him to be of service, and a means for spreading joy in the Glen Iris neighborhood and beyond.

“There’s no money exchanged, and it it works,” Simon, 74, said in an interview with AL.com. “It’s been wonderful.”

Simon, an artist and former professor of scenic design at UAB, uses his formidable skills to make cakes that are visual knockouts — with whipped cream, chocolate ganache, gold powder and other decadent ingredients — but he wants to tantalize the tastebuds, too.

“When people see my cakes, they say, ‘How can I cut that?’” Simon said. “Or ‘It’s too beautiful to cut.’ But please, do me a favor, and cut it, because it’s a cake, and cakes are meant to be eaten.”

(See photos of Cliff Simon and his cakes in the gallery at the top of this post.)

In the past, when Simon created personalized desserts for stars playing at Radio City Music Hall in New York City, his cakes were showcased by backstage caterers at concerts and other events. Simon rarely knew for sure if the famous folks simply admired his cakes — or his cream puffs, truffles and other confections — or if they were inclined to dig in.

“I don’t suppose Diana Ross would have eaten the cake. She was watching her weight and everything,” Simon recalled. “But I know that John Cougar Mellencamp, when it was brought to his dressing room, he had a napkin over it when he went on stage. There were crumbs on the napkin and the note said, ‘Do not touch this.’”

Indulge with gusto, then, and you’ll make this baker happy. Express satisfaction on social media after devouring one of his cakes, and Simon will be even happier.

“I feel as though I have won the lottery today!” Greg Smith of Birmingham said in a June 25 post on Facebook. “After finally managing to reach Cliff Simon in a timely manner, I successfully secured the most delectable sweet treat on a sweltering summer Alabama afternoon. The cake is truly a masterpiece, and I felt a pang of guilt when cutting into it, until I savored its delightful flavor! It is utterly heavenly!!!!”

Facebook has been important to Simon as a method for sharing his cakes, via posts on his personal page and one linked to the Glen Iris neighborhood in Southside. True, things have changed a bit since December 2023, when Simon made his first giveaway post, sharing part of a huge apple turnover he’d made for Christmas.

That dessert, from a Julia Child recipe, initially was part of a holiday dinner for Simon and his husband, artist Julian Hazlett, and Hazlett’s sister. But when Simon decided to share the treat with others, a community baking hobby was born.

“Julian told me about a woman who started baking sourdough bread and decided to put loaves on the front porch, and for anyone to come by and pick up the bread as a free gift,” Simon said in a Facebook post on Dec. 26, 2023. “That was so inspiring to me, and I love giving people cakes. So, from yesterday, here is the remainder of the apple turnover for Christmas which will go on my porch in about ten minutes. Whoever gets here first, just come, take and eat. More tomorrow.”

After the turnover disappeared, Simon moved on to a flourless chocolate torte. Then a Linzertorte, a Torta di Cioccolata, a Budapest coffee cake, an almond cake and more. He’s been sharing yummy desserts ever since, experimenting with different cakes and perfecting his distribution methods.

“I started doing it by leaving a cake, in the box, on an upside-down black garbage can,” Simon said. “And people would come and pick it up. Most times, I didn’t meet them. Then last summer, I couldn’t put the cakes out anymore because it was so hot, and a lot of my cakes are covered in whipped cream. I had no way to handle that. And that’s really how (the current system) came about.”

These days, Simon usually posts cake giveaways on Facebook three times per week, offering two cakes to the public — first-come, first served — on Tuesdays, Wednesdays and Thursdays, for six cakes total.

The Facebook alerts mention Simon’s home address and tell visitors to call a phone number posted on his front door. Simon then brings a boxed cake to the person waiting on his porch, chatting for a few minutes and sending them on their way.

As each cake is claimed, Simon posts updates on Facebook, so hopefuls won’t arrive on his doorstep and be disappointed.

“B.J. Melton just picked up the first Paris-Brest,” Simon posted on May 7, 2025, referencing a classic French pastry. “As he was walking down the steps with the cake, he said ‘I feel so happy now.’ And I told him, Everyone is always happy on this porch! There’s one more left for someone who wants to be happy for a moment, too.”

Simon can’t predict how long it will take for the cakes to be scooped up, so he encourages folks to watch for his public Facebook posts and act promptly.

“It seems to work really well,” Simon said. “Different people have wanted to give me money or help with the cakes or even buy ingredients and bring them to me. But I don’t want that. I just want to do it myself, so that I feel in control. We talk for a while, then they leave. And it really helps me feel like I’m being of service.”

At first, Simon’s cakes went to neighbors in close proximity to his house in Glen Iris. But as the word has spread, cake fans have made the pilgrimage from other parts of the city. One Birmingham couple showed up at Simon’s door, for example, after their daughter messaged them from out of state, urging them to pick up the last cake of the day.

How does Simon decide on the type of cakes he makes each week?

“It’s whatever my whim is,” he said. “I make cakes that I like. I just choose whatever I feel. If I want to make an orange and chocolate cake, I try to find some sort of recipe for it, or I use my intuition. … I have an idea of what will appeal to people. I know that if I make a pound cake, let’s say, it’s not going to appeal to as many people as a beautiful European torte with something beautiful on top. They have to be special, so when people come up on the porch, they’re really excited.”

Simon is a talented painter as well as a skillful baker, so it’s no surprise to hear that he excels at painting images, portraits and scenes on his cakes.

“They are painted like canvas, tactile like clay and, just like Tinkerbelle, they sparkle,” Simon wrote in a self-published memoir, “They Ate My Cake.” The book is no longer in print, but Simon sometimes pulls excerpts and posts them on Facebook.

Examples of his painted cakes can be found on Simon’s website and social media, and those colorful desserts were popular when he lived in other cities. (Simon moved to Birmingham in 2002, but previously made his home in San Francisco, Santa Fe and Austin, after his early years in New York City.)

Still, his current baking aesthetic leans toward rich and fluffy instead of precisely painted. “I don’t make many painted cakes anymore, because there’s not an audience for that in Birmingham,” Simon said.

He does branch out occasionally, giving away boxes filled with decadent brownies, chocolate cookies, cream puffs, truffles or pastries such as rugelah.

Simon’s admirers have called him an expert baker, masterful with ingredients and capable of combining flavors into a harmonious whole. He tends to be a tougher critic of his own abilities, however, and Simon emphasized that he’s entirely capable of making mistakes.

“I can’t tell you how many cakes in my life I have screwed up, because in some ways I tend to be not detail-oriented,” Simon said. “Or I’m too fast, and that screws things up. Or I don’t read the recipe or directions. So then I learn a lot from that, from what I did wrong.

“I will make these big mistakes, like leave out the butter. That doesn’t happen much, but I get so quick with everything. I’ve had some cakes slide off and fall on the floor,” Simon continued. “I remember I was taking a cake to Pee-wee Herman at Carnegie Hall, and I was holding this cake and going up a flight of stairs. I was running because I was excited, and I just dropped it. But it remained OK.”

Simon is serious about baking cakes for the community, but that doesn’t mean he lacks a sense of humor. His social media posts offer ample proof, whether it’s a celebrity anecdote — how he messed up Diana Ross’ wedding cake, for example, then made a quick save — or a reflection on life, art and cake consumption.

“I have heard that Australian aborigines believe that only the process itself, of art, is all that matters,” Simon said in an April 9 Facebook post. “They feel that the creating of it is what nourishes the soul and makes one happy and that once a piece of art is made, it is then time to destroy it. So my cakes, then, seem to fit pretty well into their philosophy, because I bake the cake, I paint the cake, you look at the cake, you eat the cake and we all knows where it goes tomorrow morning.”