International Pizza Cake Day – April 17

Long before our beloved pizza cake existed, rumors swirled about a mysterious chef named François Gundermeaux. According to food folklore, he supposedly created a cake that looked like a pizza—but not an actual pizza with layers like cake.

So was it a pizza cake? Not really. It was more of a novelty dessert that looked like a pizza but didn’t taste like one. In short, it wasn’t what we now call a Pizza Cake.

In 2014, the Canadian-based restaurant chain Boston Pizza launched a quirky promotional campaign called Pizza Game Changers. They asked their fans to vote on wild, never-before-seen pizza creations.

The ideas were wild. There were pizza burgers, pizza tacos, even pizza mints. But one idea rose above the rest: the Pizza Cake.

And not just any pizza cake. We’re talking six layers of dough, cheese, sauce, and toppings, all baked together in a tall, circular cake pan. Think of a deep-dish pizza, but vertical.

To share the love, Boston Pizza released a DIY Pizza Cake recipe through So Good Blog, an online food space that featured creative dishes and recipes. One Reddit user who tried it simply called it "heavenly."

But the story doesn’t stop there.

In September 2014, Pillsbury released their own version of the Pizza Cake recipe, created by food blogger Shawn Syphus. It included Pillsbury dough, lots of cheese, and baking tips for making the cake at home.

That version took off like melted cheese on a hot pan. It went viral across the internet, and many people wrongly assumed Pillsbury had invented the recipe.