Sir Ian McKellen kicked off the after show party by slicing into his surprise birthday cake.

Kaykes of Bolton was approached to create the birthday centrepiece, which was enjoy by VIP guest, including other famous faces from stage and screen.

Danielle Gajra, who customers know through her professional name Kay – “a long story” – created a cake to mark James Martin’s 10th anniversary appearance at Bolton Food and Drink Festival and a magical Alice in Wonderland cake for the festival.

“I was asked if I could create a birthday cake for Sir Ian, he is legend – it’s Gandalf- so I said yes I could.

“This is my favourite commission because it is him and to make a birthday cake for his 80th a really important birthday!

She added: “I decided to create his face because Sir Ian is defined by anyone thing, he is a legendary film actor but also a stage actor and really defines himself.”

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The vanilla buttercream cake held together with ganache was commissioned three months ago took around 20 hours to complete.

“Once I started, I didn’t want to stop, “ said Danielle Danielle said :”My children think I’m very cool designing a cake for Gandalf!”

She said baking a cake for Sir Ian would take some beating.