- Photos will be on display at Churchill's former home in Kent from January 13
He famously said that he had nothing to offer but 'blood, toil, tears and sweat'.
As Prime Minister during the Second World War, Sir Winston Churchill kept the nation's hopes alive amidst the threat of Nazi tyranny.
And, as a new display at the leader's former home is set to reveal, Sir Winston was repaid with spectacular tiers of his own in the years after victory was secured.
Chartwell in Kent will host a display of colourised pictures of the enormous birthday cakes that were made for Churchill by baker Maria Floris.
The Hungarian pastry chef, who worked from her shop in London's Soho, was also the favoured baker of the Royal Family.
The cake she made for Churchill on his 80th birthday, when he was nearing the end of his second stint as PM, was 40 inches high.
It weighed more than 100lbs and the door of Number 10 Downing Street had to be measured to ensure it would fit through.
On the same day, November 30, a huge model cake was paraded on the roof of a car in front of crowds who had gathered to welcome Churchill on his return from the State Opening of Parliament.
The cake made for his 77th birthday was in the shape of a hat with feathers around the edges. It is seen being carried into Number 10 in 1951.
However, in 1963, the Daily Mail reported how the cake Ms Floris made for Sir Winston's 89th birthday had to be altered at the last minute after a mistake was spotted on a plaque which adorned it.
It bore a retelling of a line from one of Sir Winston's most famous speeches, where he paid tribute to the fighter pilots of the Royal Air Force.
It should have read: 'Never, in the fields of endeavour, has so much been owed by all mankind to one man.'
But endeavour had been spelled 'endeaver'.
The light fruit cake had an Anglo-American theme, with maps of Britain and the US joined by a bridge on top.
The new display at Chartwell, titled Winston's Spectacular Cakes, will kick off events to mark the 150th anniversary of Sir Winston's birth.
The photos, from the TopFoto archive, were colourised by expert Tom Marshall in collaboration with the National Trust, which cares for Chartwell.
He said: 'The process is carried out digitally, using Adobe Photoshop, and each photo took between two and four hours to complete, painting digital colour layers over the monochrome photos.
'The shades of grey in the original photo determine how dark each colour should be, but not the colour itself, so the process is a combination of research and artistic license.
'When researching this project, I watched a lot of archive news footage, as most of Sir Winston Churchill's birthdays were well documented in the newsreels of the day.
'While these newsreels were in black and white, they did give me more angles of the cake decorations to work with and showed some details and context not initially obvious when viewing the black and white photos.'
After the Second World War, Sir Winston's birthday became a moment of great interest for both the press and the public.
Photographers would descend on his home to see the cakes, each of which were designed to showcase his career, achievements and interests in sponge and icing.
From the late-1950s, interest had grown to the extent that there was a special photo opportunity for press to take snaps of the cakes at the bakery, before they were dispatched ready to take centre stage on the big day.
Katherine Carter, Chartwell's Curator, said: 'Our new display shows the wonderful array of cakes inspired by Churchill's interests and achievements.
'They were a forerunner to our love of extravagant and themed bakes today.'
She added: 'It has been a delicious treat to research and curate this exhibition, and we look forward to our visitors joining in the celebrations at the start of this special birthday year, here at Churchill's family home.'
'Winston's Spectacular Cakes' is on display from January 13 to February 25, 2024, 10am to 4pm, at Chartwell and is included with normal admission.
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