Joan Rivers Celebrates Her 80th in W. Chester

As he drove to West Chester last week, Sam Emlen didn't know the cake he was about to deliver was for a live TV tribute to a legendary performer.

The butter pound cake was presented to Joan Rivers for her 80th birthday during one of her sales segments on QVC.

"It's so pretty, I almost hate to cut it," one of the presenters said after Rivers received the purple-and-blue confection.

A manager and deliveryman at Clay's Creative Corner Bakery in Berwyn, Emlen knows the route to the shopping network's studios well.

"QVC has ordered lots of cakes from us in the past. We're kind of the go-to bakery whenever they want something for one of their shows," he said. "It was really awesome to see the cake that was in the back of my car two hours before is now on TV."

Denise Bones, who owns Clay's, said it's not the first time she's baked for a celebrity—it's not even the first time she's baked a cake for Joan Rivers.

"We baked a cake for the anniversary of her show on QVC," she said.

Clay's, which will mark 23 years in business this October, has also created cakes for local newscasters like NBC10's Renee Chenault-Fattah and Comcast SportsNet's Ron Burke. In 2008, Bones went backstage at a Jersey Boys performance after delivering a cake for the cast party on the show's third anniversary on Broadway. 

Asked whether she watches baking shows on TV like Cupcake Wars and American Baking Competition, Bones said only rarely, and only for a couple minutes. All the bakery drama depicted on the shows is real, she said.

"This place is nuts, the people are crazy," she said with a laugh. "I live it everyday. I don't need to watch it."

A photo of Rivers and the QVC crew posing with the cake is on Clay's Facebook page. A Youtube video of the segment is attached to this article.