Chris Hemsworth and Elsa Pataky have come under fire after a “cruel” prank on their sons’ birthday.

The Hollywood star and the Spanish actress on Monday shared snaps from the birthday celebration of their twin sons Sasha and Tristan.

In one of the snaps, Elsa could be seen pushing the head of one of her sons into the chocolate cake that was sitting on the table as the Thor actor watched on.

“Happy 9th birthday to my two little men! Only one way to eat cake in this house and that’s to have mum slam your head into it face first!!” Chris captioned the photo.

“‘Hey mum I don’t like chocolate cake I prefer vanilla’ – ‘Oh really son, what about now?’”

Slamming the birthday celebrant’s head into a cake remains a popular, albeit controversial, practice in many countries around the world.

While some people defend the practice saying it’s meant to lighten the mood and make people laugh, others believe that unsuspecting victims, especially children, could lose trust in their parents after being tricked and “shamed” in front of other people.

After sharing the birthday snaps on social media, Elsa and Chris quickly managed to divide their fans and draw a fair share of criticism.

“Why people smash their kid’s face in the cake is above my understanding but whatever,” someone said.

“This is plain mean and cruel, there’s nothing funny about it to be honest,” another wrote.

A third said: “Why do people keep on doing this? Like what’s the purpose of making someone dirty on their birthday?”

Some viewers, however, ran to the couple’s defense and argued that “a bit of humor” couldn’t hurt anyone.

“It’s done for a joke and a good laugh, get over it people,” someone responded.

“My aunt did that. I didn’t particularly like it but I see the funny side of it now,” another said.

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