Cake or Fake

About

Cake or Fake refers to multiple viral videos where expert bakers or "Cake Artists" create cakes that look like other objects and foods, only to cut through them with a knife to reveal that they're just cake. The trend became popular on YouTube and TikTok where outside of the people making the cakes were creators posting reaction content to it, trying to guess which was which in Cake or Fake Challenges. Additionally, a game show produced by Netflix called Is It Cake? was created in early 2022.

History

The first "Cake or Fake" style forum was created on April 1st, 2011 by the website CakeWrecks^[1] for April Fool's Day, however, the URL is no longer accessible. Regardless, multiple Twitter^[2][3] users shared a link to it in April 2011.

Starting in 2015, self-proclaimed "cake artist" Yolanda Gampp started posting her cake content to Instagram, being one of the first online to popularize deceiving cakes. For instance, on February 5th, 2015, she posted a photo of a cake made to look like a snake on Instagram,^[4] earning over 570 likes in seven years (shown below).

Also in February 2015, Gampp started posting YouTube content on her channel How To Cake It. On February 17th, 2015, she posted a video with a thumbnail that read, "Yes This Is Cake," showing a stack of blueberry pancakes that were, in fact, a cake. Over the course of seven years, the video received roughly 6.2 million views (shown below, left). On April 7th, 2015, she posted a video with a similar thumbnail, this time being a cake made to look like a grilled cheese. The video earned roughly 5.7 million views in seven years (shown below, right).

In 2016, another cake artist named Ben Cullen, also known as The Bakeking, began posting his realistic cake content to YouTuhbe and Instagram. For instance, on April 18th, 2016, he posted his first fake cake video, being about a watermelon cake. Over the course of six years, it received roughly 1,500 views (shown below, left). On May 25th, 2016, he got his first spike in views, earning roughly 25,000 views for a video about a cake made to look like a king's crown (shown below, right).

Cake or Fake? Challenges

On October 4th, 2018, the YouTube channel Cakes StepByStep posted a realistic sneaker cake video, earning roughly 6.1 million views in four years (shown below, left). All of these aforementioned videos predate the "Cake or Fake?" challenges that started to surface in 2019. One of the first creator's to post a challenge video was YouTuber Guava Juice who posted a video on December 28th, 2019, called, "Cutting Open HYPER REALISTIC Cakes 1." it is the first known "Cake or Fake?" challenge online and over the course of three years, it received roughly 4.8 million views (shown below, right).

Going into 2020 and 2021, more and more of these challenge, reaction videos began to surface on both YouTube and TikTok. For instance, on July 14th, 2021, TikToker^[5] sourballbar posted a Duet which earned roughly 6 million plays and 153,700 likes in ten months (shown below, left). On October 31st, 2021, notable YouTuber Mr. Beast joined the trend, earning roughly 20 million views for his video in seven months (shown below, right).

Tasty's "These Are All Cakes" Video

Tasty's "These Are All Cakes" Video refers to a viral video tweeted by Buzzfeed's cooking vertical Tasty that shows numerous cakes decorated to look like everyday objects being cut into. As the video spread, it was parodied in numerous ways on Twitter.

On July 8th, 2020, Tasty tweeted a video showing numerous cakes decorated to look like everyday objects being cut into. The video gained over 81,000 retweets and 171,000 likes (shown below).

Netflix's Is It Cake?

On March 7th, 2022, Netflix posted the official trailer for their new game show called Is It Cake? with host Mikey Day from Saturday Night Live. Over the course of two months, the video received roughly 481,900 views (shown below).

The show was released to Netflix on March 18th, 2022.^[6] After its first season, it received a 60% "Fresh" score on Rotten Tomatoes. ^[7]

Various Examples

Search Interest

External References