About

The Cheesecake Or Boat Optical Illusion is a close-up photograph of a blueberry cheesecake with blue frosting and a slice cut out of it that resembles a boat on the ocean. This optical illusion was first posted online in 2020 and garnered viral spread over the following years, inspiring memes and edits. It saw a resurgence in virality in September 2025 after being reposted to X / Twitter.

Origin

On May 11th, 2020, the Cruise Memes Facebook^[1] page posted an image macro featuring a close-up photograph of a blueberry cheesecake, captioned, "If you saw the bow of a ship sailing on the ocean instead of a blueberry cheesecake, you officially need a cruise," garnering over 1,500 reactions and 7,100 shares in five years.

This is the earliest known page to pose the image, although it may not be the original.

Spread

The image garnered viral spread over the following years. On May 14th, 2020, it was shared by the Me, My Cakes and I Facebook^[2] page. On May 19th, Storypick^[3] shared the image.

On July 19th, it was reposted to the /r/mildlyinteresting^[4] subreddit, followed by the /r/confusing_perspective^[5] subreddit on February 7th, 2021, garnering over 198 upvotes on the former and 22,000 upvotes on the latter in four years.

On May 19th, 2025, the image was shared on the Kitchen Fun With My 3 Sons Facebook^[6] page with a new caption, garnering over 7,700 reactions and 1,100 shares in four months.

On September 11th, X^[7] user @iih4u posted what appears to be a different image of the same cake, possibly made using AI, without context, garnering over 459,000 likes and 63,000 reposts in four days.

That day, X^[8] user @skyylike92 quoted the post, writing, "My hungry ass thought this was cheesecake," garnering over a million likes and 72,000 reposts in four days.

On September 12th, 2025, the image was posted to the /r/interestingasfuck^[9] subreddit, garnering over 42,000 upvotes in three days.

Also on September 12th, Redditor u/Longenuity posted an edit of Jack and Rose from Titanic on the "boat" in the image as a comment under the /r/Interestingasfuck^[10] post, garnering over 10,000 upvotes in three days.

Later that day, Threads^[11] user frankoceaan reposted the image, writing, "stare at this with me rq," garnering over 66,000 likes and 5,400 reposts in three days. The post inspired numerous edits in the comments.

For example, that day Threads^[12] user dazeddhoney posted an edit to make the photo resemble SZA's album SOS, garnering over 8,000 likes in three days.

On September 13th, 2025, X^[13] user @Butterflless posted an AI-generated image of a similar cake resembling the ocean, garnering over 29,000 likes in two days.

On September 14th, X^[14] user @dystopianzzz quoted the post, writing, "You're not HER," referencing the original optical illusion, garnering over 606,000 likes and 25,000 reposts in a day.

Various Examples

Template

Search Interest

External References