Tired of baking sourdough, banana bread, or focaccia? Well, there’s a new pandemic trend: realistic cakes that look like everything but cake.
Cakes made to look like Crocs, potted plants, pets, hot dogs, and even Jewish staples like pickles, onions, and whole eggplants, are just a few examples that I’ve spotted. “These hyper-realistic cakes have taken the shape of a bottle of hand lotion, a chicken thigh, a bar of soap, rolls of toilet paper and human heads. It’s unsettling to see them cut open to reveal their sweet insides,” writes The New York Times this week in their piece, “This Pickle Is A Cake.”
Intricate cakes, shaped by fondant and gum paste to resemble non-cake things, are hardly new. There are only about 17 different Food Network and Netflix shows you can watch on this very topic. But the randomness of these objects and the new looped videos on social media, add a new element to the spectacle, especially at a time when everyone is looking for some distraction and entertainment. Lots of people took to Twitter adding funny and horrified commentary:
toilet paper is having a great year pic.twitter.com/xU70TplOXy
— Dave Jorgenson 🍰 (@davejorgenson) July 9, 2020
I’m not breaking out the fondant any time soon, but it is kinda soothing, or at least addictive, to watch these videos. Here’s one of my favorites from Sideserf Cake Studio located in Austin, Texas:
