What does the ‘Is It Cake?’ meme trend mean on Twitter and TikTok? (2024)

Over the weekend, an important, groundbreaking scientific discovery was made: Everything is made of cake.

Social-media users came to this conclusion after several now-viral videos circulated showing hyper-realistic looking pastries in the shapes of toilet paper, onions and Crocs shoes being sliced open, only to shockingly reveal that their insides are flour, sugar and frosting.

A clip-compilation first posted by BuzzFeed’s Tasty shows the work of cake and sugar artist Tuba Geçkil, who is based in Turkey, sparking the “Is it Cake?” meme frenzy online. Another “traumatic” video, showing surprise cake versions of breakfast sandwiches, eggplants, oysters and lemons highlighted the work of husband-and-wife baking duo Natalie and Dave Sideserf, of Sideserf Cake Studio in Texas.

“I have chained my roommate to the kitchen table. i will be cutting him open to see if he’s a cake. he says he isn’t, but that’s exactly something a cake would say,” writes one Twitter user, in disbelief over the duplicitous delicacies.

“Guys i’m genuinely distressed i can’t take this s - - t anymore,” writes another.

The madness traveled over to TikTok. “It’s been plaguing my mind. I can’t get away from it. Every thought is whether or not something I come in contact with is a cake and it’s haunting me and I can’t get away from it,” says @thebeesdaddy. “So for my own peace of mind I’ve decided that I’ll be walking around with a knife and stabbing everything I come into contact with just to make sure that it is not a cake.”

One user turned the gut-wrenching “Is it Cake?” meme trend into a horror film.

@danbanbam

Cake: The Movie. Coming this Fall. #cake #serve #VibeZone #movie

♬ original sound – danbanbam

The distressing clips quickly turned existential: Is everything made of cake? Are we nothing but sugar and butter, waiting to be sliced into?

Nothing, not even baked goods, is sacred in the year 2020.