Bakers compete to fool judges into thinking cakes are everyday objects – before they take to them with a samurai sword. This Netflix show might be the most pure, brainless fun ever created
It is incredibly hard not to react to Netflix’s new show Is It Cake? with anything but a wearied groan. It’s one of those infuriatingly packaged US cookery shows where every camera movement comes with a whoosh noise and the editing brief appears to be “make this feel like a panic attack”. It is hosted by a man who does not appear to have ever set foot inside a kitchen. The title has a question mark in it, which means that whenever a journalist writes Is It Cake? in the middle of a sentence, it makes them look groggy and bewildered.
Most egregiously of all, though, the sole premise of Is It Cake? is a brief online fad from two years ago. Perhaps you know it. You will see a video of what you think is a shoe, then someone will cut it open and you realise that it is actually a cake. Or you’ll see a hamburger, but someone will cut it open and it’ll be a cake. Or a laptop, but it’s cake. You get the idea.
