On Everything Being Cake
Why is everything cake? The current fad of exquisitely made cakes that accurately mimic the look of everyday objects is taking the internet by storm. If you are finding this more creepy than impressive, you are not alone. This feeling can be explained by the Uncanny Valley phenomenon.
If you’ve spent any time on the internet recently, you might have noticed that everything is cake.
This fad is sweeping the internet. Why? Equal parts fascination, a bit creeped out by the deception, and totally impressed at the cake-maker’s skill.
The year is 2030. Bakery art is so realistic, literally anything could be cake. The uncertainty has gripped the world in fear. I go to hug my wife for comfort. She is cake.
— MehGyver (@TheAndrewNadeau) July 9, 2020
If you are having a reaction to these cakes – like of disgust or horror – you are not alone. Psychologists are trying to explore why cake trickery triggers discomfort.
2007: The cake is a lie
— EL GUILLASTROSO (@Guillastroso) July 12, 2020
2020: Cake is the only truth. Everything is cake. I am cake. https://t.co/Ow7idykAUh
This feeling could be caused by the Uncanny Valley Phenomenon. This is a phenomenon that describes the unsettling feeling of encountering (either in real life or perhaps in a movie!) a humanoid robot or a computer-generated face – it’s almost human but not really. The concept originated from Masahiro Mori in the 1970s, a roboticist from Tokyo. He describes phenomenon of how human-like robots seem more appealing to us - but only up to a certain point - then its appeal drops down the uncanny valley because we find the human-likeness to be creepy or repulsive.
This might explain the fascination and some people’s discomfort with wax figures. Or clowns.
The reality is that the Uncanny Valley is not very well understood scientifically, and Masahiro Mori did not propose his concept as a rigorous theory, per se. What isn’t well understood is why some people are freaked out by ‘everything-is-cake’ and why others like it so much.
I sob in despair as I eat my cake wife. She is delicious.
— MehGyver (@TheAndrewNadeau) July 9, 2020
The viral nature of everything being cake is perhaps fairly easy to explain. It’s simple, it’s visual, videos are often short, its translatable and relatable to all cultures or languages (everyone understands ‘cake’), it needs no words, it stirs emotions, and incorporates humour. It’s even on topic as many people have been increasingly in their homes baking due to COVID-19-related lockdowns. Really, the perfect sticky marketing campaign. (Though, who it’s benefitting, we don’t know).
Spoiler alert: It's actually a cake pic.twitter.com/PaUsthFrYv
— 70s Dinner Party (@70s_party) July 12, 2020
Our reticence might come from the deception. Violation of reality (where we trust something is actually a solid Croc) is a surreal experience that creates dissonance (i.e., tension) between our sense of what we think is real and what is actually real. Contributing to this feeling is how we are watching this deception only on video, lacking other senses (smell, touch, taste), to verify.
Another factor that makes the cake unpalatable is that we aren’t generally supposed to eat toilet paper, or babies, or shoes, and doing so would be highly taboo. The juxtaposition of eating toilet paper against something so positive and pleasant as eating a piece of cake is uncomfortable. And that’s when we cringe.
If you are feeling creeped out by all-too-realistic cake, then take a look at these hilarious baking fails to renew your faith in how cakes can still look like cake.
Yours, and definitely not a cake,
