Formats Unpacked: Is It Cake?

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OK. Cake time. As a man with a very sweet tooth, and an obsession with format ideas, today’s unpacking is a delight. It comes from Suzi O’Neill who is Head of B2B Brand Content, Kaspersky and host of the Insight Story business tech podcast. 

Over to Suzi…

What's it called?

Is It Cake (TV show)

What’s the format? 

A cake-making contest and game show mashup about the art of deception

Contestants who make hyper-realistic cakes compete for cash by crafting everyday objects from cake. Each episode has a different theme and selection of objects, like a pair of neon trainers in ‘Cake Me Out to the Ballgame’, or a Walkman (“CD player” as college contestant Corterrius call it – bless!) in ‘That ‘90s Cake’.Baking puns abound in this high-octane format, presented by comedian Mikey Day, coming on like the love child of Jim Carrey and Jack Nicolson’s “Here’s Johnny!” scene in The Shining. He stabs things with a giant knife, knuckle-duster or sword to demonstrate if the item is a cake or a real thing. Is It Cake? is a sweet mix of shock and satisfaction. Celebrity judges try and spot the fake cake from several yards away. The reveals are as bittersweet as the cakes’ ganache and raspberry icing. Judge and viewer get the satisfaction of a successful cake spot, but sorrow as a win means the contestant faces the boot (also a popular object to bake). Those that fool the judges compete to win based on how it tastes and how realistic it looks. There’s sneaky gameplay too. They can throw shade by modifying their decoy objects by bashing or painting. The game is as much about deception as decoration.There’s a final twist, a moment of jeopardy: the top-ranked baker can win a cash-filled vestibule – like a sack, safe or handbag - if they can identify it from the cake decoy. And we collectively realise it’s way harder than it looks. 

What’s the magic that makes it special?  

Is It Cake? is a layer cake format with different flavours to appeal to different audiences. Come for the impressive sculpting, stick around for the bakers’ craft dramas and knife-edge reveals.  Or as Stuart Heritage describes in The Guardian, “If your idea of entertainment doesn’t involve watching a man trying to chop a shoe in half before shouting “It is shoe! Not cake!” in defeat, you will get nothing from the show. But it’s also worth pointing out that if this is the case you are spiritually dead.”Like other successful genre-bending shows, the audience and context impact how you receive it. Teletubbies, the technicoloured show for non-verbal toddlers found a secondary audience among bored (or stoned) students. Is It Cake? describes itself as ‘mind bending’. It could be appreciated differently if you’re enjoying afternoon tea with your kids, compared to after a night of drinking (or microdosing). Comedian Andrew O’Neill (no relation) philosophises how contestants could question their perceived reality, as the TV set is revealed as cake – then their car, hotel and family members. In a future like The Matrix, we may live in a metaverse that’s part-reality, part-cake. We won’t know what’s real until we hack it with a knife. I do hope he keeps this sketch in his upcoming Edinburgh Fringe show. Side note: In this reality, we may all be listening to the band Half Man, Half Biscuit. Some have criticised it as a soggy bottom spinout of the 2020 TikTok and Instagram trend showing cutting into things like a burger that’s really a cake. But in reality, the format builds on the best TV baking contests and makes it absurd and delicious for generation TikTok. Like The Great British Bake Off, we get intimate with a diverse group of talented, likeable folks during the season. All have terrific camaraderie and love for their incredibly specific craft. They give each other affectionate names like ‘Cake Goat’ and ‘Stitch Witch’. They’re lovely. We want them to succeed.We’re drawn into the craft, learning words like ‘too fondanty’ to describe a conspicuously shiny or saggy object. We learn about contestants’ killer skills, like making cakes super square or piping fool-proof stitching. Cakes lean into contestants’ cultural heritage, like an American Deep South Sunday dinner or sweet peanut filling from the Philippines. By the end of the series, we’re invested in this baking niche. In an age where TV can distract us from all the bad things, Is It Cake? is deeply satiating escapism. Let’s be honest, hyper-realistic cake-making is very much a first-world problem. But online, where deepfakes and generative AI can be used to fake or make just about anything, this version of ‘faking it’ offers us an alternative slice of happiness.

Similar Formats

The Great British Bake Off - The original big group hug baking contest. 

Baking Impossible - ‘Bakineer’ baker and engineer teams create elaborate edible creations. 

Favourite Episode?

Is It Cake, Too?  Episode 1: Everything Is Cake. 

Thanks Suzi.

I first met Suzi at Proper Fancy, the Storythings show and tell that we open to everyone. It’s on the last Thursday of the month at 1pm (BST). Join us for cake and links.

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Hope you all enjoyed your cake. See you all next time.

Hugh