A Netflix original series Is It Cake? takes cake decorating (and baking, to a slightly lesser extent) to a whole new mind-blowing level. Hosted by Saturday Night Live star Mikey Day – who made the internet break with his Beavis and Butthead sketch with Ryan Gosling – the competition reality series sees bakers making realistic-looking cakes to fool a panel of celebrity judges. Taking on different themes each episode, the bakers race against the clock for a chance at a cash prize. Viewers tune in to see what kinds of astonishing confections the bakers can whip up, as well as to see how many different ways Day can ask: “Is it cake?”
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Some edibles are spotted as cakes relatively easily, but others still trick the eye even when the inside is shown to be sugary sweet. From toys to other foods to works of art, each cake is masterful and unbelievable. Every time host Mikey Day wields his knife (or machete in some cases), the viewers, judges, and contestants hold their breath – and not just because he has a weapon; it’s legitimately sad to see these creations get decimated. While there were stellar cake creations in earlier seasons, Season 3 raised the cakes even higher and got added to the batter. Even though not all the cakes here fooled the judges, these are the best creations from the talented bakers on Is It Cake?
Is It Cake?
Release Date March 18, 2022
Creator Dan Cutforth, Jane Lipsitz
Cast Mikey Day
10 Crown of Ribs by Timmy Norman
Season 3, Episode 4
Image via Netflix
Cake wall, spin! The theme of “Knock Knock… Cake Service” was items from a hotel’s room service menu. After Mikey Day awkwardly stripped off his hotel robe to reveal a suit underneath, the contestants had to pick out the fake club sandwich and fries. The results would determine the pairing for the first-ever Is It Cake? team challenge. Single dad Timmy Norman was paired up with Raina Washington, and the two decided to recreate the dinner option, lasagna and a crown of ribs, for the bake; Raina taking the lasagna, and Timmy working on the ribs. Timmy used modeling chocolate to form the bones of the ribs, sculpting the intricate details with wire tools. A past art student, Timmy, slowly layered the colors of his cake for the best color matching.
Timmy’s crown of ribs was a banana cake, with salted caramel buttercream, Nilla wafer crunch, and macademia nuts. Judges Michael Ealy, Heather McMahan, Beck Bennett were quick to point out Timmy and Raina’s dinner as cake. McMahan and Ealy spotted the lasagna’s “too-red” marinara, and Bennett originally called out Timmy’s rib bones for being too straight. However, upon closer inspection, the judges turned tail on their original assessment, claiming Timmy’s to be impressively realistic-looking, with Ealy specifically pointing out the Brussels sprouts. Due to his more complex menu item and “artistically stunning” presentation, Timmy was saved from elimination, enabling him to create more amazing cakes.
9 Bust by Hemu Basu
Season 1, Episode 8
Image via Netflix
The Season 1 finale, “Winner Fakes All!”, provided some of the best cakes in Is It Cake? history so far, with two ranking on this list. The finalists were stunned when they had to guess which full podium was made of cake, but all were correct, which Mikey Day was happy to show them by hacking away at it. Finalist Hemu Basu picked Dessiree Salaverria as her assistant for the last 12-hour challenge; the bakers could choose whatever they wanted to create. Hemu, dedicating her final bake to her sister who had recently passed away, decided on an antique female bust with marbling. Building atop a PVC pipe with a foil ball on top, Hemu sculpted her female form out of modeling chocolate, and sandpapered the finish for a more worn-away texture.
The bust impressed judges Loni Love, Bobby Moynihan, and Karamo Brown, but they correctly identified it as cake, eliminating Hemu from the finals. Despite not all the judges agreeing on which of the busts was cake, they all loved Hemu’s recipe. The vanilla cake was layered with coffee swiss meringue buttercream, toasted hazelnuts, and brownies. Hemu’s delicate touch on the finer details carried over from her intricately sculpted face to the cake itself, with the judges describing the layers as defined. Performing well throughout the season, Hemu left the competition on a high note.
8 Bag of Flour by Jujhar Mann
Season 3, Episode 1
Image via Netflix
In a welcome return of this simple game show, Is It Cake?’s Season 3 opened with “Cake Whodunit,” in which bakers needed to discover the hidden cake in a billiards room to determine that episode’s contestants. After Mikey Day had the joy of biting into a cue ball and stabbing the chair he was sitting in (yes, both were cakes), the bakers got to choose their first creation. While a bag of flour doesn’t sound that complicated, it presented the opportunity for Jujhar Mann to share some of his backstory. When he was a child, he found a bag of flour in his mother’s pantry and decided to make snow angels in it. Thus, his love for baking was born.
Jujhar’s main challenge with the bag of flour was emphasizing the texture to prevent a blobbing effect from afar. After using a burlap print on his modeling chocolate, Jujhar dusted the bag for highlights in hopes the judges could see from a distance. The flour bag was a matcha cake, with matcha and coriander buttercream, yuzu curd, and white chocolate crunch. Judges Jay Pharoah, Lauren Lapkus, and London Hughes could not pick Jujhar’s cake from the decoys (his is #1, by the way), and they loved his “top tier” cake. Jujhar’s fusion of cultures resulted in a cake that made Pharoah smile, and led to Jujhar winning the episode.
7 Log by Timmy Norman
Season 3, Episode 5
Image via Netflix
Timmy Norman went from the bottom two with his crown of ribs (albeit as part of a team challenge) to the top in “Welcome to the Jungle.” After a slow start identifying the cake in a jungle set, Timmy had last choice of what to make. He originally wanted a snake or a lizard, which reminded him of his son’s pets, but they had been taken. So, he decided on a log. As silly as it sounds, the log challenged Timmy’s sculpting skills. Surrounding his log cake with modeling chocolate, he used a wire brush to sculpt the tiny rings on the ends of the wood, as well as the divots in the bark. Using five-to-six layers of color, Timmy painstakingly painted away at the wood for the best color matching.
The layering was worth it, because Timmy’s “Tennessee Jam Cake” stump-ed the judges – Sam Morril, Danielle Pinnock, and Christina P. Timmy’s spice cake, with molasses buttercream, blackberry filling, and pecan oat crunch played on the earthy vibe of the log design, but leaned too seasonal for the judges upon a taste test. The judges adored the “fairy tale” design and “impeccable” quality, but found the flavor too sweet, thus awarding the episode win to another baker. While not a reptile, Timmy’s son is sure to be proud of his dad’s creation.
Season 2, Episode 8
Image via Netflix
Season 2’s “Winner Cakes All” finale saw another nail-biting competition, this time between Spirit Wallace, Elizabeth Rowe and Miko Kaw Hok Uy, who had all been consistently fooling judges. After their first-round race to identify the cake hidden among a baking station set, Elizabeth chose Pete Tidwell as her assistant. Elizabeth had cemented her place in the competition with her hyper-realistic Doc Marten in a ’90s themed episode, and now took on the challenge of creating something that represented what she would do if she won the show. Settling on a tool bag to represent the work needed on her house, Elizabeth used two different cakes to flesh out such a large piece: a chocolate whisky cake, with dulce de leche cream cheese, pecan praline, and chocolate ganache; and a cinnamon brown sugar cake, with peach pie filling, pecan praline, and cookie butter buttercream.
Once the cakes were out of the oven, Elizabeth free-hand sculpted the bag shape from the decoys, and used a mold of the canvas on the fondant for the texture of the bag. The tools in the bag – including a wrench, pliers, and a boxcutter – were made of tempered chocolate and painted. Nicknamed the “Stitch Witch” throughout the season, Elizabeth’s attention to detail really stood out in the stitching of the tool bag, and work on the zipper and straps. Jade Catta-Preta, Chris Redd, Taylor Tomlinson, the judges of the episode, were unable to pick out Elizabeth’s cake from the decoys, which shot her into the top two. Upon closer inspection, the judges were wowed by the minuitae and played with the tools, calling the piece even more impressive up close. The choice came down to the flavors, and Elizabeth eked out a win, taking the title of Season 2 champ.
5 Fire Hose by Grace Pak
Season 3, Episode 6
Image via Netflix
Grace Pak, a relative newcomer to baking after a career change, showed off her skills in Season 3’s firefighter-themed “Cake on Fire” episode. After winning the first Is It Cake? team challenge with partner Henderson Gonzalez and putting Timmy and Raina in the bottom during the room service challenge, Grace was excited for a solo project. Grace, who’s husband is a volunteer firefighter, quickly discovered the helmet cake from the first-round lineup, and chose to make a fire hose for the challenge. (Mikey Day also got to play here, by cutting the helmet cake with a small hatchet!) Hoping to change the structure of the decoys to her benefit, Grace was surprised by the amount of cake she’d need to make the hose, and worried about running out of time for the nozzles.
Once Grace’s cake – a vanilla cake with rum soak, gingerbread swiss meringue buttercream, and white chocolate pearls – was stacked, she started affixing the details. The coils of the fire hose were made with modeling chocolate; Grace painstakingly measured and folded each, using a roller to create the hose’s texture and edible dust to dirty it up. Despite Grace’s stress for time, she finished everything, including the tempered chocolate nozzles, as well as deceived judges Sherry Cola, Adam Shapiro, and Storm Reid. Calling Grace’s cake delicious, the judges were especially impressed with the falling, bending, texture, and flavor of Grace’s creation, and awarded her the episode’s win.
4 Toy Elephant by Hemu Basu
Season 1, Episode 7
Image via Netflix
Hemu Basu makes her second appearance on this list with her wonderful toy elephant in Season 2’s “Toying Around” episode. The cake wall presented a first-round lineup of toys, and Hemu correctly identified the dinosaur cake in the fastest time. With a background in sculpted cakes, Hemu chose to make a toy elephant for the main challenge. The hard part of such a small cake, Hemu mentioned, is to balance out the incredible flavors so that each tiny bite packs a big punch. She evened out her dark chocolate cake, with raspberry chocolate ganache, raspberry swiss meringue buttercream, and chopped milk chocolate before covering and building the piece up with modeling chocolate.
Hemu focused on building a sturdy structure for her elephant cake, which was essential to holding the weight of the sculpted modeling chocolate. She used wiring for the elephant’s legs, a flat cardboard piece for the body, and foil for the head and trunk. After a brief concern over color matching, time was up and Hemu’s toy elephant was completed. Brittany Broski, Heidi Gardner (Mikey Day’s SNL co-star), and Dan Ahdoot were stumped by Hemu’s work; they praised the elephant’s skin texture, including slashes for wear and tear, and shading. While the judges agreed that Hemu’s cake flavor wasn’t as strong as the other baker in the top two, Gardner, in particular, couldn’t get over how much the elephant looked like a toy – even after taking a bite. Hemu’s summery toy elephant led her to win the episode, and paved her way to the Season 1 finals.
3 Mona Lisa by Miko Kaw Hok Uy
Season 2, Episode 8
Image via Netflix
The aforementioned Season 2 finale brought more than one mind-blowing cake. Even though Elizabeth Rowe won the season, Miko Kaw Hok Uy proved to be a powerhouse baker and artist throughout the episodes (especially with his sand rock cake), making it to the final three. For the challenge, Miko wanted to show that he would take a vacation to France should he win the grand prize and decided upon creating a Mona Lisa cake. Choosing Danya Smith as his assistant, Miko created a dark chocolate cake, with peanut butter filling, a peanut brittle layer, and a raspberry purée drizzle. For the frame, Miko used tempered chocolate for the cake to be stacked inside. Another tempered chocolate layer was added on top to secure the cake, and then the painting began.
Miko, as he painted a stellar replica of the Mona Lisa (podium #1), explained that edible paint dries slightly more matte than the shiny decoy paintings. To add a little gloss finish to his Mona Lisa painting, he gave it a vodka/edible dust layer, which helped his work dry faster. The addition of edible dust also helped create a more antique, worn out feel to the frame of Miko’s painting, which successfully fooled judges Jade Catta-Preta, Chris Redd, and Taylor Tomlinson. Miko’s successful Mona Lisa led him into the top two, facing Elizabeth Rowe’s tool bag. The judges likened Miko’s cake to Reese’s Pieces and were flabbergasted by his craftsmanship, but the judges gave the win to the tool bag due to the complexity of the shapes involved. Miko may have left in second place, but he created literal works of art.
2 Luggage by Andrew Fuller
Season 1, Episode 8
Image via Netflix
The second entry from Season 1’s closer, “Winner Fakes All!”, eventual winner Andrew Fullerput his best foot forward with his final cake. Andrew chose Jonny Manganello as his assistant for the 12-hour challenge, which was open to anything. A tribute to the first cake he made for his husband, Andrew settled upon a luggage case with clothing spilling out and passport stamps on the sides matching Andrew’s tattoos. The sheer size of Andrew’s design worried him, but to mix things up a bit, he put two different cakes together: a white velvet cake, with espresso buttercream, marscipone cheese, chocolate ganache, and crushed ladyfingers; and a pistachio cake, with rose honey buttercream, crushed pistachios, and fig jam. Andrew covered this beast of a cake with modeling chocolate to hold it all together.
It wasn’t just the size of Andrew’s cake that impressed viewers and the judges (Loni Love, Bobby Moynihan, and Karamo Brown), but the intricate detailing throughout. The main suitcase was textured like worn leather, with stitching up the sides and aged buckles. The clothing sticking out of the case was made by printing custom designs on wafer paper and covering it with Flexique, creating an edible fabric – all of which were fashioned after Andrew’s own Tim Burton aesthetic. Andrew stumped and stunned the judges with his impressive creation, leading the way to his Season 1 win.
1 Toy Box by Henderson Gonzalez
Season 3, Episode 8
Image via Netflix
Season 3 of Is It Cake? upped the ante in every sense. For the finale’s first round, the top three – Timmy Norman, Jujhar Mann, and Henderson Gonzalez – had to run around the set to find the cake. Once it was time for the answers to be revealed, Mikey Day took great delight in proving that the cake wall was a cake wall by literally grabbing a bite. The contestants, not to be outdone by production, also upped their baking game in their final challenge: a cake that reminds them of family. Henderson paired up with his former partner, Grace, to create a toybox that reminded him of his daughter. Not only would the box be made of cake, but the toys inside would be as well – each with their own flavor and specific textures.
Henderson combined two cakes for the final challenge: a coconut cake, with milk chocolate ganache, for his wife; and a vanilla rainbow cake, with dulce de leche, for his daughter. He made a plush dinosaur cake, covered it in fondant, and dusted it to create a velvety texture that matched the decoys. Henderson crafted a xylophone out of fondant-covered krispie treats and molded chocolate for the multi-colored keys. Rounding out the toys was a ring stack that Henderson’s color matched and measured against the decoys before adding to his toy chest. The judges of the Season 3 finale, Taran Killam, Ego Nwodim, and Chris Kattan, were on a roll and successfully identified all three finalists’ cakes, making the winner dependent upon flavor and up-close inspection. Deeming his cake as “so fluffy” and calling it the most impressive visually, the team of judges rewarded Henderson’s stitching and craftsmanship by crowning him the Season 3 winner of Is It Cake?
All three seasons of Is It Cake? is available on Netflix in the U.S.
Watch on Netflix
KEEP READING: ‘Is It Cake?’ Season 3 – What We Know About the Return