The Viral TikTok 'Hack' That's Definitely Just A Waste Of Cake
Nobody wants to see food being wasted — a huge percentage of America's food supply already gets wasted each year — but that's especially true if that food is cake. Unfortunately, that was the fate of one delicious confection shared in a duo of TikTok videos from user opitamop9. Guised as the "cake hack that broke the internet," the video shows two people trying to make a tsunami cake, an elaborately frosted treat that became a major decorating trend back in 2021.
The first wasteful act occurs just seconds into the first TikTok. The creators press a tall, square-shaped tube onto a round coconut cake and remove the excess, wasting at least a quarter of the confection. Why the creators didn't just buy a square cake — or use a cylindrical tube large enough to fit the original cake — is anybody's guess.
Minutes tick by as the creators pour melted icing in various colors on top of the cake through the open end of the tube. They eventually explain that the icing will cascade down the cake in a rainbow pattern when they remove the hard plastic. "This is a really easy way to ice a full cake," one of the creators says. When they finally show the tube's removal in the second TikTok, however, their "hack" doesn't seem so easy, after all.
How to properly frost a tsunami cake
Tsunami cakes, or "pull-me-up" cakes, are mesmerizing treats made by pouring thin icing onto a cake that's protected by a tool known as a cake collar. When the collar is lifted, the topping spills over the dessert in spectacular fashion — though it's hard to call these TikTokers' creation "spectacular."
@opitamop9 This CAKE hack BROKE the INTERNET! 😱🤯
Because the creators pushed a tight-fitting tube into their cake, they essentially created a vacuum seal around it, making removal difficult. "This is normal," they assure viewers in their second video, but in truth, it's not. The icing should actually be suspended in a cake collar made from a thin type of plastic called acetate, which is meant to be wrapped around the dessert tightly enough to prevent gaps but still loose enough to pull up without resistance.
When the creators were finally able to pull up their tube, the icing colors blended to create a muddled pattern that could barely pass as tie-dye. To make matters worse, they used way too much icing, so while the entire cake did get covered, the table did, too. Significantly reducing this amount of icing could have prevented unnecessary waste, as could swapping out their store-bought jars for classic homemade buttercream frosting. This will create a thicker topping that won't ooze all over the table.