This Was TikTok's Most Popular Food Trend For 2020

December of 2020 has, somehow, rolled in already; and to celebrate this dumpster fire of a year, social media platform TikTok has published their "The Year on TikTok: Top 100" list to share what we were all watching over the last 12 months. Divided into 10 sections of 10, the Top 100 covers, among other things like top viral videos and top played songs, the 10 food trends that defined the platform for 2020.

The biggest of these, according to TikTok, was pancake cereal. For those unaware, pancake cereal, which took off in late April, consists of filling your cereal bowl with — guess what — tiny pancakes. At the time, Delish described the rather simple recipe: Make your pancake batter. Squeeze out tiny pancakes with whatever implement you have at hand. Once done, plop them into the bowl and lather with butter and syrup. Eat. Of course, many TikTokers chose to include fruits, chocolate chips, or whatever other toppings they deemed necessary for sufficient pancakes.

The cereal-ization of foods also made another appearance on this year's top TikTok trends in the form of donut cereal (which came in fifth place). As NDTV reported, like pancake cereal, donut cereal involves placing miniature donuts in a bowl, but dousing them with milk, not syrup. These two treats are not the extent of TikTok's attempt to expand cereal's purview. Mini croissant cereal also made headlines in 2020. However, the combo failed to gain entry as a TikTok top trend.

Most of the other trends dominating the platform for the year are slightly less adventurous than the mini cereals. Whipped coffee, or Dalgona coffee, spread across TikTok in March, coming in at number two. As its name suggests, it's coffee that you whip. Similarly, baking banana bread (number three), making ice cream cake (number eight), and eating cream cheese and bell peppers (number seven) became popular topics. Their more interestingly labelled oddly satisfying for the BBQ lovers (fourth most popular) and how to make chocolate... from scratch (ninth) center their viewing pleasure on a more visceral level. The former displays a person easily removing a whole bone from a cooked slab of meat, while the latter focuses on the creation of chocolate from cacao pod to final bite. 

The trend that truly stands out, however, is Ramsay Reacts (trend number six). We've covered a couple of Gordon Ramsay's TikTok reactions before, such as his scorn over a McNugget stuffed grilled cheese or when a TikToker scrambled his scramble egg recipe. He might, in fact, be the celebrity best suited for TikTok as the vitriol upon which his fame really rests — because, honestly, his aggressive persona is one of the main reasons we watch his shows — is perfect for quick clips of him reacting directly in a video duet with another user. To be fair though, as Cornwall Live reports, Ramsay does give praise on TikTok when it's earned.