In the words of the late Marie Antoinette, let them eat Crocs! Or, at least, that’s what I’d imagine she’d say after witnessing the latest trend of hyper-realistic, if not, slightly unnerving desserts taking over our social media feeds.

You’ve probably seen them: a bright red rubbery croc is sawed open with a bread knife to reveal a cake; a yellow Jacquemus Chiquito bag sits on a serving plate, and suddenly (!) it’s a cake; a knife sinks into a roll of toilet paper, but it’s a cake. This deeply disturbing, yet strangely satisfying trend has led to many to question what’s a cake and what’s not: is everything cake? Am I… cake? To borrow from the great existentialist philosopher Jean Paul Satre, if existence precedes essence, then cake precedes existence. Let that one sit for a while.

Viral cake-cutting videos have been making the rounds on social media after Turkish culinary artist Tuba Geçkil (@redrosecake_tubageckil) posted a video of the now-infamous Croc cake on Instagram. Gecil, who has 271,000 followers on YouTube, regularly shares images of her hyper-realistic cakes online (see: coffee cup and Sophia the Robot) but it was only when Buzzfeed’s Tasty account shared a compilation video that the memes started baking in the Twitterscape oven. Batter late than never.

Since Chef Geçkil's videos took off online, clips from other realistic cake artists like @NatalieSideserf and @The_Bakeking have been shared. The illusion cakes are both genuinely impressive and grossly nauseating, especially the bulldog and human hand.

Given the chaotic state of the world right now, it’s unsurprising that people are leaning into this battered hypothesis. Much like its predecessor, ‘I’m baby’, perhaps life would be better if we were cake, nothing but spongy layers sandwiched together with buttercream and sweet fillings. It’d certainly cushion us from a world packed with global pandemics, climate disasters, and bigotry. Or generally, simplify the complexities of human existence to one crucial object: cake.

Enjoy some of the memes below.