Regardless of what your favorite dessert is, it’s almost impossible not to like cake. There are endless possibilities with it, after all! You might want a carrot cake with cream cheese frosting or a lava cake paired with vanilla ice cream. You can make a pumpkin spice cake for fall and a lemon blueberry cake in the springtime. You’re obligated to eat cake on your birthday, so perhaps you’ll opt for a funfetti masterpiece. And during Mardi Gras, you can enjoy a classic king cake.

Personally, when I’m eating a dessert, the only factor I’m concerned about is the taste. We’re not supposed to judge a book by its cover, right? But nowadays, bakers have come up with incredible ways to up their cake game, one of which being coming up with incredible decorations. When I was a kid, the most impressive cakes I ever saw were those with photos printed on them or those with Barbie dolls in the middle where the cake made up her “dress.” One year, I even had a gorgeous, sparkly ruby slipper cake for my Wizard of Oz themed party. 

Today, however, bakers have turned cake decorating into an art. And the trend of hyper-realistic cakes has taken the internet by storm. If you’re familiar with the Netflix series Is it Cake?, you’ve seen this trend before. Cakes that look shockingly like plates of nachos, toilets or roller skates are only a few of the creations that have graced my television. 

But aside from the bakers featured on this show, there are plenty more creating content online and being hired every day to provide customers with amazing desserts that look like anything but cakes. According to Inverse, we can’t get enough of these hyper-realistic sweets because they confuse our brains. 

"I think we're fascinated by the quality of the illusion [of hyper-realistic cakes] — and there's the strange dissonance brought on by perceiving things in two ways," Rolf Nelson, professor of psychology at Wheaton College, told Inverse. He noted the famous example of the “rabbit-duck” illusion, which also captivates many people due to the fact that it can be seen in two ways. "In the cake example, we have a conflict of perceiving it as a face or as a cake. Because the face looks so realistic, it takes us a second to reconcile these two things," Nelson explained.

According to Tasting Table, however, these hyper-realistic cakes often lose sight of one of the most important aspects of why we love cake: the flavor! They explain that many cakes that focus primarily on aesthetics rely on fondant to look so special, and fondant isn’t always the most delicious decoration to eat. 

“The fondant used for these cakes is essentially just sculptable sugar-paste made with corn syrup and gelatin,” Tasting Table notes. “It's very malleable, dyeable, and can be stretched over whole cakes or molded into decoration, but that gives it a strange texture and virtually zero flavor, which obviously can be off-putting in a cake.”

To avoid using fondant that will negatively affect the final taste of a cake, pastry chef and “Ace of Cakes” Duff Goldman recommends substituting it with marzipan instead. Marzipan has a similar consistency and can be used in many ways as well, but it is made with almonds and sugar and undoubtedly provides a better flavor than fondant. This can provide a problem for those with nut allergies, but if you’re open to almonds and want to prioritize the flavor of your cake, it can be a delicious solution. 

If you’re an amateur home baker who wants to delve into the world of cake decorating yourself, it can be intimidating to see all of the hyper-realistic cakes that flood Instagram feeds. But don’t be afraid to start! Cake by Courtney has shared a few decorating tips on her site to help beginners know exactly where to start. First, Courtney recommends using quality cake decorating tools. A cake disk, cake scraper, icing spatula and piping bag will make your life so much easier. Courtney also recommends freezing your cake after putting on the crumb coat (or the first thin layer) of icing. This seals in all of the crumbs and helps you get a beautiful cake.