How Netflix's Popular Reality Show 'Is It Cake?' Landed In Hot Water

If you aren't already familiar with the Netflix show "Is It Cake?," then maybe you've seen the many viral videos of cakes disguised as other items that flooded social media feeds a few years ago. The premise is simple, fun, and a little bit silly. That's why it was surprising when the show got caught up in some interesting controversy with the very first episode.

Netflix premiered the reality competition show "Is It Cake?" on March 18, 2022. The rules of the show are straightforward: bakers decorate hyper-realistic cakes and compete to fool a panel of judges. If the judges can tell which of the items is cake, the baker is eliminated. If the judges are successfully fooled, then the baker gets to move on to the next round. The premiere episode's controversy stemmed from one contestant named Jonny Manganello, a professional baker who built a substantial online following for his incredibly realistic cakes shared on TikTok.

"Is It Cake?" is a show built for people like Jonny, but the contestant was swiftly hit with cheating accusations when his episode aired. Essentially, what happened was the contestants were tasked with creating a cake that looks like a taco, and they were given access to the real tacos that would be in the lineup as a reference point. Jonny took small cubes of electric-red gelatin and added them to one of the real tacos to fool the judges. Because the gelatin so clearly wasn't tomatoes, the idea was that the judges would immediately assume that was the cake.

Manganello's clever strategy worked, and he moved on to the next round when the judges selected the real tacos adorned with gelatin as the cake. The internet was immediately up in arms, with one user on Reddit saying, "In the first episode, it was totally unfair the guy was allowed to put fake tomatoes on the real tacos. Totally not a fair win." Shortly after the online dialogue erupted over whether what Manganello did was cheating or not, the baker responded with some clarification.

In an interview with Netflix's official fan blog, Tudum, Manganello shared that he confirmed with the showrunners that what he did was allowed within the rules beforehand. He said, "I checked with culinary and rules and asked if it was okay to mess with my decoy with food, and they said 'Absolutely.'" Manganello also pointed out in the same interview that other contestants have done the same thing, and messing with the decoys is an effective strategy.

Despite the strong feelings some viewers have about whether or not Manganello cheated with his gelatin tomatoes, the baker has a positive and understanding attitude about it all. He told Tudum about the passionate viewers, "I don't blame them for coming to various conclusions because they don't have that book of rules. They're just watching a television show." And for a baker as successful as Manganello, starring on the Netflix competition show was really just a fun side quest in the grand scheme of things. Although none of his cakes made it to our list of the 17 absolute best cakes from the show, Jonny still churned out some impressive sweet sculptures. He also sells kits so you can make your own hyper-realistic cakes at home under his brand JonnyCakes.