17 Best Cakes Featured on Netflix’s “Is It Cake?”

If you haven’t had the pleasure of watching Netflix’s “Is It Cake?” since its 2022 premiere, then you’re in for a treat — both literally and figuratively. In this meme-inspired baking show, cake artists compete to see who can make the most hyperrealistic cake. Then, each episode’s panel of celebrity judges must decide if what they’re looking at is real or if it’s — yes, you guessed it — cake. During their allotted time, these talented bakers not only have to replicate an item but also choose decoy objects in the hopes of fooling the judges and winning the game.

Be warned, there are major spoilers ahead. As a fan of this Netflix hit, I’ve selected some of the absolute best bakes the series has seen so far, based on how it performed during the episode, and including those that fooled even me as a viewer at home. These cakes are ordered by appearance — not by preference or which ones I personally find most impressive.

In the first season of “Is It Cake?”, we were introduced to a world of new cake artists who specialize in hyperrealism, including Nina Maria Charles. In the “Phony Fashion” episode, the bakers were challenged with replicating department store items, with Charles’ replica of choice being a purse. In addition to buttercream and fondant, she made a rich chocolate cake with salted caramel, chocolate ganache, coconut cream cheese, toasted coconut, and almond flakes — but it was the assembly of her cake that fooled the judges. 

Using a stamp that resembled the pebbling on a leather purse, Charles created a neutral-colored handbag that she hoped would blend in with her chosen decoys. As a way to trick the judges further, she made straps that tucked into the purse. This detailed combination was ultimately what made her cake look like the real thing.

Having grown up near the beach, I had to include Andrew Fuller’s conch shell cake, which even had me fooled. The first winner of “Is It Cake?” quickly made his mark in the “Cake by the Ocean” episode, where his dirty chai-flavored cake with a Saigon cinnamon buttercream was carved to fill out the majority of the conch shell — but it was the smaller details and techniques he used that perfectly replicated the shell’s colors and textures.

To make the cake as accurate as possible, Fuller used a silicone mold on the pointed ends of a real conch shell and filled them with modeling chocolate. For the colors to match perfectly, he combined edible powdered pigments until he felt it looked just like the real thing. Although Fuller considered using edible lacquer to make the shell shine like some of his decoys, he chose not to in the end — and tricked the judges into thinking his cake came straight from the sea.

In the “Imposter in Aisle 5” episode, Andrew Fuller proved yet again why he would go on to eventually win. Tasked with recreating various items one might find in a grocery store, he chose two loaves of challah bread. Making his donut-flavored cake with maple pecan buttercream was the easy part, but perfecting the texture of fresh-baked bread was where his skills really shined through.

After carving his cakes into loaves, Fuller utilized his “cake clay” method — which he described as cake crumbs mixed with ganache or buttercream — to coat them and create an organic bready texture. From there, he draped his cakes with fondant, used a blowtorch to resemble the hardened, brown shell bread has when it’s fresh out of the oven, and added edible lacquer for some shine. The pièce de résistance was the edible cellophane surrounding one of the loaves, which Fuller made using glycerin for added flexibility. The challah bread cake on its own was spectacular, but that plastic wrap put this piece over the top.

Known for her online decorating school, Sugar Geek University, as well as her innovative method of creating isomalt eyes and book about cake decorating, Liz Marek had a lot to live up to on “Is It Cake, Too?” (aka Season 2). For the first challenge in the “Everything is Cake!” episode, she harkened back to her childhood experiences of crabbing with her family in the Pacific Northwest and made a Dungeness crab. Marek went with a lemon buttermilk cake, raspberry compote, and vanilla bean pastry cream in the hopes that the lemon flavor would pair well with her seafood-themed dessert.

Using her very real — and still-alive — crab decoy, Marek used a silicone mold and modeling chocolate to help with some of the more intricate details, like the legs and claws. Once she had the body complete, she used a wooden tool to carve in these details, as well as an airbrush with edible pigments, to make her cake look more organic and nearly identical to her crabby decoy.

After watching Elizabeth Rowe bake and decorate several cakes, it’s truly no surprise that she ended up taking home the win in Season 2. In the “That ’90s Cake” episode, the contestants were tasked with recreating iconic items from the ’90s, like a roller skate or Walkman radio. Rowe’s choice to take on a Doc Marten boot meant recreating leather, laces, and stitching so that she would have a chance to fool the judges.

Rowe made a classic vanilla sponge with cookie butter buttercream frosting, brown sugar cinnamon cream cheese, and bananas Foster pecan praline filling. To decorate her cake perfectly, she used a combination of fondant, gum paste, and modeling chocolate for the boot’s different textures. Using her “Stitch Witch” nickname to her advantage, Rowe recreated the Doc Marten footwear down to the finest details — the stitches — and helped secure herself as a major competitor.

The “Stitch Witch” struck again further along in Season 2, when Elizabeth Rowe chose to make a fabric canteen cake for the camping-themed “S’more Cake Please” episode. She also replicated the flavors of a campfire s’more with a vanilla cinnamon cake with a brownie layer, toasted marshmallow buttercream, and cookie butter buttercream. The cake on its own sounds fantastic, but her ability to replicate a fabric canteen with only edible materials was what blew me away.

Though she made it seem easy, the methods Rowe used were anything but. After using fondant to make the majority of the bag, she then painted wafer paper the same color before blending it. With the dust she created, she utilized a method called “flocking” to achieve the suede look. Rowe then put her nickname to use and hand-piped stitching along the border of the entire bottle — and it was those intricate details that helped trick the judges.

Another fan-favorite contestant during Season 2 of “Is It Cake?” was Miko Kaw Hok Uy, who loved showcasing his Filipino heritage in his cakes. In the “So Fresh and So Cake” episode, where the bakers were tasked with recreating various items one might find in a bathroom, Uy chose to make a Himalayan salt lamp cake. For his flavors, he went with a lemon basil cake, mango buttercream, and white chocolate and rice cereal filling — but it was the decorative techniques he used that I found most impressive.

Uy started his decorating process by carving his cake and then covering the salt lamp portion with a pale pink layer of fondant. However, a real Himalayan salt lamp is slightly see-through, so Uy created an isomalt dome for translucency to cover the cake. Putting his classical painting MFA to good use, he coated the isomalt with white edible paint and cornstarch for a matte, powdery look. Before putting it over the cake, Uy tucked in a few small LED lights so that his Himalayan salt lamp looked indistinguishable from the real thing.

Yet again, Elizabeth “Stitch Witch” Rowe proved why she earned this nickname in the “Cake Me Out to the Ballgame” episode. As the title suggests, the contestants were given the option of various ballpark items to recreate. To further showcase her stitching skills, Rowe naturally chose the baseball glove holding a ball.

To create a cake that was reminiscent of favorite ballgame snacks, such as churros and caramel corn, Rowe made a cinnamon cake with dulce de leche cream cheese and apple pie filling. Using a silicone mold and modeling chocolate, she was able to craft a majority of the glove and ball — but the finer details required more finesse. To make the glove look as realistic as possible, Rowe rolled out two very thin layers of fondant, one black and one white, and layered them on top of each other to make double-sided stitches. After carefully placing them along the perimeter of the glove, the “Is It Cake?” winner’s eye for detail secured her a spot in the finale.

Arguably one of the most impressive cakes of the entire series to date was Miko Kaw Hok Uy’s replica of the “Mona Lisa” by Leonardo da Vinci during the “Winner Cakes All!” episode. Inspired by his dream of visiting the painting in person at the Louvre, Uy made a chocolate cake with peanut butter buttercream, peanut brittle, and raspberry drizzle. 

Working with tempered chocolate for the frame, edible paints, and luster dust, Uy created his cake version of the famous artwork, which blended in seamlessly with his chosen decoys. As a result of his near-perfect painting skills, fellow contestant Danya Smith bestowed him with the apt nickname “Mikoangelo” — however, this cake ultimately didn’t earn Uy the winning title, and he ended up placing second. Still, he made his mark both on and off the show, with executive producer Dan Cutforth telling USA Today that while Uy’s cake recreation didn’t seem possible, “… He defied all expectations.”

Henderson Gonzalez made a name for himself in Season 3 — dubbed “Is It Cak3?” — not only as a skilled sculptor, but also as someone with a fun, friendly personality. He also made it a point to incorporate his Venezuelan heritage into many of his bakes. Sticking to the “Welcome to the Jungle” episode’s theme, Gonzalez made an orange cake with passion fruit tropical ganache (passion fruit, banana, mango, and white chocolate) and rum. With these bold flavors on his side, he was able to use the remainder of his time to make an incredibly realistic-looking snake.

Using modeling chocolate draped over his carved cake, Gonzalez showed off his painting skills by using an airbrush. To replicate the scales on a snake, he started by imprinting mesh into the modeling chocolate, but felt it was too uniform. From here, Gonzalez took a plastic straw and began dotting scales along the entirety of his snake cake, making sure they overlapped and looked strikingly similar to his decoys.

Also from this tropical-jungle-themed episode was Timmy Norman’s recreation of a log you might find on a forest floor, covered in moss and mushrooms. Although it wasn’t his first choice, it was clear that he had the skill set to complete what most might assume is a relatively basic object. Baking a cake with earthy flavors to represent both the theme and his time hiking in Tennessee, Norman made a spice cake with molasses buttercream, blackberry filling, and pecan oat crunch.

Moving onto the decor was where Norman’s cake started to come together. After draping a layer of modeling chocolate over his cake, he used sculpting tools to imitate the tree bark and a wire brush to mimic the rings found in wood. Despite Norman’s worries about the texture, the judges were none the wiser. The several layers of paint, for which he used edible pigments, and the organic placement of the mushrooms along the side of the log allowed his cake to blend in seamlessly with the real thing.

Timmy Norman struck again in the “Cakes Ahoy!” episode. Wanting to challenge himself further, he chose to replicate a golden spyglass and its leather carrying bag, knowing that stacking the cakes on top of each other and achieving a metallic look would be difficult. First, he modeled his cake’s flavors after the Bahama mama cocktail — with a rum-soaked coconut cake with orange curd and grenadine buttercream — as a nod to the ocean theme. Next, to construct his cake, Norman put the sculpting classes he took in art school to use. 

Using modeling chocolate for the leather bag, which he textured with a brush and a leather impression mat, he created something that looked weathered from being at sea. For the metallic spyglass, Norman used both modeling chocolate and tempered chocolate, painted with edible pigments. After gently stacking the two on top of each other, it’s no wonder the judges weren’t able to tell that they were looking at a cake.

In that same pirate-themed episode, Jujhar Mann recreated a wooden lantern. He wanted his flavors to be adventurous like pirates, so he went with an Earl Grey-flavored cake with raspberry compote and pistachios for added texture. Though the cake baking came naturally, it was the lantern’s construction where he had to get innovative, with Mann implementing several methods of molding. 

Using one of the decoys, Mann created a silicone mold of the top of the lantern to preserve the finer details. For the wooden side panels, he made his own wooden molds, which he filled with chocolate to maintain the sharp edges that were needed for it to look like actual wood. Lastly, Mann used isomalt to make the cloudy glass panels. The combination of these methods would earn him a spot in the finale.

Also during the “Cake’s Ahoy!” episode, Henderson Gonzalez made an amazing octopus cake. The plastic model he used for reference was purple, which inspired both his decor and flavors. Because he wanted the color of his cake to match the bright paint he would be using, Gonzalez made a blueberry cake with lemon ganache and blueberry gelée. The construction, however, was where the octopus started to come to life. 

Having earned a degree in architecture, Gonzalez used his background to create a wire structure that would be used to hold the modeling chocolate tentacles in place. His impressive airbrushing skills and the octopus cake’s gravity-defying tentacles were the perfect combination of elements to trick the judges. Perhaps unsurprisingly, by the next episode, Gonzalez would nab Season 3’s winning title.

When Netflix ordered a Holiday Edition of “Is It Cake?” in 2024 featuring all-star bakers from previous seasons, Elizabeth Rowe returned to defend her Season 2 winning title by making a Christmas wreath out of cake in the “All-Star Cakemas!” episode. Keeping with the holiday theme, she made a chocolate peppermint Oreo cheesecake as the base and recreated the type of decor you might expect to find hanging on someone’s front door. Because a wreath has several elements, Rowe had to employ multiple techniques to construct things like ribbons, berries, and flowers. 

For the ribbons, she used wafer paper coated in Flexique to make pliable, realistic bows, like those you would find in any craft store. For the red holly berries, Rowe rolled out dozens of little balls of gum paste. Lastly, modeling chocolate and a veiner mold was used to make the petals for the poinsettia flowers that adorned her cake. These elements, combined with her eye for detail, made it impossible to tell that it wasn’t an actual Christmas wreath.

As unsettling as it may seem for a cake to resemble meat, Miko Kaw Hok Uy did just that with his Thanksgiving-inspired turkey cake in the “Season’s Eatings” episode. The “Is it Cake, Too?” finalist honored his Filipino heritage by making an ube cake and a vanilla cinnamon cake with pineapple filling and cinnamon buttercream. But based on Uy’s previous cakes, viewers already knew that painting is where he really shines.

After draping the bulk of the cake in modeling chocolate, Uy got to work using carving tools and molds of an actual cooked turkey to achieve the right textures. Despite it being his first time ever making a cake resembling meat, his hand-painting mimicked the crispy, brown skin you see when a turkey comes right out of the oven. Lastly, he coated the cake with an edible lacquer to give it a shine that looked exactly like the decoys he had on the stage. While I can’t say I would find a turkey that tastes like cake entirely appealing, Uy’s impressive work highlighted why he was dubbed “Mikoangelo” back in Season 2.

The winning cake of “Is It Cake? Holiday” blew me away. Tasked with making toys during the “Tis the Season for a Winner” episode, Season 3 finalist Jujhar Mann recreated a toy carousel that actually moved with a lemon rosemary cake featuring balsamic caramel buttercream and a pistachio raspberry cake with a feuilletine crunch.

To pull off this masterpiece, Mann worked alongside eliminated baker Grace Pak to execute the details perfectly. Using a combination of silicone molds, modeling chocolate, and a lot of hand-painting, Mann and Pak replicated all of the finer details of their toy decoys. After putting it on a rotating base, Mann secured his spot as the youngest winner of “Is It Cake?” at age 25, as of this writing, and the first winner of the series’ Holiday Edition.