Let Them Eat (Minimalist) Cake!
Sugar, spice, and everything nice: Minimalist cakes are the tastiest trend of 2021.
All of our greatest memories are enjoyed while eating a slice of cake. This is just a fact of life. Whether sharing it with our childhood best friends off of paper plates at Pump It Up, at a fancy restaurant on Valentine’s Day, an office holiday party, or wedding, the dessert is always guaranteed to make us smile.
But cakes don’t just have to be for special occasions. They don’t even need to be elaborate. Say hello to minimalist cakes.
Minimalist cakes are the coolest, trendiest, and of course, most delicious thing that we are all obsessing over right now. And don’t let the name fool you: the one thing they are not is boring. With layers of pastel icing in powder blue, seafoam green, coral pink, and periwinkle & lavender tones; maraschino cherries, sugar pearls, sprinkles, and dollops of frosting; and a beautiful calligraphy of uplifting and creative messages, these scrumptious confections wow and inspire our taste buds and our hearts.
A brief behind-the-scenes of the cakes on your Instagram feed
These cakes are also commonly known as Korean cakes, bento cakes, and lunch box cakes. They have flawless cylindrical shapes and feature simple, delicate icing patterns. And as opposed to traditional birthday cakes, which might utilize bold primary colors and feature kitschy designs, their magic is subtle. They take the name “Korean cakes” because they follow the style of Korean minimalism. Diana Park describes in SEOUL Magazine in 2017, “Minimalism is all the rage in Korea. Descending from the Western-inspired ‘healthy living’ trends of the early 2000s, minimalism is driving new consumer trends and even lifestyles.” However, Korean minimalism doesn’t necessarily mean getting rid of all clutter — rather, it encourages neutral tones and being intentional about what you choose to own.
This idea has inevitably made its way into bakeries as well. Minimalist cakes don’t preclude consumption (they are cakes, after all!). Rather, they encourage us to indulge mindfully — to celebrate life’s moments, but purposefully and with known intentions.
Because they are often small enough to fit in takeout boxes, they are also called lunchbox or bento cakes. In contrast to traditional cakes, which can be heavy and hard to carry (and thus not exactly the most feasible on-the-go snack), these can easily be brought along to a picnic or a coffee date, adding just the right amount of sweetness to any occasion.
Many of the bakeries that make these cakes post them on Instagram for the rest of us to marvel over (they also share shop information and updates on orders & shipping). Despite the name “Korean cakes,” these bakeries exist all over the world. One is Heart and Arrow. Below is a screenshot of some of the cakes featured on their Instagram.
Another popular cake bakery is called Aegyo Cakes, which makes both 6-inch and 4-inch (“lunchbox”) cakes and takes requests for custom designs. In fact, it only launched in June 2020 and yet already has over 89 thousand followers on Instagram. This isn’t surprising considering how beautiful (and according to reviewers, delicious) the cakes are! Here is one based on Van Gogh’s famous painting The Starry Night:
Another captures the scene of The Great Wave off Kanagawa by Hokusai:
And the creative, ingenious artistry doesn’t stop there. They have a Spirited Away cake, one with a working Spotify code, a New York-inspired one, and one with a beautiful flower field. Reading over the captions of their Instagram pages, their attention to detail and care for both their cakes and their customers becomes even more apparent. And yet, the cakes remain simple and have a subtle presence – in fact, the word aegyo means “an expression of cuteness.”
In fact, there has been so much demand for Aegyo’s 6-inch cakes that slots are booked for the rest of the year! If you were one of the lucky ones able to snag a spot on the calendar, you can get a custom design perfect for a wedding, birthday, graduation, or any other special moment you could dream of! Says a recent Instagram post by the bakery to customers, “We are truly grateful to be surrounded by our passions: art and food, everyday. Creating our masterpieces for your celebrations has been the most fulfilling thing we have ever done.”
Like Aegyo, each bakery has its own unique artistic flair, often elaborating upon the traditional minimalistic cake style.
Nana’s Cake in Sydney, Australia makes cakes with cute designs of all your favorite movie and TV characters, such as Elsa, Peppa Pig, Snoopy, Charlie Brown, and Hello Kitty. Oracle Bakery in Chicago, Illinois brings to life beautiful nature scenes of frogs, possum, bears, and cows (and the cutest scenes of animals doing magic rituals). Canela Mi Maria in Tampico, Mexico embellishes cakes with dainty decorations like sugar pearls, macarons, edible glitter, and floral icing designs.
A snapshot of @oracle_bakery’s Instagram feed
Most cakes share a few characteristics. They are shaped in a wide cylinder, with a smooth layer of base frosting. They feature celebratory or encouraging messages in simple calligraphy and embellishments and decorations are added in a very strategic way. But while each bakery has its own take on the minimalistic cake, what they all have in common is the extraordinary artistic technique, imagination, and culinary precision put into each one. The cakes become ephemeral edible canvases, a blend of sculpture, painting, and baking. Even after they are delivered to clients and eaten, they retain a level of permanence through being posted and appreciated on social media. They are even sometimes called “Pinterest cakes” due to their presence on the platform, which we will talk more about later.
Many have been inspired to try making their own minimalistic cakes at home, using social media to gather inspiration and document their experiences.
How did they become so popular?
By this point in the pandemic, we all know that baking and cooking can be great (and yummy) ways to relax and kill some time. We’ve turned to various recipes to keep ourselves entertained and well-fed while at home or in quarantine, from sourdough to different pasta recipes (baked feta and “honeycomb” pasta, for example) to elaborate oatmeals. Of course, many of our recipes have been sourced from the internet and TikTok, which do a great job of giving us ingredients & tips, and, of course, making things look easy.
The rise of the minimalist cake is just another example of the online food community in action. It also coincided with the widespread sharing of a hack on TikTok for cutting a cake with a wine glass. It is pretty self-explanatory, and basically just involves pressing the glass downwards on the cake. You will end up with cake in the glass, kind of like a cupcake!
The wine glass trend is also the perfect opportunity to go get (or make) a cake with your friends and have a little get-together. As the weather gets warmer and more people have gotten vaccinated, picnics are the gathering of choice. Many have made TikToks documenting their picnics, filming their friends sitting outside on blankets, each with their own glass of cake.
Cakes inspiring creativity
Since the rise of the cake craze, people have been getting very creative, even expanding beyond the core tenets of cake minimalism. Many will put funny or cute phrases on their cakes, from TikTok or whatever memes are popular at the time.
The Instagram account @cuteasscakes started posting in August 2020 and at the time of writing has nearly 52,000 followers. Some of the cakes featured are similar to the ones we’ve already described, tiny circular cakes with pink frosting and dainty phrases. But others take a very different approach. “College robbed me,” says the red icing on one. Another features an icing opossum sitting on top, with his very own birthday hat and a miniature cake of his own! “TRUMP GOT COVID,” tells another. “MOM COME PICK ME UP,” says one.
There’s another account that features even bolder cakes, called @cursedcakesclub, which at the time of writing has nearly 70,000 followers. It features cakes that are in some way unsettling, or “cursed,” often because of a failure during the baking process but sometimes just because they are inexplicably weird or haunting. “Sorry I threw a live snake at you,” reads one. (“Now make one for the snake,” one user commented). Another features what appears(?) to be two frogs. And some, well, just have to be seen to be believed. There’s a similar account on Twitter, “cakes with threatening auras,” which posts pictures of cakes that are just that.
Other cake styles have also become popular. While there are minimalist-style cakes, “vintage maximalist” cakes are also beloved. Maura Brannigan wrote about these in Nylon last September. She writes about noticing the cakes appearing suddenly on her Instagram feed: “These were not just your average cakes: The flawless creations, coming courtesy of bakers all across the globe, look as if a pastry case from 1971 procreated with a Unicorn Frappuccino. The retro dishes aren’t like food at all, but instead a visual gravity blanket stitched together with silky frosting ribbons and glossy cherry buttons.”
Indeed, these vintage cakes are beautiful, complete with multiple tiers, pastel colors, and frosting trim. Here are a few examples:
@noonchi_cake on IG
There are also jelly cakes, made popular by the bakery Nünchi. These pastel cakes, made out of jelly, look quite delicious — and make for a good Instagram picture, too.
Finally, there is the shag cake, which looks just like a retro shag carpet, only edible, and has actually been around for a while.
The Palms Bakery, “home of the shaggy cake”
With all these different cake styles and bakeries, one’s sweet tooth (and social media feed) is sure to be satisfied.
Cakes & the internet: How do minimalist cakes fit in with current fashion, design, and social media trends?
Minimalist cakes show how overall, people are using social media to be creative and show off their creativity and different talents. They also connect to the rise of a very specific type of minimalism, which features simple designs, flowers or plant motifs, unique geometric shapes, and muted pastel colors. Look at the aesthetic similarities between the “pastel minimalism” of interiors and minimalist cakes. Imagine the elegance that would be sitting in your perfectly decorated apartment, complete with white furniture and pastel accents, and snacking on a minimalist cake, from a wine glass, perhaps?
via Pinterest
Interestingly, on almost the opposite side of the design and fashion spectrum, we have maximalism! According to the Museum at the Fashion Institute of Technology, “Maximalism revels in spectacle. Its beauty lies in excess and eclecticism….Throughout history, maximalist fashion has been associated with extravagance, artifice, and non-functional style.” In interior design, this means the filling of one’s space with beautiful, interesting things. Although it may seem like this would be clunky or cluttered, it is done in a very unique way that makes it work.
In fashion too, maximalism involves making a statement, through layered clothing, rich colors, bold silhouettes, and striking patterns. So, too, cakes can be maximalist, such as through an elaborate layering of fondant and icing layers, and some maraschino cherries, of course, as seen in the vintage maximalist cakes. Maximalism frequently veers into the weird. Emma Orlow reported in The New York Times back in September about how many artists were making odd-looking cakes that were even a form of feminist and queer expression. Becka Heikka is one of these artists, who makes bizarre-looking cakes that usually have eyes, giving them a slightly unnerving lifelike component.
Some of Heikka’s more recent cakes, @gr8kakes on IG
As previously discussed, minimalist cakes are now common at picnics. Over the course of the pandemic, picnics have been a favorite way to gather with friends while being able to social distance outside. Pinterest, in particular, is flooded with pictures of picnics galore: gingham blankets, cheese and charcuterie boards, wicker baskets, fruit, flowers. People are getting increasingly creative and ~fancy~ with their picnics, too. “Upscale picnics are taking over TikTok and social media feeds with luxurious outdoor setups complete with gourmet bites, billowing décor, flowers and fluffy pillows,” describes Kelly McCarthy in Good Morning America.
So of course, a minimalist cake is the perfect thing to add to a picnic with friends and make it feel a bit more celebratory and classy, especially if you are celebrating a special event like someone’s birthday.
Cakes of past and present
Cake has long been a staple of celebrations. “Be it vanilla, lemon, ginger, chocolate, cinnamon, boozy, Bundt, layered or marbled— cake has a special hold on the American palate, imagination, and heart. Why? Because it is celebratory,” stated Anne Byrne, author of American Cake, to NPR. But, more than just an American thing, eating cake at celebratory events is a human thing, with a history in a variety of cultures.
To provide a truly ancient example, Roman dinner parties (s/o to high school Latin class) would often feature honey cake. Cato the Elder documented a recipe for a special cheesecake called Libum, which was made to be offered to the gods:
“Libum hoc modo facito. Casei P. II bene disterat in mortario. Ubi bene distriverit, farinae siligineae libram aut, si voles tenerius esse, selibram similaginis eodem indito permiscetoque cum caseo bene. Ovum unum addito et una permisceto bene. Inde panem facito, folia subdito, in foco caldo sub testu coquito leniter.”
- Marcus Cato, On Agriculture, Chapter 75
Translation: “Recipe for libum: Bray 2 pounds of cheese thoroughly in a mortar; when it is thoroughly macerated, add 1 pound of wheat flour, or, if you wish the cake to be more dainty, ½ pound of fine flour, and mix thoroughly with the cheese. Add 1 egg, and work the whole well. Pat out a loaf, place on leaves, and bake slowly on a warm hearth under a crock.”
Some beloved cakes around the modern world include the French Mille-Crepe cake, the German Black Forest cake, the Swiss roll, Tiramisu, and Baklava, each of which is part of a rich cultural tradition.
Today, cake making and decoration have become a sort of spectacle, in the best way possible, through competition shows like Cake Boss, The Great British Baking Show, Nailed It!, Sugar Rush, and Cupcake Wars, in which we watch contestants make cakes and other sweet treats as they race across the clock and try to wow the judges.
The ~cake space~ has also seen some innovations that the ancient Romans would marvel at. Bento/lunchbox cakes aren’t the first time we’ve tried to make cake portable. Cupcakes, and their cousin muffins, have long been there for us when we’re running out the door and want to grab a quick bite on the way, whether for breakfast or leaving a gala. There isn’t exactly a single breakthrough “invention” of the cupcake, but it is often attributed to Amelia Simmons in her 1796 cookbook American Cookery, the first cookbook by an American published in the US, in which she references “a cake to be baked in small cups.”
More recently, we’ve seen the rise of the cake pop, a sphere of cake on a lollipop stick. They were created by baking blogger Angie Dudley, who runs the blog Bakerella, in 2011, and have been hugely popular ever since.
Or, if you find yourself in Beverly Hills, Las Vegas, Chicago, or a handful of other cities and are craving something sweet, check out the Sprinkles Cupcake ATM! This pastel pink ATM serves Red Velvet, Dark Chocolate, and Vanilla, to name a few flavors.
The future of minimalist cakes
Many more minimalist cake bakeries, run largely through Instagram and social media, have popped up over the last year or so, and many are often consistently booked. It seems that minimalist cakes, and the cake trend in general, are here to stay.
While food has always been something families and communities can bond over, the pandemic has shown just how magical it can be to bond over a cup of dalgona coffee, loaf of cloud bread, slice of banana bread, or, of course, serving of minimalist cake (and by serving, we mean the whole thing, duh).
Like the rest of our lives, our interactions with food are now inseparable from social media and the online world. We post pictures of our food on Instagram, learn about new recipes on TikTok, and document our baking successes (and failures) everywhere. Professional chefs and amateur bakers alike now have an outlet for their culinary creations, and can also take suggestions and gather ideas from the greater online community.
A wonderful mixing of worlds is going on here, with the ingredients of fashion, TikTok, pop culture, internet trends, color, photography, likes, Instagram, frosting, food science, and art. The internet is changing the way we create, sell, buy eat, make, document, decorate, and learn about cake. Social media in particular gives us a whole new way to make and share delicious desserts with each other. Minimalist cakes on Instagram are forms of art, so delicately and beautifully crafted. Unlike traditional art, however, they are meant to be eaten and will disappear almost as soon as they are created. The internet gives bakeries an opportunity to remember their cakes long after they have been devoured at a birthday party or at a picnic. With the digital world at our fingertips, it is likely that we will only see more and more creative imaginations and reconstructions of not just cakes, but all foods, in the future.
Until then, the batter of the world is sweet. Go out and taste it!
Check out our “simple sweets” Pinterest mood board!
Follow Kristin on Twitter: @kristnmerrilees and Instagram: @kristinmerrilees
Follow Molly on Twitter: @GorpMolly and Instagram: @___mollypop___