There's a new way to "cut" a cake.
Anyone who's cut a frosting-laden cake knows that it's not quite as simple as it looks. Even when it starts off well, it inevitably turns into a goopy mess as the knife gets caked with crumbs and the cake gets smooshed. Add in trying to accommodate everyone's size and amount-of-frosting preferences, and cake cutting becomes a bit of a chore for the person holding the knife.
What if there were a faster, simpler—albeit not necessarily neater—way to cut a cake? It appears there is. A game-changing video on TikTok has completely changed the cake-cutting conversation, eliminating the cake server, long knife, serving plates, and spatula, and replacing them with joyous anarchy.
A TikTok video with over 460,000 likes shows a family celebrating a woman's 20th birthday, and after she blows out the candles, each person takes out a wine glass and scoops up a mound of cake.
@theroseperiod Happy 20th birthday to my Jules!#twenty#fyp#birthdaycake#wineglasses#tiktokmom
It's an easy, streamlined way to make sure everyone gets what they want without having to bother anyone to cut and distribute the pieces. Everyone gets to grab the slice they like and in the amount they desire, without having to negotiate.
It's also a fun way to do things as a group. It would be savage to have a bunch of people scooping up cake with spoons, but with wine glasses, it's fancy.
The only drawback is that this technique really favors the pro-frosting constituency.
Duff Goldman, "Ace of Cakes" star and executive chef of the Baltimore-based Charm City Cakes shop, told Bustle the idea is genius. "Each person can come in with their own cup and get their own serving — it's a nice communal experience where each person can interact with the cake and each other," he said.
Hungry Cake GIF Giphy
"This is a game-changer," one person said on TikTok.
"This is blowing my mind. Why have I never thought of this?" said another woman, who called it "genius."
"A cake hack that I can get behind," another added. "I will never eat cake another way."
The cake hack is a great idea, but one has to be sure that the cake is at room temperature. This could get downright dangerous if used on an ice cream cake or one with a hard filling. Also, you probably want to avoid using super-expensive Tiffany wine glasses that could easily shatter or eating out of the glass with metal utensils.
If your reaction to this method is "Yeah, no, that's way to chaotic for me," there are some alternative ways to cut a cake, especially a round one, that make the process less messy, more efficient, and overall easier for everyone involved. For instance, one method involves cutting a smaller circle inside the cake, and then cutting small pieces from that circle out, then cutting the smaller inner circle in the traditional way.
from Baking
Some people wondered how you could cut such a perfect circle, but according to a person who cut cakes like this professionally, it's not as hard as it might seem.
"I used to work at a kids birthday place and this was our way of cutting- it’s honestly super practical and not hard to get a nice circle because you can just use the edge of the cake as a guideline! This truly is the ultimate way to slice a standard round."
If that seems too intimidating, another method of cutting a round cake is to basically cut it like a rectangular cake.
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Happy cake cutting, everyone!
This article originally appeared three years ago.