This week’s COOking highlighTs
Deceptive desserts: Bakers bend reality in new season of ‘Is It Cake?’
Following rave reviews and nonstop attention online, the surreal hit baking competition “Is It Cake?” returns with a fresh batch of episodes, as its third season — affectionately dubbed “Is It Cak3?” — debuts Friday, March 29, on Netflix.
In a preview for the season, host Mikey Day (“Saturday Night Live”) says: “Season 3 is stacked. There will be thrills, spills and mind-blowing cakes . ... And finally, I may get the answer to the most important question of our time: Is it cake?”
Viewers should prepare for “bigger cakes, higher stakes and even wilder bakes,” according to Netflix, as “contestants attempt to fool a new lineup of guest judges with hyper-realistic cakes resembling everyday objects” while a massive prize of over $100,000 hangs on the line.
As the competition grows bigger and the desserts more confoundingly spectacular, “Is It Cake?” has expanded to welcome contestants from across both the U.S. and Canada, with this year’s fateful eight consisting of: Kristen Eagles (Woodstock, Ontario); Grace Pak (New York City); Raina Washington (Richmond, Virginia); Timmy Norman (Johnson City, Tennessee); Jujhar Mann (Surrey, British Columbia); Henderson Gonzalez (Orlando, Florida); Julie McAllister (Charleston, South Carolina) and Caitlin Taylor (Bowie, Maryland).
Each week, the bakers must utilize their oddly specific skills to create “illusion cakes” within a tight timeframe, given a theme or object they must replicate in the process. Once completed, the
cakes are then presented to a panel of celebrity judges, who face a challenge of their own: with 20 seconds on the clock, they must determine which item in a line of nearly-identical objects (ranging from handbags to hats to hamburgers) is actually cake, and which is its “real-deal” counterpart.
The pressure is on for everyone — including Season 3 celebrity guests, such as Lauren Lapkus (“Good Girls”), Oscar Nunez (“The Office”), Danielle Pinnock (“Ghosts”), Lana Condor (“To All the
Boys I’ve Loved Before,” 2018) and Chris Kattan (“A Night at the Roxbury,” 1998), among others — as those who fail to trick the panel will face elimination from the game, losing their shot at winning this “dupe dessert” showdown.
From fictional monsters to real-life heroes to creatures of the sea, see what the bakers mimic next in all-new episodes of “Is It Cake?” available to stream Friday, March 29, on Netflix.