What could possibly be controversial about a heart-shaped cake?
A debate has been raging on TikTok over Walmart’s vintage-styleheart-shaped cakes, the retailer’s take on the photogenic, Victorian-inspired piped pastries, which have long been popular on social media.
Although some of these ornately decorated desserts have been sold at Walmart for years, they recently went viral on TikTok around Valentine’s Day due to their affordable prices: from $7 to $25, by many of these videos’ estimations.
Many comments under these videos have been comparing these Walmart cakes to custom ones they’re purchased from private bakeries for $120 and $250.
The backlash from local bakers
Some local bakers have voiced concern over this steep price difference.
“guys as an at home baker, the ingredients alone in California cost about $45 for one cake, i use clean ingredients and the process takes me about 6 hours for one cake if all goes well,” commented one person under a video showing a $24.98 Walmart cake, adding that they would charge at least $144 for their version.
And a now-deleted video by TikToker @birdysbakery, in which the baker decries the availability of the low-cost option while decorating a heart-shaped cake, sent TikTok into a total tailspin.
“What is actually grinding my gears here are the people in the comments under videos advertising the cake, complaining about what home bakers are charging for vintage heart cakes,” the TikToker says.
“I just find that highly disrespectful to everybody who put so much time and effort into their cakes, especially when having a birthday cake is a luxury, it is not a need,” they add.
The video also claimed that Walmart’s ingredients are of lesser quality, the cakes were “shipped to them from some warehouse” and its workers won’t provide the same attention to detail that smaller bakeries would.
The baker also claimed that Walmart bakers at the store are “probably underpaying their employees.”
Walmart did not immediately respond to TODAY.com’s request for comment. According to the company’s career page, the hourly rate for a cake decorator is between $17 to $24, but “will equal or exceed the required minimum wage applicable to the job location.”
The backlash to the backlash
This baker’s opinions really rubbed people the wrong way, and inspired measured responses, fierce debate and satirical recreations of the video.
“A BIRTHDAY CAKE IS A LUXURY?” one person commented on a repost of the deleted video.
“As a baker who charges $2,000 for a tiny cake that feeds one and a half people, those cheap Walmart cakes absolutely disgust me,” creator Sarah Klait says in her satirical video with millions of views.
“The fact that poor people even have the option to purchase a vintage heart cake for less than $30 is beyond mind blowing and disturbing, because if you can’t afford expensive desserts, you definitely don’t deserve to eat them,” she continues.
“Who wakes up and says ‘I want a cake made by a Walmart employee?’” Caleb Demeny jokes in his viral video. “Why would you do that versus buy the cake from me at seven-and-a-half times the cost? Make it make sense.”
Demeny, whose video has over 5 million views, thinks the Walmart bakery is “heavily underrated.”
“All of their desserts and bread products have been delicious for years,” he tells TODAY.com. “They’re just now starting to get the attraction they deserve. Mostly thanks to TikTok and its algorithm.”
Walmart’s cake decorators are gaining popularity on TikTok
And now, perhaps owing to the algorithm, many of Walmart’s cake decorators are getting a lot more attention on TikTok.
One of these videos, in which a decorator makes a custom black heart cake in her Walmart uniform, has garnered over 2 million views.
TikToker Nia Moss has worked in the bakery section of a North Carolina-area Walmart for six years.
Moss has been posting her heart cakes on TikTok since 2020 and has garnered modest views — that is, until this debate popped off on the platform.
“Decorate yet another heart shaped cake with me (Walmart version),” reads the caption on one of Moss’ videos.
In it, she skillfully decorates a custom lavender and white heart-shaped cake with elaborate piped edging. That video has amassed nearly 8 million views, but other videos of hers are now racking up millions of views, too.
“I didn’t know what was going on,” Moss tells TODAY.com, adding that she knew nothing about the online debate until her video started getting traction. “People were commenting. ‘So this is the cake that they’re mad at?’ and I’m like, ‘What? What cake?’”
But now that she’s caught up on what’s been going on, she has thoughts.
“I think it’s pretentious to assume that because we’re grocery store decorators, that we don’t make good money,” Moss says. “I’ve actually applied to other bakeries and they want to pay me like $10 less than what Walmart offers.”
Moss has also received an influx of compliments on her skills — and she says she really appreciates the love.
