A Terrible Rainbow Cake Has Sparked An Online Siege

Everything really is cake, including TikTok drama. 

Cake has dominated the social media scene for some time now. Every now and then, I get completely bamboozled by a strange looking rotisserie chicken, only to realise that it’s cake. It’s always cake. When will I learn?

In the past few weeks though, I’ve seen a dramatic uptick in appearances of your all-time Instagram classic rainbow sprinkle cake. But they’re always accompanied by the search term “Kylie Allen rainbow cake”. Two incredibly generic-sounding entities have combined to form the flashpoint for the latest cake discourse, and I am living for it.

It all started with this TikTok: Kylie Allen, a baker in the US, posted a story time explaining how a customer was unhappy with her signature rainbow cake. The cake looks standard enough: six coloured cake tiers, layers of buttercream icing, topped with a layer of rainbow sprinkles and a “Happy Birthday Trilby” message. The unhappy client went on to “bash” the cake on Facebook, which prompted Kylie to post about this terrible client experience.

Likely inspired by the small business community on TikTok, Kylie was clearly looking for some sympathy in dealing with an entitled client. Instead, the cake community turned its sights on Kylie herself. Fellow bakers posted their versions of rainbow cakes to flex on Kylie’s. Many deemed the criticism valid, especially with the price tag of USD$84, about $125 here. In this economy? That cake better clear my skin and do my taxes.

Kylie told Insider that she had to turn off the comments on her account and deal with the full force of the internet. Her business was flooded with negative reviews and users also found her family members online. Yes, the cake didn’t look amazing. But that is insane behaviour for one dodgy rainbow sprinkle cake.

The real victim here is Trilby. Poor Trilby just wanted a fun birthday cake (which was apparently delicious, by the way). Instead, they got caught in the middle of a vicious online cake fight.

If only there was a baker out there who could bake a cake filled with rainbows and smiles and everyone would eat it and be happy…