I was clicking through a blog about cake disasters that have befallen professional cooks, when I came across a post about the cake above. The post is titled: “Cake” Cruelty. Seems the cake is actually made of meat, and the blogger isn’t happy about it. Writes she:
Once sliced, you will note that these “cakes” are not cakes at all. Instead, they are layers of various meat and mayo-based salads, bread, and then – here’s the worst part – “iced” with cream cheese. Note how the creators of these twisted impostors then push the deception even further by decorating the “cakes” with little roses, vines, and piped borders.
I ask you, fellow carb-lovers, are we to allow such cake defamation to stand? Will we sit idly by while our children and grandchildren are subjected to cakes that are not cakes? And if so, what next? Liverwurst doughnuts? Tuna-filled eclairs? Meat pies? (Oh, wait…)
Nay, I say, nay! We shall rise up, and as one declare that our butter cream icing must remain unsullied, our baked goods pure in sugar. Join me, and together we can make our world a place of fat, sugar, and dairy-based products for all!
I suppose it would be a nasty surprise for a carbaholic lusting for a sugar rush to fork down a big bite of one of these. But for us low-carbers, it would make a great treat.
To get some insight into the minds of carbophiles everywhere, take a look through the many comments. It’s easy to see why there is an obesity epidemic.
I would so eat that cake!
Thanks for this! I found the comments most amusing. “Disgusting,” “disturbing,” “horrifying”… but this sort of creation was often featured for ladies’ luncheons when I was a child. My grandmother’s cookbooks all had some iteration of this. Ah, how tastes change. The reference to tuna eclairs made me laugh. Back in the early ’80s when my kids were little and we were poor, I once found myself with pancake mix and no syrup, and tuna with no mayonnaise. Tuna pancakes were a hit! Roll ’em up, eat ’em like hot dogs. Funny also was the comment that a sugar load from a piece of cake would prevent the person from killing all the other boring guests. Only until the blood sugar crash…
Dr. Mike
There are layers of bread in that cake!!!!!!!! It’s definitely not low-carb friendly. We need to give the bread away to all those carboholics and just enjoy the meat (liverwurst here I come), salads and cream cheese. Wonder what those roses and vines are made with?
I don’t know what the roses and vines are made of. Cream cheese and food coloring perhaps. How do you know there is bread in the cake. Could just be some sort of light meat pate. I can’t imagine someone going to the trouble to make such a cake and then put bread in it.
Cheers–
MRE
Once sliced, you will note that these “cakes” are not cakes at all. Instead, they are layers of various meat and mayo-based salads, bread, and then – here’s the worst part – “iced” with cream cheese.
Aarrrggghhh! My eye slipped right over that. Okay. We can eat around the bread.
These cakes are very popular in Scandinavia where I’m from, and they’re supertasty. There isn’t all that much bread in them (and you can definitely make a low-carb version, which tastes even better), but lots of mayo and meat (or fish) and sometimes veggies too. And they’re not decorated like that – they usually are rectangular in shape (normal sugary cakes are round there), and they are decorated nicely with slices of ham or smoked salmon (and the frosting is really thick mayo, not cream cheese), so no one on a mission to get a massive cake ‘n sugar high would be fooled to think they’re nothing but sandwich cakes (or sandwich loaves as they’re sometimes called here).
Most people would not consider those as cakes, at all. Instead, I believe, they’re almost like sandwiches, in taste and texture. And if I had to choose between a sandwich loaf or a regular loaded-with-sugary-junk, I would go for the one which has at least meat in it!
(I hope I made this point clear enough, am not a native English speaker so sorry for the mistakes!)
Hi Tuulia–
Your English is perfect. Thanks for the info on the meat ‘cakes.’
Cheers–
MRE
Where can I find recipes for these “cakes”/sandwiches?
I don’t know. You’ll have to hunt them down. Or maybe a reader may know.
I’ve made that kind of “cake” — a sandwich loaf popular for bridal or baby showers back in the 60’s or early 70’s. (Actually it may have been a hold-over from the 50’s) We would get a loaf of sandwich bread from a bakery and have them slice it horizontally lengthwise into “layers,” then trim the edges and fill between each of 4 bread layers with a different sandwich filling. Frost the whole thing with softened cream cheese. Ours were not so lavishly decorated. Not low carb and not sweet …but rich and (we thought) tasty.
Wow – looks like they are halfway towards my imagined future where we can eat healthy junk food! However, it would be fair to say that making it look like junk food is the easy part 😉
Methuselah
Pay Now Live Later
Hah ha. Well, you sure know how to grab one’s attention with a headline!
The meatcake looks okay I suppose but I was hoping for some new development in the low-carb cheesecake department. Until that happens, I’ll go back and work on perfecting my smoked oyster and peanut butter shake. I still needs some work.
..TJ
I spent waaay too much time on that blog and a very very scary place it is. I used to love to bake. Those images are truly horrific. I was fascinated in a sick way.
M
Well to be honest with that cake looking the way it is I’d be disappointed to find that the cake was not sweet but having said that, we all know that you don’t need carbs and sugar to make a yummy and sweet, cake!
Perhaps I have re-tuned my carb cravings and taste for sugar. The sight of the cake has no appeal to me. Now, if I think about them being made out of tuna salad, that makes me hungry. Occasionally I have a bite of dessert, like when they give samples at Costco. But, it is so sweet I can’t really enjoy it.
Todd, if you are okay with using Splenda, you can make a good low-carb cheesecake (pre-bake crushed nuts and butter in a pie plate for the crust). In fact, I think it is one of the best low-carb dessert options and most like the original dessert for sharing with those “sugar eaters”.
I was fascinated by how emotional and visceral people’s reactions were. Many of the commenters seemed angry and hostile about the cakes. Many of them focused on the trickery of it, rather than voicing an objection to meat itself.
I don’t think the point is to get someone to put something all the way into their mouths thinking it’s something completely different, as many commenters seemed to assume. Besides, as one perceptive commenter pointed out, if you cut into something, put it on your plate, take it to your chair, cut into it with your fork and lift it to your mouth, all without noticing what it is, you need to be more observant. I’m sure these creations don’t smell like butter cake.
I found it amusing that some commenters found cream cheese to be a horrifying choice for frosting. Classic carrot cake frosting is mostly cream cheese, thinned with a few drops of milk and beaten with some (not too much) sugar.
The blogger didn’t say where these cakes were from or what Web site she found them on. Does anyone have a clue? I left a comment over there, also, asking for a URL. They’re clever, and beautifully made. I’d love to know more about who made them, and what else they do.
If you find out, be sure to let us all know.
Cheers–
MRE
Dr. Mike, you need to see this meat cake: http://www.blackwidowbakery.com/demo/meatcake/ Granted, it has mashed potato frosting and breadcrumbs, but I bet creative low-carbers could work around that somehow. 😉 There’s an entire gallery of “meatcakes” linked at the bottom of that page, too. Fun with meatloaf!
Marie-Antoinette was misquoted, she actually said… “let them eat MEAT cake”. She had the starving hoardes best interest at heart, it turns out…
here’s an entire gallery of fabulous meatcakes:
http://www.blackwidowbakery.com/gallery/main.php
Am I mistaken, or were even pastries, cakes and the like much less ‘sweet’ back in the good old days of yore? I know a lot of traditional Japanese deserts (I know, I know, to quote one of my favorite manga “We’re Japanese! We don’t HAVE ‘desserts’!” call for pounded sticky rice, fruit or sweet bean paste as ‘sweeteners.’
I didn’t have the patience to read all the comments following the “Cake Wrecks” post, but this one really struck me: “You don’t go messin’ with cake around a big girl.” Gotta eat plenty of cake to stay big! I absolutely believe carbohydrates are addictive, and I love being free of those cravings now. About a month ago my husband brought a piece of cake home from a social event he attended and truth to tell I forgot it was in the refrigerator. It’s quite stale now and needs to be thrown out. Me, forget about cake and leave it set for a month? Not back in the old fat-free high-carb days when that cake would have been eaten within minutes of being in the house.
Sounds interesting. I think Kateryna was referring to the quoted words that state bread is one of the ingredients. Consequently, I too would be forced to politely pass on this version, just as with the sugar-laden sibling.
Exploring that site is worthwhile, especially if you’re looking for an antidote to carb cravings.
At first glance of the cross-sectional slice, I thought it was a meat terrine or pâté. It was the heavy frosting and decoration that caused major confusion in my mind as to what I was looking at. I would think it would look more palatable from a savory perspective without so much frosting and colored flowers.
Maybe it comes from living in SoCal too long, but “meatcake” sounds almost obscene. But not as obscene as the comments on that blog, obviously made by many (addicted and obese) Sugar Sheep.
I have made the meat cake that Tresses and mrfreddy linked to. I used mashed cauliflower as frosting (the cauliflower also contained some turnips, garlic, Gruyere, butter, etc). It’s a fun cake to make for dinner. The kids actually love it once they get over the initial disappointment.
It’s a great trick to play on kids. 😉
Another thing I make for the kids are “meatheads”. You can really get creative with meatheads, using olives for eyes, spaghetti squash for hair, red pepper for lips, etc.
I agree, “it’s easy to see why there is an obesity epidemic”. People think it’s normal to eat sugary cake and abnormal to eat one made of meat. Numerous posters stated the same thought as this one: “Sorry, but there is just something so inherently Wrong with this!” Actually, what is wrong is that our whole society thinks it’s totally normal to eat huge amounts of sweets in our diets and that anyone who doesn’t is abnormal and wrong.
One commenter posted this link to spaghetti made with meat. Now, this is something I’d be interested in: http://tvnz.co.nz/view/page/411319/1985924
I would be interested, too. Thanks for the link.
Yeah, eating a piece of cake will kill you. Nobody who eats real cake could possibly ever be healthy. The only way to way to maintain a normal weight is to stuff your face with eggs and bacon every morning… blah, blah blah
Hi Alison–
Welcome to the blog. I’m glad to see that you truly understand proper nutrition.
Cheers–
MRE
Bob Blumer is a chef that specializes in these ‘not what they seem’ types of recipes. I saw him on TV making lamb cupcakes so I looked him up on the web. Check out the pictures of ‘duck parfait’, ‘meatloaf surprise’ and ‘cheese cake’. The bacon and eggs consists of vanilla ice cream, an apricot half, raspberry sauce and white and dark chocolate.
I think you have to buy his book to get the recipes though……..
http://www.bobblumer.com/sgdishes.html
Interesting. Thanks for the link.
Cheers–
MRE
Here’s a headline from our local newspaper’s business section – “Study: Statins don’t boost cancer risk.” According to researchers at Tufts Medical Center, although low LDL does correlate with a higher cancer risk, it appears that statins do not increase that risk. In this study, there were 12.7 cancers for each 1,000 patients given statins and 12.6 per 1,000 in the group not given the drugs. (The full study can be found in the Journal of the Am. College of Cardiology.)
How long is it going to take for the medical community to recognize that low LDL is dangerous? Of course, that challenges their notions about the lipid hypothesis, doesn’t it? Sort of sounds like more cognitive dissonance……
Sounds like a lot of cognitive dissonance.
I say let them have their cake and eat it too! I am happy with out it.
I think the disgust factor comes from the cake being something it is not. It forces your brain to visually combine two things that shouldn’t be combined: pastry and meat. Most people find the idea of eating a slice of meat with cake disgusting. This forces you to overlap those images in your mind, thus it is disgusting.
It would be like if it were shaped like dog feces, but “relax, it’s just meat”. Uh, no thanks.
If the cake didn’t look so “sweet” with candy-looking flowers and all, it would be far less disgusting. If it were decorated with ham slices and olives and things like that, it would be totally different. I am a die hard low carber and carnivore and I agree the cake is repulsive to me.
In a store I once saw a candy hamburger made of marshmellow and other things. That too was very disgusting, as my brain imagined the empty lead-headed sugar-gorging sweetness of halloween from childhood, because the “food” forced me to imagine eating candy in the way one should eat a hearty healthy meal like a hamburger.
(Although the hamburger marshmellow was less disgusting than the meat cake, because the hamburger marshmellow looked fake so I wasn’t forced to imagine eating candy and meat together. On the other hand, the meat cake looks so real, my brain is envisioning ice cream and strawberries and whipped frosting… then to combine that image with meat loaf is just nasty).
Besides, I think the human brain is automatically wired to reject anything remotely disgusting & meat related, too; people are much more sensitive to disgusting meat things than disgusting non-meat things, evolutionary reasons for that are obvious (meat, if slightly off, can be rapidly fatal). If we view cake + meat is disgusting, then it is absolutely disgusting by this rule.
Sorry but the thought of eating that makes me want to gag. I’ll take a day of IFing after binging on the real thing, thank you!