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Natalie Sideserf, owner of Sideserf Cake Studio, makes hyper-realistic cakes that have recently gone viral on Twitter and other social media sites.
Austin bakery owner Natalie Sideserf posted a 48-second video on TikTok on April Fool's Day showing a series of hyperrealistic cakes she had made—a Filet-O-Fish, an onion, an oyster—being cut into. As the knife slices down, the viewer realizes they've been duped.
The compilation racked up a few million views, but more recently it went viral on Twitter, where it has been seen more than 16.6 million times. Other videos, including those from a cake artist in Turkey, have helped elevate the hyperrealistic cake to meme status. The New York Times even wrote a trend story.
"People talking about something that is just a little less serious has been nice," Sideserf said.
Sideserf Cake Studio on TikTok
More realistic cake videos at Youtube.com/SideserfCakeStudio 💚🍰 #cake
Sideserf grew up in Cleveland and studied art at Ohio State University. After she graduated in 2008, a friend asked her to make a cake in the shape of a cow skull for a birthday party. The experience was so fun that she decided to dive into the medium. "I basically just treated cake like I would any other traditional fine art media, like clay and plaster," she said.
When Sideserf moved to Austin in 2011, she got a job at a bakery and learned more techniques, like how to make fillings and icing. The following year, she entered into a local cake competition. Inspired by classical sculpture—"you know, all the Ninja turtles"—she decided to make a cake bust of Willie Nelson. Her brother posted a photo of the finished product on Reddit, where users upvoted it to the top of the front page.
from pics
"That was when I started Sideserf Cake Studio because I was like, 'I'm onto something,'" she said. "I've been doing it ever since."
Since then, Sideserf has been making custom cakes, hosting classes, appearing on television shows and posting to her YouTube channel.
Inspired by still life drawing, a cornerstone of art education, Sideserf started making cakes that resemble vegetables and fruits."I see them almost as little studies where I'm practicing and trying to get better," she said.
She has to get creative with materials. When making a cake that resembles a bowl of macaroni and cheese, Sideserf used white chocolate ganache, which "has almost the same texture as Velveeta." For a red onion cake, she used vanilla wafer paper to create realistic looking paper skin. Once she became familiar with the wafer paper, she used it to create a cake that looked like a head of romaine lettuce.
How to Make a Hyper-Realistic Onion CAKE 😮 | Lookalike Challengewww.youtube.com
"What's great about those still-life [cakes] is they helped me try out new materials," she said. "They helped me to just get better at making cakes, therefore I can use … the things that I learned experimenting with those cakes on customer cakes."
Because of the pandemic, Sideserf's focus has shifted from filming and traveling to building her YouTube audience and making cakes. In between media interviews and filling orders, she is working on a self-portrait cake bust, which she said her followers have been asking about for years.
Since her video went viral, Sideserf has received a flood of local orders for hyperrealistic cakes—for birthday parties and from companies that want a replica of the item they sell.
Saw @nataliesideserf on our timeline, and immediately started daydreaming of that time she rocked it on the HBCB ca… https://t.co/PrryR4VSVn— Whataburger® (@Whataburger®) 1594587043.0
"As much as they want the cake itself, they also want the video so they can put it on social media," she said. "Because it's really cool."
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Popular
Historic preservationists, for their part, overwhelmingly support historic zoning, which would preserve the buildings in perpetuity. The Historic Landmark Commission unanimously voted to initiate historic zoning in July, citing architectural significance, landscape features and association to historic figures. City staffers recommend historic zoning, calling both structures one-of-a-kind examples of vernacular architecture.
Tarrytown neighbors have also banded together to stop the demolition. Many have written letters, and a few spoke at the meeting. “How could anyone buy this property with the intent of destroying it?” Ila Falvey said. “I think it’s an architectural treasure.”
Michael Whellan, an attorney representing the property owner, said that the claims made by preservationists are shaky. The buildings are run down, he said, and have had substantial renovations. A structural engineer hired by the owner said any attempt at preservation would involve tearing down and rebuilding – an undertaking Whellan said would likely cost millions.
Whellan also argued that any historical significance derived from the property’s association with Delisle and longtime owner C.H. Slator is dubious. “These men are not noted for any civic, philanthropic or historic impact,” he said.
What’s more, according to Whellan, Slator likely participated in segregation as the owner of the Tavern on North Lamar Boulevard between 1953 and 1960.
A city staffer, however, said she found no evidence to support the claim. “We would never landmark a property where a segregationist lived, or there was a racist person,” Kimberly Collins with the Historic Preservation Office said.
Commissioner Awais Azhar couldn’t support historic zoning in part due to lingering uncertainty about Slator. “Focusing on that factor is not here to disparage an individual or family. It is not about playing the race card. This is an important assertion for us to consider as Planning commissioners,” Azhar said.
Commissioner Carmen Llanes Pulido said that allegations of racism should come as no surprise. “We’re talking about white male property owners in the 1950s, in Austin, on the west side – and of course they were racist,” she said. But she argued that allowing the house to be demolished based on these grounds does nothing to help people of color who have been harmed by racism and segregation.
The question of tax breaks was also controversial. Michael Gaudini, representing the property owner, said that the tax breaks associated with historic zoning would exacerbate inequality by shifting property tax burdens to less affluent communities. City staffers estimate that the property, appraised at $3.5 million, would get either a $8,500 or $16,107 property tax break annually, depending on whether a homestead exemption is applied.
Commissioner Grayson Cox preferred the commission focus not on tax breaks but on whether the structures merit preservation. “To me, nothing in the historic preservation criteria lists, is this person deserving of a tax break or not?”
Azhar, on the other hand, said he plans to propose a code amendment getting rid of city property tax breaks for historic properties.
The commission fell one vote short of recommending historic zoning, with six commissioners in support and three opposed. Azhar and commissioners Claire Hempel and Greg Anderson voted against.
The odds of City Council zoning over an owner’s wishes are slim. Nine out of 11 members must vote in favor, and there have only been a handful of such cases over the past several decades.
