"A Birthday Cake Is A Luxury?": The Internet Is Getting Heated Over A Viral Walmart Cake, And There's A WHOLE Lot To Unpack

If you're over on CakeTok, chances are you haven't been able to escape the vintage heart cake trend. The intricately piped Victorian-esque layer cakes have certainly taken over my feed, with bakers garnering millions of views on their satisfying decorating videos. From birthdays to engagements to graduations — it seems that lately, if someone wants to celebrate an occasion with cake, it will be heart-shaped.
Unfortunately, these cakes aren't cheap. They're usually custom-made by small bakeries or independent bakers, some of whom have achieved such high levels of TikTok fame that their waitlists are neverending. Wisconsin-based baker @savsgotcake often gives her almost two million followers a heads up when she's accepting orders and starts her pricing at $135 for a 6-inch heart cake. Similar ornate-style cakes at New York City bakeries will also run you about $100.
Ordering from popular independent bakers usually entails filling out detailed order forms and waiting to hear back, which is why many encourage ordering weeks or months before your event.
So you can imagine my shock when I began stumbling across videos of Walmart selling this style of cake for the small price of $25.
Videos of Walmart's cakes began circling around January of this year in anticipation of Valentine's Day. Their website lets you customize the 10-inch two-layer heart cakes by choosing the cake flavor (chocolate or white), filling (Bavarian creme or strawberry), and type of frosting (buttercream or whipped). Options in the store might be slightly different, but unfortunately, I don't have access to a Walmart near me to confirm.
Walmart's cakes also drew criticism from home bakers, who claimed that the price point of the cakes reflected the quality and even alleged that Walmart is underpaying the bakers who make them, to which the company did not respond. In her video, Wisconsin-based baker and creator MK Drayna commented that we shouldn't be surprised by the price of this cake made by a big corporation. "Yes, of course, the Walmart cakes are cheaper, and yes, of course, the quality is not as high because Walmart's goal is to fill the demand for heart-shaped cakes in the cheapest way possible," she says.
She clarifies that the bone she has to pick is with Walmart itself, not the bakers, who she believes are "extremely underpaid" and "should demand more." Although Walmart did not get back to us when asked to comment, baker positions on the company's Indeed page show a salary range of about $17–$30 an hour, depending on the location.
Walmart bakers over on TikTok have also anecdotally mentioned getting paid fairly. One baker, @addisoncassel, said that she "gets paid very well" at her store when responding to a commenter under one of her decorating videos. Another viral baker, Nia Moss (@nia2016 on TikTok), also told Today that Walmart pays her more than some other bakeries in her area, "I've actually applied to other bakeries, and they want to pay me like $10 less than what Walmart offers."
MK goes on to say that bakers who are selling a high-quality product "shouldn't be worried" and believes that what she charges is worth the quality of her work. For reference, MK's 8-inch heart cakes start at $120.
Another video discussing Walmart's dip into the heart cake trend sparked a lot of backlash from a creator known as @birdysbakery on TikTok, whose account has since been made private. In it, she decorates what is presumably a client's cake while defending home bakers' prices. She mentions that she's glad Walmart has an affordable option for people but that "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."
She called the comments "disrespectful" to bakers who put a lot of "time and effort into their cakes." The home baker then sparked controversy by calling birthday cakes a "luxury, not a need" and proceeded to critique the quality of Walmart's ingredients and "attention to detail." According to her, Walmart cakes use "shortening and artificial flavoring and ingredients" and are "shipped from some warehouse" and "slapped together."
Walmart did not respond to the assumptions about how its cakes are made. However, the fact that they use "creme" on their cake customization options rather than "cream" likely implies that they're using some sort of non-dairy product on their cakes. A few comments have also claimed that their cakes are shipped frozen to their bakeries, which we can't confirm or deny.
The comments from @birdysbakery opened the floodgates of cake discourse, with hundreds of people enraged at the thought of birthday cakes being considered a "luxury." "Everyone should have a birthday cake period," one person wrote.
The confusion over the backlash also came from home bakers, who found the whole thing blown out of proportion. "Grocery stores have always sold cheaper cakes than an independent bakery or a home baker has sold them for," Bri, an independent baker selling her baked goods through Sweet Bri's Bakery, says in her video as she decorates a Dr. Pepper-themed heart cake. "So why are we so upset over the $25 heart cake?"
Bri has been running her Texas-based home bakery since 2021, and while she understands why independent bakers have to charge higher prices, she was surprised to see all the videos bashing Walmart's affordable cake. "It doesn't matter if you want a cake, and the cake you can afford comes from a grocery store," she told BuzzFeed. "It's okay if that person wants to go buy that cheaper cake and not go buy a more expensive cake because I get it. It's a strain on the wallet." She added that people shouldn't be shocked that a big box store hopped on this trend.
Bri also doesn't view big stores like Walmart as her competition. "I'll never be able to price anything at the same price that they do," she said. Once selling cakes to merely break even on ingredient costs, Bri now has a spreadsheet where she calculates the cost of everything from ingredients to the electricity and gas used during baking to her labor. "It's more than just flour and sugar that goes into pricing," she clarified for those who believe smaller bakers overcharge.
Bri told us she often has her oven on for 12 hours a day, and it takes her about four hours to decorate a layer cake. Once the labor is taken into account, she said that her cakes are not even her most profitable item.
It's clear that both home bakers and customers are feeling the stress of costs these days. Since independent bakers aren't able to buy in bulk the way companies like Walmart do, they're subject to the same price increases we all are subject to. As Bri puts it, she's buying the same eggs at the same price as everyone else. It's also why many bakers like her understand the need to make these cakes more accessible right now.
Even with all the costs that go into her business, Bri still doesn't consider cakes to be a "luxury." "Telling a stranger you don't deserve a cake because you can't afford at least a $100 cake. Like, are you kidding me right now?"
Custom bakery owner Abi Caswell, who runs Batter in Louisiana, also addressed the "luxury" comment in her video: "There are luxury cakes, but having a cake for your birthday should not be a luxury." Like Bri, she doesn't have any fears about losing her customer base over Walmart's decision to offer a more affordable option.
It has also started a discourse on how we view service work and how we often undervalue the effort it takes. As a former grocery store baker, Bri told us that the job can be exhausting, from the time crunch to customer expectations. "You're stressing out because [the customer is] waiting on you to fix something in like 30 seconds when it literally needs, like, 20 minutes."
@addisoncassel / Via tiktok.com
But as Nia pointed out, CakeGate has allowed these bakers to showcase the effort and skill that is going on behind the scenes. It's far from the assumption that these cakes are merely "slapped together," even if they are sold by a big corporation.
@nia2016 / Via tiktok.com
So, what do you think of the Walmart CakeGate? Are home bakers rightfully angry, or was the whole thing blown out of proportion? Let us know your thoughts in the comments.
BuzzFeed reached out to Walmart for comment but didn't hear back from them at the time this was published.
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