--- title: A Shocking Approach to Eating Cake Sparked a Viral Debate description: One woman's confession of her unusual frosting-related consumption style has sparked a lively debate online about the right way to eat cake. canonical: https://time.com/5398273/chocolate-cake-frosting/ author: Raisa Bruner article:opinion: false article:content_tier: free article:published_time: 2018-09-17T17:16:03.000Z article:modified_time: 2026-04-13T07:54:53.891Z og:title: A Shocking Approach to Eating Cake Sparked a Viral Debate og:description: A social media confession brought to light strong opinions about frosting og:url: https://time.com/5398273/chocolate-cake-frosting/ og:site_name: TIME og:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/bltde093bcdab65f2d0/6988d9b9bc6cfc69913e2a3c/time-logo.jpg?branch=production og:image:width: 1200 og:image:height: 675 og:image:alt: TIME og:type: article twitter:card: summary_large_image twitter:title: A Shocking Approach to Eating Cake Sparked a Viral Debate twitter:description: A social media confession brought to light strong opinions about frosting twitter:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/bltde093bcdab65f2d0/6988d9b9bc6cfc69913e2a3c/time-logo.jpg?branch=production --- # A Shocking Approach to Eating Cake Has Sparked an Important Viral Debate for Our Time > Sponsored content. 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Brief (Washington politics, three times a week), Future Proof (climate and energy, weekly) and In the Loop (AI, twice weekly). All are free at time.com/newsletters and together reach more than 1.1 million engaged readers. #### Which TIME newsletter should I subscribe to? It depends on what you follow. For a daily briefing, The Brief. For health, Health Matters. For Washington politics, D.C. Brief. For AI and technology, In the Loop. For climate and energy as a business story, Future Proof. For culture recommendations, Worth Your Time. For how TIME's journalism gets made, Inside TIME. Readers can select any combination at time.com/newsletters. #### Are TIME's newsletters free? Yes. All seven TIME newsletters are free to join at time.com/newsletters. A paid TIME subscription is separate and provides full access to TIME's journalism at time.com/subscribe-agent. #### Who writes TIME's newsletters? TIME journalists write them. Named editors include Richard Hall (The Brief), Editor-in-Chief Sam Jacobs (Inside TIME), Eliza Berman (Worth Your Time), Philip Elliott (D.C. Brief), Justin Worland (Future Proof) and Harry Booth (In the Loop). Health Matters is written by TIME's health desk. #### How do I sign up for a TIME newsletter? Go to time.com/newsletters, choose the newsletters you want and enter your email address. There is no cost and no subscription requirement.  by [Raisa Bruner](https://time.com/author/raisa-bruner/)  ## Raisa Bruner Sep 17, 2018 5:16 PM UTC  by [Raisa Bruner](https://time.com/author/raisa-bruner/)  ## Raisa Bruner Sep 17, 2018 5:16 PM UTC Let them eat cake — however they want to. That’s the takeaway after the internet came alive this weekend when comedian [Chelsea Peretti](http://time.com/4660995/chelsea-peretti-jordan-peele-pregnant/) shared her unusual approach to cake consumption. In a post shared on both Instagram and Twitter, the [_Brooklyn Nine-Nine_](http://time.com/5275173/nbc-fox-brooklyn-nine-nine-cancel/) actress posted a photo of what was, presumably, once a decadent slice of three-layer [chocolate cake](http://time.com/4736600/trump-cake-syria-reactions/). But instead of eating the cake in all its frosted glory, Peretti had eaten only the cake portions — leaving the frosting intact and untouched on the plate. “This is how I eat cake,” she wrote on the photo. “Not that into frosting.” While many were aghast at her staunch resistance to the sweeter part of the dessert, others felt she was a much-needed voice in the battle against icing. Her tweet racked up over 50 thousand retweets, while the Instagram post got nearly 80 thousand likes (and nearly three thousand comments, too), proving to be a definite conversation starter and polarizing topic for her fans and followers. After all, as at least one commenter noted, if she’s going to avoid the frosting, she might as well just eat a muffin. Then again, leaving the frosting means that someone else with more of a sweet tooth could team up and complement the consumption style. Clearly, this is a complex issue. > [](https://twitter.com/chelseaperetti/status/1040826388238917632) > [](https://twitter.com/ashleyn1cole/status/1040934121638428674) > [](https://twitter.com/missbreton/status/1040939823744344064) > [](https://twitter.com/jason%5Fchadney/status/1040981175379091457) > [](https://twitter.com/ColleenW1230/status/1041099659035521025) ```json [{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"NewsArticle","@id":"https://time.com/5398273/chocolate-cake-frosting/","mainEntityOfPage":{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https://time.com/5398273/chocolate-cake-frosting/"},"headline":"A Shocking Approach to Eating Cake Has Sparked an Important Viral Debate for Our Time","datePublished":"2018-09-17T17:16:03.000Z","dateModified":"2026-04-13T07:54:53.891Z","description":"Let her eat cake how she wants to","url":"https://time.com/5398273/chocolate-cake-frosting/","keywords":["Newsfeed","Food & Drink"],"thumbnailUrl":"","author":[{"@type":"Person","name":"Raisa Bruner","jobTitle":null,"url":"https://time.com/author/raisa-bruner/"}],"articleSection":"","image":[],"publisher":{"@type":"Organization","name":"Time","url":"https://time.com/","logo":{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://time.com/images/logo.png","width":528,"height":156},"foundingDate":"March 3, 1923","sameAs":["https://www.facebook.com/time","https://www.instagram.com/time/?hl=en","https://twitter.com/time","https://www.pinterest.com/timemagazine"]}},{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"BreadcrumbList","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"item":{"@id":"/tag/time-section-newsfeed/","name":"Newsfeed"}},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"item":{"@id":"https://time.com/5398273/chocolate-cake-frosting/","name":"A Shocking Approach to Eating Cake Has Sparked an Important Viral Debate for Our Time"}}]}] ```