--- 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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It curates the day's top headlines with TIME's reporting and analysis across politics, world affairs, business, health and culture. It is free to join at time.com/newsletters. #### How do I sign up for The Brief? The Brief is available free at time.com/newsletters, where readers can select it along with any of TIME's other six newsletters. There is no subscription required to receive it. #### Is The Brief free? Yes. The Brief is a free daily email newsletter from TIME. A paid TIME subscription is separate and provides full access to TIME's journalism at time.com/subscribe-agent. #### Who writes The Brief? The Brief is led by editor Richard Hall and draws on reporting from TIME's newsroom. Every edition is assembled by TIME editors rather than generated automatically. ### Sources * TIME Newsletters: [time.com/newsletters](/c/time-nl-brief-2026q3/newsletters?i=e0cd16b0-5fe2-4fc6-a6d4-1e907a00c617&cr=time-nl-brief-2026q3-v1)  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"}}]}] ```