6 Shows Like Is It Cake? to Watch if You Like Is It Cake?

If it weren't for that pesky Bridgerton, the new Netflix series Is It Cake? would be the No. 1 show on Netflix since it debuted in mid-March. Why? Why would a show hosted by Mikey Day about cakes that look like other things be the most popular show on the most popular streaming service? Because it doesn't take itself too seriously and it knows how to have fun. But if you've cut through all the episodes of Is It Cake? and you're looking for more shows with the same spirit, look no further.

We've put together a list of fun, energetic shows featuring baking, cooking, and other skills competitions that aren't like others of its kind. And yes, some feature cakes! Take a look at our list, and decide for yourself: Is it like Is It Cake? (Note: Do not cut through your TV with a knife.)

Is It Cake? Watch on Netflix

Looking for more recommendations of what to watch next? We have a ton of them! We also have hand-picked selections based on shows you already love, as well as recommendations for Netflix (movies/shows), Amazon Prime Video (movies/shows), Hulu (movies/shows), Disney+ (movies/shows), HBO Max (movies/shows), Apple TV+, and Peacock. 

Floor Is Lava

Let's not fool ourselves: Is It Cake? is dumb. But you know what else it is? Fun! That's essentially the pitch process at Netflix these days, and the eureka moment Netflix execs had for that idea had to be Floor Is Lava, the game we played as kids before iPads were invented, but blown out into a competitive game show. Contestants navigate an obstacle course where the slightest slip up sends them into a pit of boiling-looking, orange-colored, lava substitute, sinking into the losers' circle. There's no cake, but there is infectious fun. 

Dishmantled

In the spirit of cooking shows that are unlike any other cooking shows you've seen before, Dishmantled asks amateur chefs to compete against each other by tasting a meal while blindfolded and then attempting to recreate the dish based on taste alone. Oh also, the tasting happens when the food is literally exploded and launched into their faces. Tituss Burgess hosts the series, which isn't really interested in the process of making food — each episode is really short, there isn't enough time — but is interested in slow-motion replays of a dinner splattering into contestants. A show like this could only get its start on a risk-taking streaming service, and it did on Quibi, the shortform mobile-only video streamer that spectacularly flamed out in 2020. Roku Channel rescued it, and commissioned a second season that aired in 2021.

Nailed It!

You want a baking show that doesn't like to have a ton of fun? Go watch the serene and gentle (and good!) Great British Bake Off. You want a baking show where people don't know what they're doing and the prize money is shot out of a money cannon? Watch Nailed It!. The series celebrates failures as baking noobs try to recreate an elegant and elaborate confection with spectacularly disappointing results. It's all in good fun, though, as the whole point of the series is just to try your best and fail your hardest.    

The Curious Creations of Christine McConnell

Anyone can bake a regular, boring cake, but if you want more cakes (and other crafts) that look like other things, stop on by the bizarre and charming Netflix series The Curious Creations of Christine McConnell. McConnell looks ripped right out of a Tim Burton movie, a tall brunette with a goth streak who loves to create and cook things that are perfect for a year-round Halloween, like haunted house and mystery animal autopsy cakes. If that's not enough, she's helped out by some puppets, including raccoon roadkill and a mummified cat. The series only lasted one season, but it was a unique series that deserved a lot more because it was actually good. 

Baking Impossible

Debuting in late 2021, Baking Impossible came along well into the baking craze and needed a hook to stand out. The hook? Creating confections that can also do something besides just sitting there waiting to be eaten. For example, episodes will have bakers create cakes that can float like boats, cook up dessert that can be worn as fashion by models in a runway show, or even make edible cars that can withstand a crash at 25 mph and protect a crash test dummy that's inside. Luckily, each team consists of a baker and an engineer. It's definitely a show that wants you to play with your food. Magic for Humans' Justin Willman hosts. 

Ace of Cakes

The whole "Wait, THAT's a cake!?!?!?" craze was arguably brought to the mainstream more than 10 years ago when Food Network's Ace of Cakes introduced us to Charm City Cakes' Duff Goldman. The reality series followed the extraordinary cakes that Goldman and his team made for clients, including edible replicas of Radio City Music Hall, the Hubble Space Telescope, and Hogwarts Castle. Though it wasn't a competition show, it was still full of nervous energy as deadlines, collapses, and transportation all threatened Goldman's creations. Of course we all knew whatever he made was a cake, but they didn't look like any cakes we had seen before and you still get to watch a knife go through them.