This might have just ruined cream-filled cupcakes for us? forever.
Do you ever trip across something that makes you smack yourself in the forehead and say why the #$%^ didn’t I think of that first?!? These pimple-popping cupcakes are a cross between that feeling… and nausea.
For whatever reason, there is an immense and intense interest in pimple extractions.
Cupcakes artistically crafted to resemble pop-ready pimples, and actually explode when squeezed (with cream filling) is a really clever, attention-getting marketing gimmick. (I mean, here we are, talking, reading, and thinking about it.) But at the same time there is just something about it that is just so gross.
Once you get over the novelty of playing with the pus-filling, could you really bring yourself to eat this? (Perhaps this a credit to the baker, they are too talented and made this look too realistic?)
Jezebel.com sums up the situation better than I ever could: “Behold the World’s Most Disgusting Cupcake (NSF Your Appetite/Sanity)”
Los Angeles dermatologist Sandra Lee, MD, who has earned herself tremendous notoriety when it comes to pimple popping (she has a humongous social-media presence!) has gone beyond her pimple-extraction YouTube videos, and teamed up with “Blessed By Baking” to bring the world something that is still pimple-related, but a little more, out of the, um, box.
Does this make acne, uh… more palatable for everyone?
These edible cupcakes resemble big, juicy, ripe pimple — complete with a center that oozes fluid and pus, inflamed skin, and malleable “skin”. When the top of the cupcake is squeezed, a super-thick pustule of yellow cream-frosting* spurts out of the “pore.”
Food for thought: what was the purpose?
Besides being an amazing marketing tactic (seriously! These cupcakes got SO much media attention!!) do these pimple-cakes do anything to help the legions of acne sufferers that look up to Dr. Lee?
Isn’t the novelty of the cupcake predicated on the fact that popping such a realistic looking pimple — and then presumably eating it — incredibly disgusting? This certainly doesn’t help spread acne acceptance, or teach about new acne solutions, and instead just re-amplifies the idea that pimples are G R O S S.
Or perhaps the creation of these cupcakes is much more innocent — and solely intended to celebrate the very act that has made Dr. Lee famous? (Or maybe they wanted to bring some levity to the topic? I guess not everything has to have a nefarious slant, but there’s just something that feels a little exploitative to my cynical mind.)
Either way, even if these came from the Bryn Mawr Bakery House (their icing is my diet’s kryptonite. SO. INSANELY. GOOD.) I don’t think I could fathom ever putting something like this in my mouth.
Kudos again to the creativity and artistry however.
Never did we think we would see the day when zit-cakes were actually a thing. (What food-collaborations will they come up with next? Pimple pop-overs? In the summer, frozen pimple pops? At the movies, “pop” corn that you can pour hot, yellow liquid all over? Oh, wait…)
In the end: we like our pimples where we can’t see them; not on our bodies, and not disguised as baked-goods.
*Sources reveal the filling is mango flavored. #dryheave