What to Know
Baking TikTok was rocked recently when one online baker accused another of stealing her cake pop recipe. With the rise of influencers and content creators, people have turned side hustles into businesses, and as a result, think that they’re all being original.
This is especially true in the cooking and baking space. There are hundreds of recipes for things from chocolate chip cookies to roast chicken. While many people put their own flair on it, many recipes share the same basic ideas. And since many people share their recipes online for free, there’s no way to know for sure if someone is stealing someone else’s recipe.
The baker immediately took to TikTok to air her grievances.
@the_boujee_redneck never liked your attitude kaity. we ride at dawn for sweat treats by Ashley! #cakepop #meangirl #bully #boxcake ♬ original sound – The_Boujee_Redneck
Kaity, who has the TikTok account Cake by Kaity, posted a video that she then deleted. However, other TikTok users uploaded it again, because social media bad behavior lives forever.
In the video, she says she “found out” that one of her recipes, which she says was copyrighted, was “posted in full” on TikTok for allegedly 77,000 people. She went on to say that her online recipe book was copyrighted, and claimed that someone else cannot publish her recipe “in full.”
Kaity went on to say that this isn’t the first time a baker allegedly stole one of her recipes and as a result she had an attorney on hand to threaten legal action if the recipe wasn’t taken down. She claimed that she posted on social media in an attempt to get the other person’s attention, and once they were in contact she took down the alert.
Eventually she did call out the baker, whose name is Ashley, and said that Ashley claimed to have never purchased one of Kaity’s recipes, but she was unable to confirm that because Ashley blocked her.
Ashley posted her own video & people quickly came to her defense.
@sweettreatsbyashley To the women who hugged me in Walmart you are god sent❤️ cause I needed that so bad… literally idolized this women so much #fyp ♬ original sound – Sweet Treats by Ashley
In her video, she is visibly upset and “crying in a Walmart parking lot” after being contacted by Kaity. According to Ashley, she saw a video Kaity posted about cake mix ratios, and that was all she used before creating her own Fruity Pebbles pop recipe.
“I just started my cake pop thing two weeks ago,” she said through tears. She also said that Kaity messaged her and called her a liar before threatening legal action and demanding that Ashely take down her video, which she did.
People quickly came to her defense.
“This recipe? the one posted on the pebble cereal website?” one person asked, sharing a screenshot from the Fruity Pebble website.
“Fellow baker here. A baking recipe or shape can’t be copyrighted. Look it up. A whole cookbook can be copyrighted but not an individual recipe. Especially something so generic. She has 0 case. Don’t be scared,” someone else wrote.
Even Snooki commented, writing “You have my support queen.” Ashley responded, writing “Did THE SNOOKIE!!! just see me bawling my eyes out on a TikTok video over cake pops…”
The feud spread across TikTok, with other content creators calling out Kaity for her “mean girl” behavior and use of boxed cake mix for her recipes.
“Copyrighted a recipe using boxed cake mix and fruity pebbles? Hmmm interesting,” one person wrote.
Kaity was forced to apologize.
@cake.by.kaity I’m sorry to Ashley, all of my friends here and anyone else I hurt by my actions yesterday.
♬ original sound – Cake by Kaity
A day after threatening legal action, Kaity returned to TikTok and shared an apology.
“I handled the situation poorly,” she said. “The legal advice I had gotten in the past said this was wrong because I had gotten a copyright on the book. But you guys quickly informed me, and now I know, that is not the case.”
She went on, saying “I was confused, I was acting on advice I’d been given in the past, and I didn’t lead with my heart — I didn’t lead with kindness, and obviously that showed.”
She tried to blame her behavior on a “human moment,” and realized that she overreacted instead of pausing to learn more about the situation. As she continued, she claimed that she’d received death threats, “racial slurs” and told that she should be “sterilized.” Despite that, she seemed to maintain that she was remorseful for her actions.
“Ashley, I am so sorry,” she said. “I wish you the best of luck on your cake pop journey.” Kaity then announced that she would be taking a social media hiatus.
While many of the comments were negative, Ashley did leave a public response.
“She did reach out to me privately with an apology, after gathering my emotions for a bit I have since accepted it. Kaity I hope you are well and wish nothing but the best for you and your family, I hope we can move forward,” she wrote.
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