Shocking judging fail on Netflix's Is It Cake, Too? leads to emotional elimination: 'Let's shake that off'

Warning: This article contains spoilers for Is It Cake, Too? episode 3, "Cake University."

Netflix's ultra-realistic cake decorating competition series Is It Cake?, hosted by Saturday Night Live star Mikey Day, is back for season 2 — titled Is It Cake, Too? — and the judges just proved that distinguishing everyday objects from baked goods is no cake walk.

The third episode saw four bakers selected to recreate college dorm-themed items while a remaining four sat in the gallery to compete in the next episode. The creations were presented to the judges two real cakes at a time, alongside a pair of decoys for each, with 20 seconds to decide which were actually edible. For their first guess, the episode's guest judges — Day's SNL costar Chloe Fineman, Barry actress Kirby Howell-Baptiste, and The Bear actor Chris Witaske — were tasked with differentiating cakes made to look like a ukulele and Chinese takeout from two real ukuleles and two real takeout containers. But for the first time in Is It Cake? history, the judges panicked as the timer loudly ticked down and failed to lock in a single group guess on the keypad in front of Howell-Baptiste before time was up.

Normally, if judges correctly identify a cake, its creator faces elimination. But if the panel is fooled by a lookalike object, that baker is up for the win. If more than one competitor falls into either category, which is usually the case, it all comes down to a taste test to determine who moves on in the competition and who gets sent home from each group. As the stunned contestants looked on, Day announced that the judges' failure to make any guess for the first two cakes resulted in both decorators declared safe, since they essentially stumped the panel. Sweet, right? Well, not for another beloved baker who ended up suffering the consequence of the judges' initial decision paralysis.

The judges successfully locked in guesses for the next two cakes presented in front of them, made to look like a printer and a stack of college sweatshirts. They were fooled by the former, selecting an actual printer instead, but correctly identified the clothing cake. That meant the baker of the episode's only cake to be guessed correctly, Liz Marek, was automatically eliminated without being able to give the judges a taste to decide as we've come to expect.

The outcome sent shockwaves through the competition not only because it hinged so heavily on a judging mishap, but because Marek is a a popular TikTok cake sculptor and teacher who literally wrote the book on cake decoration. She also mentored at least one of the other contestants before going on the show. With several of the bakers still very early in their careers, she was touted from the first episode as a shoo-in to make it to the finals.

Marek and all her fellow competitors, including the ones watching from the gallery, were visibly rattled by the result, with many in tears despite her elimination greatly improving their odds of continuing.

"Let's shake that off. That was an emotional roller coaster," Day said to the remaining contestants and judges after Marek's emotional exit, in an attempt to hype everyone up to move on to selecting the episode's winner via taste test between the three unguessed cakes.

"She has taught everybody in the cake community a lot," Spirit Wallace said of the departed baker. "She's incredible."

In a confessional after her elimination, Marek said she was overconfident in her choice to create such an intricate cake. "I need to, like, rethink my whole life. It's definitely a humbling experience," she shared.

All episodes of Is It Cake, Too? are available to watch on Netflix now.

Sign up for Entertainment Weekly's free daily newsletter to get breaking TV news, exclusive first looks, recaps, reviews, interviews with your favorite stars, and more.

Related content:

• 47 amazing cakes from your favorite TV shows' milestone episodes
• See if one baker Nailed It! with her Black Panther cake
• I baked the robot cake from Nailed It! Holiday! and the result was nothing short of a disaster