What are ‘hear me out’ cakes? How people are confessing their most embarrassing crushes on TikTok

A new TikTok trend is allowing people to share their kookiest crushes in a creatively comedic way.

TikTokers have been recording themselves gathered around a cake with prepared cutouts of their most controversial crushes — which can be real people or fictional characters — attached to wooden dowels.

This trend is known as a “hear me out” cake.

Defined in Urban Dictionary as a way of saying a “character is kinda hot,” telling someone to “hear you out” has been typically used online as a way to crush on someone or something that’s unpopular.

TikTok tells TODAY.com that the #hearmeoutcake hashtag has over 2,200 videos on its platform, with over 70% of them posted since Sept. 28. Many of the videos have gone viral, with one from user @kathrynadamo garnering more than 27 million views.

Many of these videos include raucous laughter when friends reveal their most outlandish infatuations: the Quaker Oats mascot, Lord Farquaad from “Shrek,” Gargamel from “Smurfs,” Charles Norbert Finster Sr. (Chuckie’s dad) from the “Rugrats”, Tony the Tiger, President Joe Biden and Wanda from “The Fairly OddParents.”

TikTok can’t confirm which video started the trend but points out that one of the earliest videos to use the phrase “hear me out” paired with a cake was from user @desgovname on Sept. 24.

In that video, a trio of friends stick their crushes one by one into a chocolate-frosted birthday cake, including K-Pop idols Beomgyu of TXT, two members of Enhyphen and actor Kim Soo-Hyun.

They also include animated characters like Danny Phantom, Lightning McQueen from “Cars,” and Nick Wilde, the fox from the movie “Zootopia,” all eliciting giggles from the group.

The TikToker also refers to the centerpiece as a “crush cake,” a similar trend from earlier this year and as early as 2023, in which people would arrange cutouts of their crushes — often K-pop idols, celebrities and animated characters — on a cake, with some videos soundtracked by Lana Del Rey’s “Young and Beautiful” for a distinctly romantic touch.

Over time, the trend appears to have evolved from the inclusion of conventionally attractive characters to much more obscure ones — like Godzilla, Lumiere, Judge Judy and the number 8 — all examples from @tonyanddayna’s “hear me out” cake.

Recently, the trend has made its way onto other platforms like X and Instagram.

In one example on X, the cake is completely covered in a cast of characters you'd never expect to see in the same place: the Gorton’s Fisherman, Bojack Horseman, Doc Brown and even the Progressive Box, among many others.

The heart wants what the heart wants, we guess.

This article was originally published on TODAY.com