*Some of you already know about this infamous cake recipe.
Yes, for those who don't know, former Food Network star Sandra Lee dated now-former New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo for almost a decade. She was de facto First Lady of New York, though the pair split in 2019. Cuomo would later be forced to resign over a series of sexual harassment scandals in 2021. That was a public relations nightmare for Cuomo, who could not survive the scrutiny in the social media era. Lee dodged a bullet because if she ever aired this infamous cake recipe in 2023, she would have been cooked, too.
Lee headlined this show called Semi-Homemade, where she instructed the audience on how to make various items from primarily store-bought ingredients. In other words, the entire script is the baking/cooking instructions found on the boxes. It's fugazi cooking. For those who criticize the History Channel for having shows like Ancient Aliens and Swamp People, the cooking folks probably mocked nonsense like this, as they should. This cake fiasco aired in 2003, long before Instagram, Twitter, or TikTok were considered workable ideas.
You all know the drill: you cannot cook anything from other cultures unless you want to be branded for cultural appropriation. These rules do not apply to white liberals, as we saw with Alec Baldwin’s white, Boston-born wife, who claimed to be Spanish. The same can be said for Tomahawk Elizabeth Warren, being a fake Cherokee, and Rachel Dolezal lived as a black woman but was whiter than Wonder Bread.
There's been some palace intrigue regarding the Kwanzaa cake recipe, namely that it was ghostwritten:
Granted, Lee takes it in stride. Of all the criticism that's been sent her way, she took the reaction to this monstrosity "to heart." The late Anthony Bourdain was especially vicious regarding this culinary Chernobyl (via AV Club):
The most terrifying thing I've seen is her making a Kwanzaa cake. Watch that clip and tell me your eyeballs don't burst into flames. It's a war crime on television. You'll scream.
“Kwanzaa is about harvest. I celebrate every holiday,” said Lee to The New York Times in 2012 as the reason behind the cake.
Lady, you should've taken a pass here.
Happy 20th anniversary to Food Network's Kwanzaa cake incident, which would have made for great content if it had aired this week.