Bride Lilly Mendoza who went viral for baking her own wedding cake said she was ‘shocked’ by the hate she received
A bride who baked and decorated her own wedding cake was “shocked” that it garnered criticism online.
The discussion around Lilly Mendoza’s cake first sparked in mid-May when a wedding photographer shared a video of Mendoza stacking the gold, white, and blue cake while wearing a full face of makeup. Mendoza and her husband, Dennis, married on May 14 in Altamonte Springs, Florida.
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“POV: You’re a pastry chef, so you make your own wedding cake!” the caption read. Mendoza went viral a few days later in a separate TikTok video shared by her hairstylist.
“I have the most unique and talented brides!!!” Mendoza’s wedding hairstylist wrote. “Lilly stacked her own wedding cake the day of, full face, hair done and white robe! Not 1 crumb on her robe.”
While many were impressed and in awe, others criticized the wedding cake, with one person writing: “Isn’t the cake suppose to look more decorative?”
Mendoza told Insider she graduated from culinary school in April with a bachelor’s degree in Applied Food Studies focusing on baking and pastries, so the wedding would be a great opportunity to use what she’s learned. She baked all four tiers about a week before the wedding and froze them, then decorated each layer the day before the ceremony. On her wedding day, all she had to do was stack the cake.
The videos have gained more than 18 million views combined so far, but Mendoza said she initially had no idea her cake had gone viral. After the wedding, she and her husband honeymooned on a Royal Caribbean Cruise for a week and only viewed their notifications when they docked at a port.
“One of my friends from college messaged me and she sent me the viral clip. I was like, ‘Oh, this is nice,'” Mendoza said. “Then I clicked on it and saw all the views, comments, all the likes — like ‘whoa.'”
But Mendoza stumbled upon some negative comments, which shocked her at first. Fortunately, her husband and family reminded her that her wedding cake was a hit.
“They snapped me right back to it and were like, ‘Listen, that cake was beautiful. You know you did a great job. It tasted good.’ I was like, ‘You’re right!'”
She added: “There’s nothing you can say to people who want to be mean.”