What is nanalan cake on TikTok?

TikTok is a wide-open space that makes room for all the weird, wild, random things we might think to capture.

Its status as a place where pretty much anything can happen often leads to very strange phrases trending on TikTok, confusing the user base and leading to a surge in interest on very specific topics. Topics like “nanalan cake,” an unexpected combination of words that none-the-less went starkly viral in early February. It all seems to be the result of a single user’s disappointed reaction, but now the app’s user base is finding itself obsessed.

What does “nanalan” even mean?

First and foremost, let’s address what is surely the first question on most user’s minds: What is nanalan?

There’s a blessedly straightforward answer to this question, and not one that requires any deep-web searches through the cursed archives of internet history. Instead, we just have to venture back to the late ’90s, when a little Canadian show titled Nanalan’ first started airing.

A charming kids show following 3-year-old puppet girl Mona, Nanalan’ ran for two seasons and put out 71 episodes in total. Its name is a kiddish contraction of its setting (eg, “Nana Land”) which sets Mona loose in her Nana Bea’s back yard. The show stars the green-skinned Mona alongside her pet dog Russell, and — despite the years that have passed since the show initially aired — they’ve become fast favorites on TikTok. Clips of the series recently went viral on the app, leading to a resurgence in interest for the two-decade old series.

What is “nanalan cake,” and why is it trending on TikTok?

Which leads us to the phrase “nanalan cake,” which recently saw a surge of its own on the app. This was sparked by a very specific video, in which a disappointed birthday girl is let down by her cake reveal.

See, all that virality sparked a mass of renewed interest in Nanalan’. And with that interest came a sudden surge in requests for Nanalan’-themed items like — you see where I’m going with this — cake. Cue TikTok user @liljepsdollhouse1, who uploaded a video on Jan. 27 and sparked a site-wide debate. In her video, @liljepsdollhouse1 is presented with a homemade birthday cake, and is subsequently hugely disappointed when it is a regular strawberry shortcake, rather than the Nanalan’-themed cake she’d requested.

The resulting video sparked immediate queries about what exactly a Nanalan’ cake is, and thus resulted in the phrase’s viral rise. In searching for it, people realized that our poor birthday girl’s sister could have easily slapped some green frosting and a pair of black eyes on the cake to give it that Nanalan’ shine, but she simply didn’t do so.

No shade to the sister, of course, particularly not after @liljepsdollhouse1 came on to clarify that she was not upset at the lack of Nanalan’. Sure, her initial reaction was one of disappointment, but she’s not mad that her sister didn’t pull it off. Instead, she’s just aiming to make one for herself — and lean on that viral injection her account received in the wake of the drama.