Lazy Cake recipe is viral in Morocco for all wrong reasons

Rabat-Ahmed al-Zamel is a 28-year-old Kuwaiti chef who, ten years ago, pursued his passion for cooking cooking on Instagram, where he shared easily to follow recipes from all over the world.

Everything went well for the talented cook until his “lazy cake” recipe became a trend in the Arab social media last week. The cake consists of chocolate cakes bought in the shop, crowned by chocolate milk and layers of whipped cream and more chocolate, all under a ceiling made of crispy chocolate rice muesli.

The joy of chocolate is certainly a heavenly pleasure for those who want to satisfy their sweet tooth during the Ramadan after a whole day of fasting. However, as soon as the Moroccans caught the wind of the trend, it became viral for a completely different reason in connection with the kitchen chief's last name.

Moroccan content creators who joined the trend avoided saying the surname of the chef and “calling the cake of it that should not be named” or “the bad names cake”.

In fact, the word “Z ****” in Morocco is a derogatory arch that is essentially used against homosexual men. However, the term is mostly used to address a man who is kept in contemplation without reference to his sexuality.

The slur is used in a machismotic way to insult men who are seen as masculinity or have the “female characteristics” – be it in appearance or behavior. This is because the word “man”, as is the case in many other societies, is not only an indication of your own gender, but also an adjective that describes your own morality.

Accordingly, a man who does not keep his word, for example, would not be worth this title and risks to be described as “Z ****”, while a woman who has favorable moral properties is often compared with a man in favor of the patriarchy.

“A woman who equated 100 men”, as the Egyptians say.

Shared opinions to the name

While some Arab social media joked and made Moroccans reactions to their own trend, many pointed out that it is a joint surname in the countries of Khaliji (Golf) and that “it is inappropriate to mock people for something they have not chosen”. Of course, these comments referred to the inability to choose the name as sexuality.

While the origins of homophobic slip in the Moroccan dialect are unclear, there are different words in the classic Arabic that have the same root.

The taboo that surrounds the slur is an insult that should not be pronounced in polite society, instead of being a term that is used to reduce people from another sexual orientation. As a result, there is hardly a setback against the use of the word in the country of the Muslim majority, although some members of the gay community, like the writer Abdellah Taia, have tried to end the word again.

Wherever this simple cake trend goes, you can only hope that the young chef will take the jokes in every step and continue to make delicious recipes as long as they do not become viral enough to reach Moroccan again.