A recent viral video shows that, in a relationship, a little bit of effort goes a long away — and that food really is the way to a person’s heart.
On Nov. 14, TikTok user and baker Jenna (@jennaskates) posted a video showing the considerate thing her chef boyfriend did that brought her to tears: He brought her egg whites. It may sound simple, but the video quickly went viral, garnering more than 14.5 million views.
“My boyfriend came home from work and said he had a surprise for me,” Jenna, who uses she/they pronouns, wrote on the video. “We usually surprise eachother with ice cream or a favorite snacks to eat together (the bag was cold so I thought he got ice cream).”
After Jenna opens it, she realizes what he brought her — and it brings the baker to tears.
“It was egg whites. labeled and dated that he brought from his work (he works in a professional kitchen),” Jenna wrote. “Definitely might seem odd if you don’t know me… but I bake and decorate cakes!!”
Indeed, Jenna’s other TikTok videos shows that they are a prolific and talented baker. Jenna posts videos showing cakes baked for birthdays and wedding clientele, decorating them with immaculate piping and their preferred method of Swiss meringue buttercream frosting, which requires a lot of egg whites.
“Just the other night when I was prepping buttercream I was telling him how I hated separating the whites from the yolks,” they wrote. “My longer nails make it hard and that night I was repeatedly popping yolks. And this man took time to pre-separate the egg whites from the yolks for me.”
Jenna added that it was “just a little rant” that she didn’t think he’d pay attention to. “But he saw me!”
“Never thought egg whites would make me cry,” Jenna wrote, adding that Alexis is always surprising her and supportive of her business and social media accounts. “Truly my biggest supporter ❤️. Thank you baby! ❤️”
In the comments section, many people applauded Alexis’ gesture.
“to be loved is to be seen,” commented one TikTok user, to which Jenna replied, “Made me burst into tears again.”
“thank u for reminding me this love exists,” wrote another.
“Because when a man loves you- he solves your problems. You don’t have to ask. ❤️,” wrote another commenter.
Many commenters said this video was example of a relationship theory that has recently taken off on TikTok.
“orange peel theory,” commented one person, to which Jenna replied, “This. This. This.”
“He peeled your orange,” reads the top comment on the video.
“next time I see someone asking what the orange peel theory is I’m tagging them in this,” wrote one TikTok commenter.
“Orange peel theory” was recently explained in a viral TikTok as identifying the level of trust you have in your partner by seeing how they react to you asking them to do a small task you could easily do yourself — like peeling an orange.
“Some people find peeling the orange to be an unpleasant task,” TikToker @neanotmia says in a video posted Nov. 12. “It might not literally be about peeling the orange. More so, they’re asking you for a small favor to see your reaction to see if later they can ask you for bigger favors.”
What does Jenna have to say about all the love their relationship has gotten from TikTok?
“It’s definitely a little surreal seeing a intimate moment touched so many people. With everything going on in the world right now, it’s clear to me that humans will come together for humanity and empathy,” Jenna, who asked to be referred to by first name only to protect their privacy, tells TODAY.com.
“Baking has been incredibly healing and I’m really thankful I have a partner that supports me fully. Knowing you have that one person that has your back changes everything for the things that you are afraid of. I’m so excited to continue creating more content while doing something I love,” she adds.
“My boyfriend’s constantly sending me a little update on how the videos doing because we both find it so crazy! He feels really excited about the new community of people that have found my account, that share the same love of baking.”
