The cakes caught the attention of the authorities after a Facebook post showing a group of women eating them at a birthday party at an exclusive Cairo community club went viral, the state newspaper Al-Ahram said on Monday.
The baker was arrested and then released from custody after paying EGP 5000 ($ 318) bail, the semi-official newspaper Akhbar el-Yom said.
Photos of women eating cupcakes with penises and icy vagina toppings at the Gezira Club circulated widely on Facebook this week, fueling the debate among Egyptian social media users.
“After the investigations, it was possible to determine the manufacturer of the sweets … the security services managed to stop her at her residence in Cairo, where she used her home to make the sweets,” said Al-Ahram.
The Ministry of Youth and Sports is investigating.
“We will not be tolerant [with our decisions]”Mohamed Fawzy, a spokesman for the ministry, told a newscast on Egyptian television.
Egypt’s main Islamic religious body, Dar al-Ifta, also released a statement saying that sexual innuendo in cakes is religiously prohibited and legally criminalized, calling the incident “a flagrant abuse of social values”.
The incident caused an uproar among Egyptian social media users and was the highlight of the country’s prime time talk shows.
Some people on social media criticized the women involved and called for more action by the authorities, claiming that the incident was an attack on “family values”.
But others offered support and criticized Egypt’s slow response to arrest harassers, rapists and sex offenders, compared to measures taken against women.
Since taking office in 2014, Egyptian President Abdel Fattah el-Sisi has passed a series of laws that restrict government control of the Internet.
Part of the legislation strengthened the government’s ability to target social media as part of ongoing efforts to crack down on dissent, including categorizing social media accounts with more than 5,000 followers as public sites and therefore worthy of surveillance.
Last week, an Egyptian appeals court overturned prison sentences for two well-known TikTok influencers in a high-profile public morality case.
Haneen Hossam and Mawada Eladhm were accused of “violating family principles and values and establishing and administering online accounts to commit this crime”.
They were initially sentenced to two years in prison in July 2020 and fined EGP 300,000 (about US $ 19,000) each.