It's not a serious topic. ^__^ Just something I noticed: there is often a point made about "special" and expensive desserts (as far I know, sweets in general aren't more expensive than other kinds of food in Japan, at least now) and there is always some character(s) obsessed with testing every cake in every cake shop in town.
Is this a favorite fetish? Like uniforms, roses, or the Alice motif?

I remember reading on someone's blog that cakes were an interesting subject in Japan. There're a ton of shops with a ton of gorgeous looking cakes, but they don't have much flavor compared to European cakes (I think it was a European blog anyway). And they do tend to be much pricier than reasonable.

I can't comment on what kind of social phenomonea that might be, since I haven't witnessed it for myself. But I promise you, if I was surrounded by cake shops that sold cute/pretty/fancy cakes, I'd be pretty compelled to try them all too. I don't think I even have anything like a cake shop in the area. Some bakeries, sure, but a cake shop is different.

Rather than a fetish, maybe it would be a trope? I haven't seen it on TVtropes, but it seems like something that would belong there.