Japan Has Taken Cakes to the Next Level

Last year, Japanese food stylist Mitsuki Moriyasu combined vegetables and cakes in one of the most colorful, beautiful concepts imaginable – the Vegiedeco Salad. Her cakes highlight bold stylistic choices and eye-catching presentations to draw customers to this sweet superfood. It worked.

The cakes received such a positive response that Moriyasu decided to open up a new café, featuring her salad cakes. Vegedeco was set to open up on April 5 in Nagoya, emphasizing a gluten-free, low-carbohydrate, completely healthy menu.

Photo courtesy of http://mitsukistyle.jp

So yeah, they look gorgeous and they’re good for your health and of course you’re going to take pictures and post them, but they are a little intimidating. There are tomatoes and carrots and cabbage and cucumbers in some of these, which may be way out of your comfort zone of desserts.

Photo courtesy of http://mitsukistyle.jp

Instead of butter, sugar and chocolate, these salad cakes incorporate whole vegetables, roots, peels and health foods that we haven’t even heard of – like soybean flour and koji, fermented sake with numerous health and beauty benefits. To produce bright, natural colors, Moriyasu mixes vegetables into the icing, which is made from tofu or cream cheese. So long, frosting flowers.

Photo courtesy of http://mitsukistyle.jp

It does sound like a stretch to some, but maybe it’s time to add cakes to the health revolution of our generation. We’ve become obsessed with things like “healthy peanut butter chocolate oat protein balls” and “paleo and vegan almond butter cookies” and anything else with “gluten-free” in the name. These cakes would fit right in, satisfying your sweet tooth, proving to be a healthy snack and serving as a piece of food art all in one.

Of course, we’ll see if this salad cake trend catches on in our fried-everything America. People will most likely take one look, post a picture to Instagram and decide they would rather have Funfetti. Still, it’s definitely worth a try – eating a few more vegetables isn’t going to kill you. Plus, they’re pretty.