Screen-cap from the Oscar-nominated anime Mirai no Mirai. Is this an actual cake sold somewhere?
I just reverse image searched your picture, and here’s how to make it, or something very similar.
I’m sure it does. Here’s a similar weird ass-cake from Norway. I believe they call it Kabaret. So now you know, in case you’ve ever wondered why there isn’t a Norwegian restaurant in your town. Or continent.
Here’s a recipe for Kraft Jello mosaic bars / stained glass bars. If you made them in a round container, using water instead of milk, it would look like the top of that cake. If you put it on top of stacked layer cake, it would be that cake.
Here are similar recipes for “cathedral window” jello:
http://www.savvynana.com/recipe/our-favorite-cathedral-window-jelly-dessert/
http://sugarywinzy.com/colorful-stained-glass-cathedral-window-jello/
ahhhh! Aspic!
OMG! That picture makes the stewed prunes in the prune thread seem like the best dessert ever.
That’s aspic, very different than the cake here. That one looks almost exactly like the way my Polish mom makes it, and I guarantee there is nothing cake-like about it. We eat it with vinegar poured over and a slice or two of rye bread. I love that stuff, but I realize it grosses out pretty much everyone not from Eastern Europe and I guess the Nordic countries.
I’m pretty sure that’s not a dessert. It’s either a salad or an entree.
Actually, I just noticed listening to the clip that they say “Mirai no mirai” in the audio (but I don’t speak any Japanese), so perhaps (probably) they are recreating the cake as inspired by the anime. I’ve seen jelly on top of cake and layer cake before, so this is probably just a riff on that idea with a stained glass/cathedral window jello approach to it on the top. I do wonder now if the exact idea predates the anime.
The basis of any tasty dessert.
Agar jelly fruitcake? Agar Agar Fruit Jelly Cake Recipe & Video Tutorial เค้กวุ้นผลไม้
They are called Jelly cakes, jelly being what other countries call Jello. Mostly they are made with edible flowers in the top but they can also be made with stained glass bars. Hereis a recipe in Japanese. From google translate “Take a bite to lubricate the swallows and bite a bite of fresh flesh. It is fun.”
That actually looks really good!
I noticed that the Thai agar cake includes pineapple as one of the fruits. That’s interesting, because my understanding is that pineapple doesn’t work in the type of gelatin commonly available in the US (Jello, mostly), because an enzyme in it prevents gelling. So is agar different in this respect?
Mirror glaze cakes have become very popular, and the OP’s pic looks like that concept taken to an extreme.
Those mirror glaze cakes look cool but how do they taste?
Yup. Agar is a seaweed based jelly. Very few enzymes from terrestrial living things can attack agar – that’s why we grow terrestrial bacteria on agar plates. I’m given to understand that marine bacteria are actually grown in gelatin plates – somehow, I guess, the collagen in fish is too different from terrestrial gelatin for marine bacteria to have evolved the ability to digest it. Still seems weird to me.
They’re actually a chocolate ganache with gelatine added for shine, so I suppose the flavour depends on how heavy a hand you have with it. Too much and you’ve got rubber.
I imagine the answer depends on how well they are executed. For professional bakers, they can be quite nice, flavor-wise.
I’ve eaten them a couple of times as made by professionals. They tasted fine. But for me, it was a texture thing. I really like curd fillings in cakes (mango, orange, e.g.) and those are fine, but the glazes can be a bit… rubbery. I don’t care for that.
Its just layers of tinted gelatin. The task is to get the smoothest surface, either a chocolate ganache layer for dark colors, or marzipan/fondant for light colors. Everybody hates the taste of something, and some people have really strong feelings regarding those particular ingredients, but the cake is no more or less ruined by the decoration.
[EDIT]
Double ninjas