Mermaid Toast For A Magical Morning

By: Phoebe Ackland, ellaslist

This is one breakfast your kids won't battle you over in the morning: Mermaid Toast! These pearly, sparkly, pastel-coloured, utterly unicorn-esque creations are the latest food trend. Despite their inter-galactic appearance, they're not all that difficult to make at home, so wow your kids with these babies on Saturday morning.

In such a tumultuous and uncertain world, sometimes you've just gotta appreciate the pretty little things. 

It's Surprisingly Healthy

Mermaid Toast was coined by popular blogger Adeline Waugh, and you'd be happy to know that they're actually pretty darn healthy toast toppings. The magical swirls or colours can be made by adding ingredients to cream cheese (or almond milk spread, as Waugh uses) and the like such as drops of chlorophyll, spirulina powder, turmeric powder, beetroot juice, and freeze-dried blueberry powder. For a little extra magic, you can sprinkle them with anything from gold leaf and dried flower petals to edible sparkles and passionfruit juice- pretty much anything you can come up with. Step aside, fairy bread. 

Waugh wrote on her blog, of the delicate method involved with Mermaid Toast: "It’s all somewhat of an experiment, I add very small amounts of chlorophyll and spirulina to the cream cheese, mix it together and see what the colour ends up looking like. Then, if I want a deeper or more pigmented colour, I add a little more, bit by bit, until I have the colour I desire. I add a base of plain white cream cheese first, and then I start swiping the different blues and greens on in a motion mimicking waves. You don’t have to do it exactly like I do, just have fun with it!

Believe It Or Not, It's Copped Some Backlash

Waugh told SBS: "There are also so many people and articles hating on it; saying it's "silly" and asking, "why?" Or "who has time for that?!" Let me just put this out there: I am just having fun! I am a food stylist and I like to create beautiful things using food. "I've never claimed to be starting a trend or a putting out a new recipe that is super practical- it's 100% impractical, I just like to play around in the kitchen and attempt to create something aesthetically pleasing and unique from time to time. Also, I don't know about you, but with everything going on in the world today, sometimes I just want to look at some colourful food."

Check out some of Waugh's gorgeous creations, from her blog Vibrant and Pure: