Photography by Tim Ireland
From the cronut to the rainbow bagel, New York is the capital of the world when it comes to food crazes.
And now there's a new dessert to grab our attention: The Raindrop Cake, a delicate, light cake made from "solidified water" that's served with brown-sugar syrup and roasted soy flour.
Yes, really. The result, according to creator Darren Wong, is a nutty, sweet, and refreshing dessert.
"This is a unique food experience," Wong tells Tech Insider. "It kind of reminds me of that scene from 'A Bug's Life' where they drink water drops off of leaves."
The transparent cake has a Jell-O consistency, which gives it a unique, silky texture — and also makes it extremely hard to store and transport.
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"It took a lot of trial and error testing out different agars and gelatins to get the right consistency," Wong says. "The cake has to maintain its shape but still have the texture of water."
The cake comes in its own little tray with a spoon. To eat it, all you need to do is scoop up the jiggly cake with some syrup and flour.
Wong's raindrop cake was inspired by the Japanese mizu shingen mochi, a transparent rice cake that disappears if you don't eat it within 30 minutes.
"I saw articles writing about this dessert in Japan a year ago and I wanted to try it, but a year later it was still not available in the US," Wong says. "So I decided I would figure out how [to make it] so others who were interested in it, like myself, can try it."
https://twitter.com/mims/statuses/379218989185912833
金精軒の水信玄餅。最近流行りの水ゼリーにきな粉と黒蜜。これがなかなか美味しい。きな粉の粉っぽさが浮くかと思ったら全然そんなこと無かった。 pic.twitter.com/vS9rdpatOY
The desserts are actually a trademarked product in Japan, according to Japanese news site Rocket News 24. Only those made by the Kinseiken Seika Company in Central Honshu are called shingen mochi.
The Japanese company says they get the water from a "renowned water source" in the Japanese Alps and solidify it just enough to give it a shape. Customers say the water is naturally sweet and tasty, especially when combined with the flour and thick syrup, according to Rocket News 24.
The Japanese cakes are clear and jelly-like, and are traditionally served with sugar syrup and roasted soybean flour. Before Wong's Raindrop Cake, the only place you could find these so-called water cakes was in two Kinseiken shops in Yamanashi Prefecture in Japan.
And now New Yorkers will get to try these shingen mochi — or at least Wong's version of the bubble-like cakes.
The Raindrop Cake will have a booth at New York's Smorgasburg event, which starts up against on April 2.
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New Yorkers, prepare yourselves.
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