By ANGELINA,
the Hype Hunter

Move along cronuts, raindrop cakes are here to stay.

Instagram is going crazy over the #raindropcake, a dessert that resembles – yep, you guessed it – a water droplet.

This curious-looking dessert, which burst out of the New York food scene, arrived in Melbourne a few weeks ago, at the Cafe Lafayette in Port Melbourne. 

Having arrived with a splash, it now looks popular enough to be settling in for the long haul. 

Perhaps the best part about the raindrop cake is watching it jiggle around on its paper dish – many have compared the cake to silicon breast implants.

Despite its wobbliness, the raindrop cake does not pop as many may expect. Instead, it has a solid, jelly-like texture when sliced into.

The raindrop cake claims to have zero calories, as it is just made of water and the vegan gelatine agar. This is why the dessert relies heavily on accompanying sauces, as it is flavourless on its own.

The Tokyo Express raindrop cake is the most popular. The classic combination of brown sugar and ground soybean gives the cake the subtle sweetness it needs. It makes for a light and refreshing palate cleanser to accompany heavy meals.

The Tiffany Blue raindrop cake, true to its name, was served with elegant pastel blue accompaniments. The combination of mint flavours and the crushed walnuts did not leave much of an impression on us, but the colour of the dish is stunning.

My personal favourite is the Matcha Lover raindrop cake. Combining the bitterness of matcha with sweet pistachios gives the cake a well-balanced flavour. It champions the strong flavours over the blandness of the cake, which is why it works so well.

Points should be awarded for the idea of pairing the raindrop cakes with ingredients one does not often encounter with jellies.

Beyond that, agar jelly has long been used for desserts across Asia. Malaysians and Indonesians reading this will likely wonder what all the fuss is about. After all, agar jelly is a cheap and easy dessert they make all the time at home.

But New York chef Darren Wong, who runs Smorgasburg in Brooklyn, made it one of the most talked-about foods of the year when he launched it in April. 

The raindrop cake is not rocket science or a groundbreaking creation. It is a work of marketing through the use of social media at its finest.

WORTH THE HYPE?

Not really. We would not spend $8 on it a second time. But we would recommend trying it at least once for a unique food experience, or just to make your Instagram followers jealous.