The world is a pretty daunting and tumultuous place right now, so can you really blame people for finding solace in the little things? The little things are usually simple, pure, and controllable.
And sometimes, the little things are kitschy and adorable, like toast that is beautifully crafted with mermaid-like sea designs, or sparkly, pastel, unicorn-esque creme.
Think that sounds a bit silly? That's fine. But some people think it's really cool and pretty - and that's completely okay too.
Adeline Waugh, a food stylist with an increasingly large Instagram following, has been creating her otherwordly and artistic toast designs for a while now.
It's regular, run-of-the-mill toast topped with cream cheese. Waugh mixes in a range of different natural food colourings, like algae or spirulina powder, matcha powder, beetroot juice, freeze-fried strawberry or blueberry powder, tumeric, or chlorophyll drops, then mixes the cream around to create a mesmerising piece of toast art. She often adds sprinkles or goldleaf too, purely for aesthetic pleasure.
However, she's started to notice a bit of backlash towards her toast. You read correctly - there's backlash against toast.
The food stylist decided to post a message of inspiration and solidarity to her followers, expressing that it's 100 per cent okay to love kitschy Instagram food trends.
"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."
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.
Hundreds of people have since run to their kitchens to emulate Waugh's art-like toast, with some pretty impressive results:
There was even someone who went with a different colour scheme and ended up creating their very own genre of toast art:
So, there we are. Some might think it's a waste of time, but if you love your unicorn foods, or your flower petal icecream, or your 3D-printed edible selfie, then that's great! We hope you enjoy yourself.
There's plenty of time and energy spent on serious stuff in the world. Take a minute to yourself and eat some mermaid toast. You never know; you might love it.
