“There’s something otherworldly about it doesn’t have any physics to it whatsoever, it just jiggles, it’s all-powerful, it’s almighty, you’re kind of scared of it a little bit,” one of the jelly-makers told Munchies about “Show Me Your Aspics” in 2018. And jelly cakes jiggle! Whether making them or observing them, they are the perfect outlet for the THC-laced brain. The appeal is partially due to the uncanny aesthetics of jelly cakes these creations may sound like a fifth grade science experiment, but they’re edible and often approached like art objects. A Facebook group called “Show Me Your Aspics,” created in 2016, now has 37,000 members, and there are now countless Instagram accounts showcasing imaginative food sculptures that bounce. Now, not only are Japanese sweets super trendy across social media (souffle pancakes!!), but the raindrop cake’s virality seems to have prompted an obsession with jelly art. Jelly cakes began experiencing a renaissance of sorts around 2014, when Japan’s Kinseiken Seika Company created the raindrop cake (composed of water and agar-agar, a Japanese jelly made from red algae), and it subsequently went viral. It burgeoned as a US cooking trend in the 1950s and didn’t really go away until after the ‘80s whole meals were encased in jelly in almost surrealist, alien-like spreads that practically screamed “retro-future.” It’s not exactly appetizing to see flesh-colored sausages suspended in wobbly, vibrant matter, but it’s certainly fascinating in a “What were they thinking?” sorta way. Gelatin - and aspic - has a fittingly funny food history. They were made by the food stylists Emily Marshall-Garrett and Maya Bookbinder, two of the many food designers currently getting their hands sticky with molded jelly cakes for music videos, fashion shoots, and accessories advertisements alike.

Above, a jelly cake by absurdist video for Justin Bieber’s “Yummy” is set at a party featuring a spread of ‘80s-inspired dishes, including cakes made of gelatin: two are translucent and filled with peas, there’s a funky canary-yellow one, and another that’s creamy magenta.

Edible raindrop cake