Maximum points for accuracy to the Pokémon source material, zero points for cuteness.

Recently, Japanese donut chain Mr. Donut ran into a problem with its Pikachu donuts, in that the first batches didn’t look much like Pikachu. In fact, they looked so little like the Pokémon mascot that they were temporarily pulled from the market until the chefs could start making consistent likenesses of the beloved Electric-type.

But it’s important to note that the goal when making character-shaped sweets is for the food to resemble the anime/video game visuals. That’s a different goal entirely from making the food look real, as Japanese Twitter user @konbuwasabi discovered when making a Pikachu pastry. An amateur baker, @konbuwasabi recently whipped up some “Sweet Potatoes,” as Japanese chefs literally call the type of pastry pictured below, made with mashed sweet potato, milk, eggs, and sugar.

https://twitter.com/konbuwasabi/status/1067396022203105280

After baking, Sweet Potatoes are a golden yellow color, with a few patches of dark brown where they receive he most intense heat. The hues are actually pretty similar to those of Pikahchu’s coat, so @konbuwasabi decided to try his hand at making a Pikachu-shaped Sweet Potato, and he did a really good job!

Too good, in fact.

https://twitter.com/konbuwasabi/status/1068508233164148736

Rather than a cute, edible representation of the character, @konbuwasabi sweet potato Pikachu looks like someone tossed a Poké Ball with a Pikachu trapped inside into the oven and set it to broil for three an a half hours. “I wanted to make a Sweet Potato Pikachu…” tweeted @konbuwasabi, “…but I never expected I’d end up with this roasted whole Pikachu.”

▼　The Sweet Potato Pikachu, served as dessert after a plate of curry rice

https://twitter.com/konbuwasabi/status/1068510092545277952

@konbuwasabi’s creation got plenty of comments online, though none of the “Wow! So cute!” variety he’d probably originally envisioned when he first came up with the Sweet Potato Pikachu idea.

“Totally looks like a corpse.”
“You can really sympathize with the Mr. Donut staff now.”
“Pikachu is strong against electricity, but weak against fire.”
“That’s what happens when you put Charizard in charge of making dinner.”

Still, @konbuwasabi knows it’s not nice to waste food, so e dutifully devoured his dessert.

▼ “The sense of guilt I had when I bit into him was tremendous. And it was delicious.”

https://twitter.com/konbuwasabi/status/1068511567044521985

A few commenters offered the suggestion that using a chocolate decorating pen to color in Pikachu’s eyes and add other features, like we did when we made our own Pikachu Burgers in the SoraKitchen, might have helped make the Sweet Potato look less like an actual roasted Pokémon. Sadly, such suggestions didn’t come in until after @konbuwasabi had already eaten his Pikahcu, and we can totally understand if the whole experience left him so emotionally scarred that he doesn’t want to try making on again.

Source: Twitter/@konbuwasabi via Jin

Follow Casey on Twitter, where every day he writes articles while under the watchful gaze of a half-dozen Pikachu sun visors.