When you want to create dessert art, you just need a chocolate pen.

A slice of cake on a plate in front of you pretty much always looks good, simply by nature of being a visual representation of the situation “You’re about to eat some cake!” So when our Japanese-language reporter Puniko Ninoude sat down at her kitchen table, she had no complaints regarding the following view.

But Puniko resisted the urge to dig in immediately, because she was going to make this cake look even better by using a chocolate pen to turn her real-world cake into a 2-D one.

OK, so this technique won’t actually bend the dimensions, but it will trick the eye. Using a dark chocolate pen for extra contrast, Puniko began drawing on the edges, creases, and corners of the cake, starting with its outline.

Puniko doesn’t have a ton of experience using a chocolate pen, and the times she has used one the results haven’t been great, with her less-than-steady hand making the chocolate pen-written words look like sloppy penmanship. But when drawing a picture with a chocolate pen, things like lines with irregular widths or that aren’t perfectly straight just make it look even more like an artist’s sketch.

After taking care of the outer edge of the cake’s sponge, Puniko moved on to the inner layer of cake, cream, and strawberry, with the extra definition really making her cake look 2-D…

…and for the finishing touches she added a few lines to show the swells of the whipped cream topping and to outline the strawberry.

When she was done, her cake really did look 2-D, especially in photos. It was so convincing that Puniko tried using a lighter-color chocolate pen for another slice of cake, giving it an almost sepia effect that added a dash of nostalgia.

The idea even works with roll cake slices.

So if you’re looking for a cool, quick way to make your desserts look even better, here you go. Oh, and if you’re nervous like Puniko was at first, remember that the chocolate in a chocolate pen hardens very quickly. That makes it easy to pick off errant strokes, which you can then pop into your mouth, so when decorating with a chocolate pen you’re never making mistakes, just extra snacks.

Photos © SoraNews24
● Want to hear about SoraNews24’s latest articles as soon as they’re published? Follow us on Facebook and Twitter!
[ Read in Japanese ]