Japanese cafe ruins dessert forever with healthy 'salad cakes'

This Japanese cafe is turning vegetables into delectable looking confections.

You would think Japanese eating is healthy enough — what with sashimi and sushi having become absolute and major health staples in our Western diets.

But now, the Japanese culinary scene is set to change this week with the addition of ‘cake’ looking salad hybrids that look like actual works of food art.

Yes, you have read that correctly.

You can now forget any guilt trip as you shovel down a couple of pieces of these treasures.

Sure you may have to go to Japan to do it but trust the land of innovation, precision and occasional kitsch to come up with ‘cakes’ stamped with ‘healthy’ on them.

This week, a cafe called Vegedeco opens in Nagoya after food stylist and designer Mitsuki Moriyasu stirred the pot with healthy looking, cake-inspired ‘salads’.

Simply, they are nutritional salads disguised as cakes.

By taking veggies out of the salad bowl and reassembling them into colorful, meticulous and eye-catching ‘cakes’, Mitsuki aims to make vegetables more palatable by making them look, to some, more desirable.

After Mitsuki’s decorated cakes were on the menu at the Bistro La Porte Marseille restaurant in Nagoya, customers couldn’t get enough, so a new, separate cafe will open on Tuesday in Nagoya.

The focus will be on health with the cafe featuring superfoods, gluten-free items, and meals low in carbohydrates, all prepared with and attention to detail like no other.

The cakes have whole vegetables while the ‘sponge’ part is created by using natural ingredients like soybean flour. The ‘icing’ is made from tofu or cream cheese that has been blended with veggies so they have a natural vegetable color.

A slice of vegetable cake starts at 735 yen (around $8.50) while set meals will start from 856 yen ($10) which will include a slice of cake with a cup of ‘Vegie Drop’ Tea, filled with vegetable phytochemicals (legitimate vegetable coloring).

Hey, you can even have a slice of gluten-free bread made with a strain of ancient rice.

So, next time you’re in Japan ...