Aiding and abetting in your never-ending quest to become a Disney princess throughout your adult years is Mermaid Toast, the latest Instagram trend and just about the cutest thing that will ever grace your feed. Created by food stylist and photographer Adeline Waugh, the toast, initially called "watercolor toast," has enchanted so many viewers that it's been re-dubbed "Mermaid Toast" and even has a close cousin dubbed "Unicorn Toast," proving that there truly is no limit we will ever bridge in projecting our hopes and dreams onto our breakfast food (read: rainbow bagels and galaxy donuts).
So what was the inspiration behind this creation? "I just thought it was time to create something fun and new! I loved the blue and green shades I used in unicorn toast and thought they would lend themselves nicely to an aquatic themed toast, and voila, mermaid toast was born," Waugh wrote to Bustle over e-mail. "I'm shocked at the reaction! I never planned on creating a trend."
Waugh, who runs the popular Instagram and website Vibrant and Pure, creates the magical effect by using blue-green algae powder, pirulina powder, or chlorophyll drops mixed with almond-milk cream cheese and then artfully spreading it on the toast. On her website, she also mentions using beet juice and turmeric as dyes, explaining her long history of posting pictures of toast more beautiful than most things you own. (Toast envy is real, y'all.)
The result is a toast fit for a Disney princess, or at least one Disney princess in particular — and if this doesn't make you believe everything's better down where it's wetter, then I just don't know what to tell you, because I'd trade these for that walking dish rag Prince Eric any day.
Waugh added gold flakes for extra pizzazz, as she is a food stylist, and although the gold flakes featured in her post were just for decoration, she notes that it's fairly simple to buy your own edible ones if you're interested in recreating the look and eating it, too.
Waugh also gave some insight to the dyeing process, showing a picture of the cream cheeses in bowls which is, frankly, soothing AF.
For whatever reason, Mermaid Toast has inspired some backlash from the internet, with people tweeting about how it looks like it's for "spoiled" kids, or about how they're sick of themed foods or don't like the concept of cream cheese on toast. (Pause: have these humans never eaten a cream cheese bagel? What the what?) But haters are gonna hate, and mermaids are gonna eat toast. And just in case we tire of our oceanic carbs, there's always Waugh's Unicorn Toast as well.
Well, now I feel magical and invincible and all things in between. Who knew cream cheese could be so dreamy? For more pastel toast and all sorts of adorable (and natural!) food inspo, follow Adeline Waugh at Vibrant and Pure.
