UNICORN FOOD
At end of the rainbow, the latest trend
Austinite Rachel Johnson knows that the phrase “unicorn food” sounds silly at first. The freelance food writer and recipe developer makes so-called internet food, a highly visual form of food that combines bright colors, creative mashups and playful themes. This year, she’s written a book, “Unicorn Food,” about the latest rainbow-hued iteration of Instagram-friendly food trends.
Johnson dates the current era of photo-focused food to the cronut, the croissant-doughnut hybrid that debuted 2013. Five years in, we now have rainbow bagels, $1,000 cupcakes topped with edible gold, hamburger cakes (both cakes made to look like hamburgers and hamburgers made to look like cake), unicorn Frappuccinos, watermelon “ham” and Prince and Beyonce macarons.
Like many millennials, Johnson, who also writes a blog called stupidgoodrachel.com, grew up watching “My Little Pony,” “Rainbow Brite” and “Care Bears” and toting Lisa Frank folders to school. “I crafted a lot as a kid, making fun, glittery stuff,” she says
Frank, the designer whose rainbow-colored creations covered countless backpacks, T-shirts and school supplies in the 1990s, directly inspired the current unicorn craze, Johnson says. In some ways, she gave America its own version of the Japanese kawaii — or cuteness culture.
The cronut might have kicked off the internet food trend, but Johnson says the fun really started when this kind of food left high-end kitchens and entered everyday homes. YouTubers such as “Nerdy Nummies” star Rosanna Parsons, for instance, taught home baking projects that were inspired by video games, TV shows and movies, and Facebook pages and Instagram accounts dedicated to “wow” foods became commonplace. Johnson started getting paid to develop food that would be easily shareable and catch people’s attention online.
But Johnson doesn’t see this visual food trend as superficial. When you combine the eye-popping colors and details with basic, real-life food techniques, you can learn something while making something cool, Johnson says.
It’s easy to find sweet recipes that tap into this trend, but for her book, Johnson wanted to include savory and healthy recipes, too, with salads, spring rolls and sandwiches that include naturally bright elements.
People can be snobby about food created just for how it looks, but professional chefs also focus on how a dish is presented, and nobody questions them. Johnson says she sees an over-the-top cake or loaf of rainbow bread as “a fun way to get excited about food in general.”
“If we are going to come together
over eating better food, more beautiful food, more nutrient-dense food, we have to use attractive food,” she says. “That’s where I see the opportunity.”
Johnson loves the magical elements of the unicorn world, but she drew the line at creating unicorn poop, one of the more popular searches on the internet. Instead, Johnson made Candy Mountain Creambows, which teach the reader how to make marshmallows.
Through this book, Johnson met Rosie Pierce, an Austinbased baker who runs a sprinkles company called Neon Yolk (neonyolk.com), which specializes in custom-made sprinkles that are created around certain themes or colors. She, too, was inspired by Lisa Frank.
“Trapper Keepers, stickers, pencils, I had it all,” Pierce says. “It was definitely nostalgic for me, and I wanted to invoke that same feeling of fun, happiness and playfulness in our company.”
Pierce says she thinks unicorns have captivated us not just because of the nostalgia. “I think everyone loves unicorns because they represent something that’s unique and special, and that’s how we see ourselves,” she says. “More than ever we’re sharing our daily lives online, and fun, colorful foods provide us the opportunity to spread some sunshine to our friends and followers.”
Pierce created a special uni-
corn mix for Johnson’s book, but many of us have sprinkles sitting unused in our cabinets right now and simply need an excuse to pull them out. Because unicorns and rainbows and glitter and stars are appealing to just about everyone, Johnson says she hears from people who use it as a way to connect kids with parents and grandparents.
“It’s natural that people are skeptical of things that are kitschy or seem cheesy,” she says, but if there’s anything people can learn from her book, “maybe we can just be nice to each other and eat unicorn popcorn.”
Tips
Make sure you use edible glitter. Crafting glitter might say it is nontoxic, but it’s still not good to eat. Edible glitter is often made with sugar and gelatin, but there are vegan versions out there, too.
Some recipes call for mixing in the food coloring with gloves, so change or wash the gloves if you don’t want the dyes to mix. Do the same with bowls or utensils used to mix colors with ingredients.
Instead of using the kind of food coloring and dyes available at conventional grocery stores, you can use natural alternatives, but the colors won’t be quite as vivid.