Yoghurt art, using plain yoghurt as a canvas to create pictures with fruits and sauces, is gaining popularity. Its colourful, photogenic appearance often makes it a topic on social media and elsewhere. Drawing cute pictures and eating healthy yoghurt will surely bring you a dose of relaxation.
"You don't need to use a stove and you can give it a try with ordinary ingredients. Everybody can enjoy it," said Machiko Tateno, a cooking expert who teaches yogurt art in her class.
Beginners can start by making roses with sliced strawberries. Tateno used kiwi for the leaves and pumpkin seeds for the stems.
A train with a cute face can be completed just by arranging items like wafers, marshmallows and ring-shaped cereal. The face is a canned yellow peach. Tateno painted the gravel under the tracks by adding chocolate sauce to yogurt to make it light brown.
The trick to making yogurt art is using a dish one to three centimetres deep. This way, "the fruits and sauces don't easily sink," Tateno said. Another tip is to stir the yogurt well with a spoon to smooth it before spreading it on a plate. Ingredients that are easily mixed with yogurt - sauce, jam and others - should be used at the end.