Luxury Foods Designed To Trick The Eye

What It Really Is: Cookies
What It Costs: $15*

What would you do if you went in for your breakfast bagel and came out with something that looked like this? Would you be happy about it? The answer is probably yes until you realized it was way too flat and not bread-like at all. 

Bagel With Cream Cheese @briansempowski / Pinterest.com

This isn’t just your normal Kroger bagel. It’s actually a cookie that’s been slathered with icing to look like the real thing. We’ve got to give this one extra points for effort. Just look at the seasoning sprinkled across the top, isn’t it remarkable? We’ll take a dozen to go, hold the lox. 

What It Really Is: Chicken liver parfait
What It Costs: $35*

It looks like a mandarin orange, from the tip of the leaf to the texture of its skin, but what if we told you this was actually chicken liver parfait? Known as Meat Fruit, this extraordinary item is available on the menu at Heston Blumenthal’s London restaurant. 

Mandarin Orange @zophead / Pinterest.com

Diners can splash around $35 on the surprise orange wonder. It might seem a little steep, but this is the world of fine dining. In fact, Heston’s restaurant allegedly sells over 700 of them in a week. Box it up, market it, and send it to Kroger. It’s about time this fruit shipped stateside. 

What It Really Is: Chocolate
What It Costs: $125*

At first glance, this cheeseboard looks like a top-tier selection of some of the finest dairy around, complete with some grapes for a little palate cleanser. In reality, it couldn’t be any further away from cheese if it tried. 

Cheeseboard @lovefooddotcom / Pinterest.com

Everything from the brie to the stilton is actually made out of chocolate. It might seem utterly insane, but even a non-foodie can appreciate the sheer effort that went into creating this. Not only is it Instagrammable, but it’s delicious, too. 

What It Really Is: Cake
What It Costs: $100*

Picking up some tasty fried chicken on your way home from a raucous night out may sound like a great idea, but what if you’re really in the mood for cake? Trick your mind into thinking it’s getting both by contacting Tasty Buttercup Cakes and getting them to create you this truly mind-blowing masterpiece. 

Chicken Tenders @lovefooddotcom / Pinterest.com

Everything looks totally real, from the ketchup to the coating on the chicken. It’s just a really cleverly made cake, but you wouldn’t think that if you looked at it. You can’t pick up something like this in Walmart’s bakery aisle, although we wish we could!

What It Really Is: Cake
What It Costs: $75*

Beans on toast is a British dish that some Americans just can’t understand. However, for those across the pond, there’s nothing like heating up a can of beans and pouring them over freshly made toast. If soggy tomato goodness isn’t your thing, hit up Frances Quinn. 

Beans on Toast @frances_quinn / Instagram.com

Quinn is a former winner of Great British Bake Off and included the recipe for this deceptive cake in her cookbook, which can be bought on AMZ. Quinn uses peanuts and caramel which creates a distinctly beany-looking cake. Don’t be put off by its appearance – this one actually tastes great. 

What It Really Is: Tootsie rolls, Starburst, vanilla pudding
What It Costs: $15*

If you’ve got a sweet tooth then this one’s for you. Sure, on the surface it looks like pasta salad with carrots and peas thrown in there for good measure, but is that what it really is? Of course not. It’s something far more interesting. 

Pasta Salad @kreativekorner7 / Pinterest.com

This concoction is made from vanilla Tootsie rolls, chopped-up starburst, and vanilla pudding. That’s a lot of sugar by anyone’s standards. It looks fairly easy to make at home, so if you’re feeling like you want a good sugar high, pop down to Walmart and grab the ingredients.  

What It Really Is: Cocoa butter desserts
What It Costs: $119 for the full meal*

You can pick up a whole pot of olives for just a couple of bucks in big supermarket chains in America, but have you ever thought about popping over to Spain and sampling an entirely different type of olive altogether? 

Olives @Traveling247 / Pinterest.com

These green and glorious things might look like a regular olive you would see at Darden’s Olive Garden, but they’re actually cocoa butter pods specially made at a fine dining restaurant called Disfrutar. They aren’t cheap either, coming as a part of a set menu that can cost upward of $119. 

What It Really Is: Ice cream
What It Costs: $25*

It doesn’t take a culinary whizz to know that ice cream comes in all sorts of shapes and sizes. Aside from the ones you can buy at stores like Kroger and Walmart, restaurants have been doing magical things with frozen dairy for years. 

Cheeseburger @lovefooddotcom / Pinterest.com

Taverna Hofmann in Barcelona even offers this cheeseburger. No, it’s not part of the main menu, but a popular dish on the dessert menu. It’s actually ice cream shaped so precisely you could easily pick it up at a drive-thru McDonald’s and not notice the difference!

What It Really Is: Sugar-coated pie crust
What It Costs: $15*

French fries are a great to-go food that fills a hole and usually tastes delicious, but let’s face it – it’s a pretty boring choice. If you want a little surprise, then why not try whipping up something that could really fool your friends and family? 

French Fries @ddchicago / Pinterest.com

You might think these look like real fries, but they’re not. They’re actually made from sugar-coated pie crust. The ketchup is jam and the mayo is whipped cream, making this dipping experience vastly superior to the bog-standard savory snack. Sorry Burger King!

What It Really Is: Cake
What It Costs: $150*

What did you get for your 21st birthday? Was it a new record? A key to a new car? Maybe you even got presented with a whole stash of crabs – although the less said about that, the better. This bucket of crabs was given to Jon, but thankfully, it was harmless. 

Blue Crabs @honeyhivebakery / Instagram.com

The crabs look so real, but they won’t bite. It’s actually a beautifully made celebration cake that looks like it took hours and hours to make. We don’t know who made it, but we have to hand it to them. It looks better than the fish selection at Costco.

What It Really Is: Watermelon
What It Costs: $35*

As the number of vegetarians and vegans has continued to rise over the last few years, restaurants have been forced to up their game and offer up more inventive dishes than just a simple mushroom soup. 

Tuna Carpaccio @lovefooddotcom / Pinterest.com

Chef Thomas Buhner at Germany’s La Vie restaurant decided that it was high time veggies could feast on carpaccio, without the fish. Instead, he uses a slice of seasoned watermelon that is sprinkled with cheese, pine nuts, balsamic vinegar, and all sorts of other wonders that make this dish much more than just a visual feast. 

What It Really Is: Fondant
What It Costs: $20*

Fried eggs are a little bit controversial when it comes to breakfast food. Some people absolutely love them with a hint of salt and pepper, while others think they’re slimy, gross, and far inferior to scrambled eggs. There are also those that think fried eggs should be made entirely out of fondant. 

Fried Egg @lovefooddotcom / Pinterest.com

When you look at this stunning creation, it’s hard to believe it hasn’t been freshly cracked from the latest Walmart grocery haul. Annabel de Vetten clearly has a knack for trickery as it can’t have been easy to make this out of nothing but fondant and sheer talent.

What It Really Is: A banana
What It Costs: $5*

There are plenty of ways that you can make a type of food look like something else entirely, from baking to sugar decoration. You can also do exactly what artist Hikaru Cho did and break out the paintbrushes. 

Cucumber @lovefooddotcom / Pinterest.com

Cho got crafty with a banana, carefully painting it to make it look like a small cucumber. By using a small brush he was able to make it look textured and turn it the perfect shade of green. Of course, when you peel it, the jig is up, which is what makes this illusion so entertaining. 

What It Really Is: Cake
What It Costs: $100*

These blueberry pancakes look so realistic that it’s difficult to imagine they weren’t flipped onto the stack straight from a steaming hot pan. The way the syrup drips down the side looks just like any other stack of pancakes would. 

Pancakes @briansempowski / Pinterest.com

Of course, nothing in life is always as it seems. In this case, these aren’t pancakes at all, but a beautifully constructed celebration cake that’s perfect for any pancake lover. In fact, why not just go ahead and order one to celebrate it being a Monday? You don’t need a special day to enjoy these.