Japan's bizarre raw meat cake trend is strangely captivating

The internet is divided over this meat-laden trend—but there's no denying it's artistic merit.

Your gut is telling you to avert your eyes, the grisly crimson palette of a murderous scene, but admit it—there's something oddly transfixing, beautiful even, about the raw meat cake craze currently taking Japan by storm.

True to Japanese style, presentation is at the crux of this meaty trend.

Red meat is considered something of a delicacy in Japan, and these cakes use only the best: multiple bite-sized strips of streaky wagyu are moulded into ornate floral-like decorative displays, or draped in uniform procession to encase the "cake" base. The resulting look is, perhaps surprisingly, quite pretty if you can stomach the raw factor.

These creative cakes are having a moment on Instagram of late, with thousands of Instagram posts showing off the (let's face it) over-styled glorified meat platters, some impressively made up of multiple tiers and bejewelled with dozens of beefy rosettes—and the Western world has responded with a mix of horror and awe.

The meat isn't eaten raw, of course. It comes to the table as a "cake", some Japanese eateries even playfully adding candles for birthdays and special occasions, and it's then cooked yakiniku style over a flame grill, which, if you've ever passed a yakiniku eatery and momentarily fallen under the spell of the meaty, smoky aroma spilling onto the street, you'll know it's anything but gross.

Check out some of our favourite artfully constructed #MeatCakes.