It wiggles, it jiggles, and who knows, if you smack it at the right place, it might even do the boogie-woogie. We promise this is not a tongue-in-cheek riddle; it’s just the natural response to seeing a soufflé pancake for the first time – a cross between the airiness of a soufflé and the sponginess of a pancake, this dessert has gone viral not just for its taste but for its moves.
“I first came across them down a late-night Instagram rabbit hole. I saw a video of someone poking one and it just wobbled, and I remember thinking, ‘That’s not real!’” says Aly Payne, co-founder of Neon Market, which began offering the dessert in 2024, before the trend really took off in the city in the last year with several Asian-inspired cafes and restaurants introducing these visual treats on their menus. “At the time, it was niche, the kind only food bloggers knew about but not the Sunday brunch crowd. Two years later, they’ve become a staple; people travel from across the city specifically for them,” she adds.
While the crowd, mainly made of young professionals, high schoolers and college students are drawn in by the dessert’s viral looks, what keeps them coming back is its unique texture, notes Barkha Sahu, who offers it at her cafe, Ame’s Japanese Kissaten. “The height, the plating, it’s made for the camera. But the thing is, if it looks great and doesn’t taste great, people won’t come back,” she says, adding, “People aren’t used to food that feels this light. It’s airy, warm and is paired with rich sauces.”
Maryam Shareef, who co-founded souffle pancake outlet O’fufu along with her sister Fatima Shareef, agrees, adding, “We have miso caramel, strawberry compote, a simple maple syrup one and tiramisu pancakes and biscoff pancakes. But you can really play around with it. Someone even added three chocolate sauces – dark, milk and white.” Following their first branch’s growing popularity, the sisters recently opened a second outlet on St Mark’s Road.
Sahu’s taken this customisability a step further, creating savoury and breakfast-style options too, putting pancakes in dishes where you would expect rice, noodles or toast. “It’s all about doing something slightly unexpected. We’ve built a breakfast-style pancake with hollandaise, eggs, mortadella and sausages. We’ve also done things like Mapo tofu on pancakes, which sounds wrong until you try it.”
Where do they get their moves?
While these airy delights might vanish from your plates in a jiffy, making them takes immense time. Payne emphasises, “The magic is entirely in the meringue. You whip the egg whites to stiff peaks and fold them into the yolk-and-flour base gently. All that incorporated air is what gives the height and jiggle. The cooking is also different, low-heat, steam-assisted and slower than a regular pancake. A soufflé pancake, done properly, takes 30 to 40 minutes while a regular pancake takes two minutes.” Fatima adds, “Soufflé pancakes are sensitive. Even if you’re one gram or one minute off, it can completely deflate the entire pancake. It took us a year to perfect the technique.”