Drying-induced pattern growth is drastically altered when the material is able to undergo large-scale deformation prior to failure. We show this for hyperelastic hydrogels confined between two parallel plates, where the volume lost by evaporation is accommodated by an inward displacement of the air-hydrogel interface that induces an elastic deformation of the hydrogel. Once a critical front displacement is reached, intermittent fracture events are initiated by a geometric instability resulting in localized bursts at the interface. The bursts relax the stresses and irreversibly form air cavities that lead to mesmerizing cellular networks. We rationalize the size of the cavities by considering the elastic stress stored in the material at the onset of a burst whose spatial range can be affected by interfacial tension.