Cookbook Excitement: Miette

Omg, omg. Okay, that’s a little annoying, but seriously…OMG! One of my most favorite bakeries ever, Miette, is releasing a cookbook on June 22nd! I have a sneaking suspicion that my Baked obsession is going to turn into a Miette obsession sometime in the next few months. Right now, there are only a few images  available, but I can’t wait to get my hands on a copy, so that I can see what other photos are included inside.  Their baked goods are always so lovely to look at, not to mention all together yummy. If you haven't tried anything from their shop, I would highly recommend the toffee and the macarons, which are available by mail order. To preorder Miette: Recipes from San Francisco's Most Charming Pastry Shop, click here.

Have a great (long) weekend! ~Erin

Maggie Austin Cake

I am totally smitten with Maggie Austin Cake (Washington DC). In fact, I’ve been collecting photographs of Maggie’s cakes for a while now and only recently realized that the gorgeous cakes that I had been ogling over all these months had all been created by the same person! She definitely has some of the most beautiful and creative cakes around. I’m especially fond of her stained glass series of cakes and cookies, but her cakes with the delicate paperlike detailing run a close second! They actually remind me a bit of filo pastry. I’ve chosen some of my favorites above and below, but you can check out more of her wonderful designs on her Web site,  right here.

Embroidery Cake

I’ve never been very good at sewing. I’m the type of person who sews a button on a shirt and then watches as it falls off a week later. A needle and thread are not my friends. An embroidery cake, on the other hand, now that’s something I can get behind! You get all the fun of creating an embroidery pattern without having to do any of the actual sewing!

The floral design, which was created by Stephanie for her blog A Clockwork Lemon, is based on an actual embroidery pattern and uses jimmy sprinkles instead of thread! So lovely and creative! Normally, I wouldn’t just repost another person’s blog post, but this one was too special to pass up! To learn more, check out Stephanie’s post, right here.

The Mixing Bowl: Strawberry Shortcake by Lee Price

Food, generally speaking, makes me happy, eating it, thinking about it, looking at it, so when I first saw Lee Price’s photorealistic oil paintings of women and food, I was thrilled! The way she uses food is amazing! At first, there is that initial surface reaction of seeing a gorgeous, beautifully rendered image, but the more you look at her work the more you realize that beneath the quiet facade, so much more is going on. For me, her work definitely brings up issues of how the role of food changes in a society where a high supply of goods makes food consumption less about survival and more about our mental state, how eating a candy bar can, often, comfort us or shame us, cause arousal or nausea, depending on our emotions at any given time. As much as I love food, even I am guilty of letting my emotions affect my eating, of letting what I eat, sometimes, affect my emotions. The human race’s relationship with food is a complicated one and, I, for one, couldn’t stop looking at Lee’s paintings. Really lovely and interesting work.

Given the fact that she is vegan, Lee actually makes a lot of the baked goods that are featured in her paintings. Of course, I was super excited when she agreed to snap some photos for us the next time she made something for a shoot. I love, love, love seeing the process of her making the dessert and then seeing the finished painting (see image below). I was also really happy that she used a Strawberry Shortcake recipe from the BabyCakes cookbook, which is a great book for vegan and gluten-free baking (note: this recipe is only vegan, not gluten-free because of the spelt flour).

The Evoke Contemporary Gallery in Santa Fe, New Mexico is currently running an exhibition of Lee Price’s work, you can click here for more info. You can also see more of Lee’s paintings on her Web site, right here.

You can find the complete recipe and more images after the jump. Thanks so much to Lee for sharing her work!

Sweet Testing: Vegan, Gluten-Free Chocolate Chip Cookies, Just Like Mom Used to Make

No, my mom didn't make vegan or gluten-free cookies when I was growing up, let alone a cookie that was both free of dairy AND gluten, but, if she did, they would have tasted like these cookies! Vegan and/or gluten-free baking isn't always easy. Not every dessert holds up to the conversion, but the classic, hard to screw up, chocolate chip cookies, seems to have survived the transition effortlessly. Okay, there was some effort involved, on the part of BabyCakes, who created this recipe, but believe me when I tell you that you will not be able to tell the difference between this cookie and the white flour/dairy version.

You can find the complete recipe after the jump.