Edible Art: Sarah Anne Ward

I can’t get enough of the whole fine art/food trend. Send me a photo of an art-inspired dessert and I am all over it! So, it should come as no surprise that I am smitten with these images created by New York-based photographer Sarah Anne Ward. Inspired by famous modernist works of art, Sarah, along with food stylists Heather Meldrom and Michelle Gatton, created this seven-piece series, which includes a Koons Twinkies and a Rothko ice-cream cake, not to mention the Jackson Pollock Rice Krispie Treats (my personal favorite). So fun! I can’t wait to see what she comes up with next! For more info on Sarah, check out her website, right here. ~Erin

Pollock Rice Krispie Treats

Damien Hirst Dot Candy Skull

Richard Serra's Chocolate Curls

Rothko Ice Cream Cake

Cubist Movement Picasso/Braque Pinwheel Cookies

Mondrian Jello Jiggler Mold

Seurat Pointillism Sprinkle Sheet Cake 

Edible Art: Amy Stevens

When it comes to baking, there’s perhaps nothing braver than diving head first into a decorating idea, with little or no experience behind you. It takes a certain amount of confidence, and a certain amount of humor, knowing that what you are about to do could go terribly, horribly wrong. This was exactly the challenge Amy Stevens faced when she first started her Confections Series, which began as a response to her 30th birthday and quickly transformed into something else entirely.

From Amy: My original idea was to bake 30 birthday cakes for myself and photograph them. I ordered a kit from Martha Stewart.com and watched an instructional video on decorating cakes. When I quickly discovered my cakes were never going to look like the ones in the video and the pamphlet, I decided they were better off in their exuberantly imperfect states.

In the end, it’s the flaws in Amy’s cakes that make them so great. The unevenness and bright colors of the desserts, which are often set against similar graphic backgrounds, are so absurd that you can’t help but smile. The content is garish and trashy, but that’s the reason you love it. In a way, these cakes remind me of characters on a child’s television program, a claymation fantasy where the charm is in the imperfections.

Amy’s photographs aren’t all about the cakes, though. There is a deeper meaning beneath the layers: I am commenting on cake as a rich cultural symbol as well as the domestic fantasy world of contemporary home decorating magazines and television shows. It’s a fantasy world where entertaining, cooking and decorating unite. It’s a place where one needs to have a beautiful home, decorated seasonally, in order to entertain friends with gourmet meals and elaborately concocted desserts.

I really love the whole idea behind the Confections series and the photos are just mesmerizing. You can see more of Amy’s work on her website. You can also buy prints online, via her Etsy shop.

Edible Art: Shelly Miller

A few months ago, I shared with you some tile cookies from Whipped Bake Shop. This week’s post, about Montreal artist Shelly Miller, takes the whole of idea of edible tiles one step further by placing the tiles on actual buildings. Using cake icing, Miller created replicas of Portuguese-inspired ceramic tiles on the sides of abandoned buildings in Brazil. According to Miller, “This piece acts as a metaphor for the economic imbalance in many of the sugar producing countries, such as Brazil and the sugar industry as a whole. Beneath the surface of the sugar industry empire lies the reality of its slave labor foundation.”

But Miller doesn’t stop at tiles. As with her work in Brazil, she is always influenced by her surroundings and her wall art takes on various forms, depending on the location of the piece. In urban landscapes, her sugar technique may pop up in the form of graffiti art, elsewhere it appears as an incredibly detailed decorative mural. No matter what the design, all of these pieces share one common element. Much like their real life counterparts, they will all disappear eventually, slowly dissolving over time.

Day One

Day Six

You can see more of Shelly Miller's amazing work after the jump.

Edible Art: Ad Tempus

I’m always on the lookout for art projects that perfectly capture the whole design and dessert aesthetic, so I was thrilled to hear from recent Parsons graduate Henry Richmond V. Young about his project Ad Tempus. A collaborative effort between Young and Chef Veronica Duboise, the series plays off the symbiotic relationship between food, presentation, and diner. During a three-course dessert tasting, Young combines creative flavors and unusual serving pieces to create a dining experience that is both artistic and interactive. The dishes are so beautiful and I love that every piece is named after a different adventurer in history. It’s a very modern take on dessert. See below for a more complete description on how each dessert works.

1. Toast is an assembly of pain perdu, maple gelée, and pamplemousse sorbet concealed under a crust of white chocolate to be excavated timidly by the diner. (Served on the Carter, named after famed archaeologist.)

2. Milk/Tea is a "soup" course that is created by the performance of two state changes: hot rose milk will be poured over to dissolve a lemon sugar dome to later melt the chrysanthemum sorbet served with pomegranate seeds. (Served on the Hillary, named after famed climber and explorer.)

3. Crémeux is a quasi-deconstructed crème brûlée: pistachio crémeux with chocolate mousse guarded underneath a shield of a clear vanilla sugar tuille to be hacked by the diner. (Served on the Geronimo, named after the fearless Apache Warrior Chief.)

(Still life photography by Martin Seck)

Edible Art: Sweet Veggies

There is something a little bit naughty about these candied vegetable photographs by Amsterdam-based photographer Wendy van Santen and art director Hans Bolleurs. They definitely conjure up images of childhood and the ongoing struggle to get kids to eat their veggies. I think we can all agree that more children would be eating their vegetables if they looked like these colorful creations. Personally, I prefer my vegetables to be a little less sugary, but they certainly are fun to look at! ~Erin

Edible Art: Padded Cell

Padded cell days. We’ve all had them. You know those days when you get so frustrated/upset/crazy that you want to pull your hair out or bang your head against a wall? Now imagine that instead of a traditional padded cell, you find yourself resting inside a room entirely covered by cotton candy. Feel the soft, pink fluff against your skin. Smell the sweet, intoxicating smell of spun sugar. Ahhh…peace. Actually, in reality, a cotton candy cell isn’t quite as wonderful as it might sound. All those creepy, horror movie connotations are still there, but with a bit of fun thrown in. The cell, which was created by artist Jennifer Rubell for the Performa Arts' Red Party, is a freestanding structure that contains one door and one window. The door to the cell was opened at 9pm, but, prior to the big reveal, partygoers could peak through the window, viewing the interior. According to Rubell, the cell “acts as an escape” from the party, which is also “confining, threatening, and claustrophobic,” in its own way. “It is an object that addresses the dark side of pleasure, the price of pleasure, the possibility that pleasure is its own punishment.” ~Erin

Edible Art: Cake Decoration Machine

I’ve never been very good at cake decorating. Oh, sure, I can fake it, to a certain extent, but, when it comes to fancy icing, I am no expert. So, as you can imagine, when I first saw this cake decorating machine, I immediately thought, Ohhh…where can I get one of those?? In reality, this clever device is not a bakery standby, but was created for the exhibition Design Criminals or A New Joy into the World, in which designers “were asked to react to Design activities such as tattooing, hair dressing, or arranging flowers, which usually happen outside design discourses.” The cake decorating exhibit, created by Studio mischer‘traxler and titled Till You Stop - How Much is Too Much?, allows the visitor to apply frosting to a cake, letting them choose whether they want a lot of decoration or a little. The user watches as the machine constantly updates it’s palate and must decide when to stop the process. Once the user stops the machine, it cannot be started again. It’s an interesting look at the art of cake decoration, replacing work that is traditionally done by hand and replacing it with a machine. It also forces users to make design decisions rather quickly, raising the question, What do you find visually exciting? Are you attracted to simplicity or something more elaborate?

The cake decorating machine is currently part of the permanent collection of the Austrian Museum of Applied Arts in Vienna. ~Erin

Rollware: Edible Dishware

Ever since I saw my first patterned rolling pin in Gesine Bullock-Prado's cookbook Pie it Forward, I’ve been a bit obsessed with the idea of using a decorated rolling pin as a means of imprinting designs onto dough. So, as you can imagine, when I came across these gorgeous laser-cut rolling pins, I gasped, just a little. Unfortunately, these pins are not actually available for purchase, but were instead created by three students in the Masters of Interior Architecture & Retail Design Programme at The Piet Zwart Institute in Rotterdam (Joanne Choueiri, Giulia Cosenza and Povilas Raskevicius) as part an of exhibition entitled Altered Appliances. The purpose of the exhibit being to “present projects that investigate the retooling of industrial low-tech appliances and gadgets to offer alternative design solutions and experiences for today’s kitchen." The printed pins are part of the Rollware project, which "reintroduces the rolling pin as a multi-functional device for production, while also addressing sustainability in disposable plates, since the baked bread plates can be eaten rather than thrown away." The whole thing is pretty darn cool, if you ask me! Well, done! You can check out the video below, to see the whole process in action. You can also see more work from the exhibition on the Altered Appliance website, right here. {Thanks, Rose!} ~Erin

Cookbook Excitement: Modern Art Desserts

I can't even begin to tell you how excited I am about this cookbook! Back in 2009, I wrote a piece about pastry chef Caitlin Williams Freeman and the amazing work she was doing at The Blue Bottle Cafe, which is located at San Francisco's Museum of Modern Art. That piece was, and remains, one of my most popular posts. People can't seem to get enough of Caitlin's wonderful art-inspired desserts! And, now, with the release of her cookbook, Modern Art Desserts, you can find out exactly how she goes about converting famous works of art into gorgeous, edible desserts! Along with step-by-step instructions on how to create her most famous cakes, the Mondrian Cake and her trio of Thiebaud cakes, you will find recipes inspired by the works of Andy Warhol, Cindy Sherman, Henri Matisse, Jeff Koons, Francesca Woodman, Roy Lichtenstein, and Richard Avedon, among others. Each recipe includes an image of the dessert, along with a photo of it's artistic inspiration, so that you get a real sense of the whole process.

Caitlin Williams Freeman is one of the true dessert art innovators. You can find out more about her cookbook by watching the video above. To order Modern Art Desserts: Recipes for Cakes, Cookies, Confections, and Frozen Treats Based on Iconic Works of Art, click here. ~Erin

{Cookbook photos by Clay McLachlan}