Sweet Testing: Rosemary Apricot Squares

I have a confession to make. I was a little bit nervous about making these Rosemary Apricot Bars. I ate one at Baked a couple of years ago and fell in love with them, but I wasn’t sure how other people would feel. Apricot and rosemary isn’t really an obvious dessert choice. So, given my apprehension, I was pleasantly surprised when person after person (at my sister's wedding shower) came up to me to tell me how much they liked them!! Woo hoo! They really are good. With just the right amount of tang and not too much sweetness, they are the perfect bar for when you want to make a dessert that makes you feel, just a little bit, like a grown-up.

You can find the complete recipe for the Rosemary Apricot Squares after the jump. ~Erin

The Mixing Bowl: Peach & Basil Shave Ice in Frozen Peach Bowls by Lisa Mishima

I am so, so, so excited to present this week’s Mixing Bowl recipe by graphic designer Lisa Mishima. Lisa recently sent me a link to her food and design website, Look. Listen. Smell. Eat., and I went completely bonkers over it. It combines everything I love about food and art. It’s creative, fun, and awe inspiring, but at the same time, filled with so many “doable” recipes that it doesn’t come across as the least bit intimidating. For example, check out these two recipes from Lisa’s site. The first is a S’mores fondue, featuring edible graham cracker forks! The second is part of a series of Pie a la Mode ice cream cones that sound and look amazing! In addition to the site, Lisa also runs a collective named Thought For Food, which makes edible art installations and conducts interactive dinner parties, all of which look like a heck of a lot of fun.

Business Card

Spun Honey art installation

Given Lisa’s already well-established food and art aesthetic, it was not surprising that her Mixing Bowl recipe would be a creative one. I was so thrilled when she sent over this recipe for Peach and Basil Shave Ice in Frozen Peach Bowls. It’s such a lovely and interesting twist on a peach dessert, and with peach season in full swing, it couldn’t be more perfectly timed. If you’d like to impress your friends and family with a different sort of peach recipe this weekend, I’d definitely give this one a try!

Click here to check out Lisa's food and art website, Look. Listen. Smell. Eat. You can also check out more of her design work, right here. Thank you, Lisa, for the lovely recipe! ~Erin

The Mixing Bowl: Tarte Tatin by Judy Kaufmann

Barcelona-based illustrator Judy Kaufmann is sharing a recipe today for a truly beautiful dessert, the Tarte Tatin, which is essentially an apple pie baked upside down! Judy sent along several images of the baking process and it really is a wonder to behold. And the finished product looks absolutely delicious! All I’d need to do is add a scoop of vanilla ice cream and I’d be in heaven!

 I was first introduced to Judy Kaufmann’s work via her colorful portrait of Frieda Kahlo. The image is so whimsical and fresh that it’s practically begging to be put on a wall! Her use of bright colors and her quirky spin on the ordinary makes her simple illustrations really stand out. My favorite pieces come from her Circus series (love these!) and from the Famous Print Collection, which includes the Kahlo print. You can check out the full range of prints, and shop online, right here. You can also check out more of her work, and additional product info, via her website.

You can find the complete Tarte Tartin recipe, plus more images after the jump. Thanks, Judy! ~Erin

Ayako Kurokawa

Chouquette

I love it when I come across work that perfectly embodies the merging of dessert and art. Something that is not only visually exciting, but also completely edible. Today, that something, or someone, is Ayako Kurokawa. Based in NYC, Ayako is a patissier, pastry sculptor, and food stylist who infuses her work with such humor, creativity, and beauty, that I could not take my eyes off of it! It makes complete sense to me that she used to work as a patissier at The Modern, which is a restaurant located at the Museum of Modern Art. (She also used to work at the Plaza Hotel). Her work is, in itself, a small piece of art, and now that I’ve discovered her desserts, I’ve sort of become obsessed with them, in case you hadn’t noticed! If you’re like me, and looking at these pics has made you go all googly-eyed, you can check out even more of Ayako’s work on her web site, right here. You can also buy some of her treats, right here.

Baby shower cakes

Butter sandwich cookies with rum raisins

Cheese souffle

Mont blanc

Manhattan graham cookies

Strawberry Cookie

Ginger bread house

Hands sable

 

The Mixing Bowl: Blue Hawaiian Ice Cream by Lili Chin

Lili Chin is a woman after my own heart. Her website, We All Scream, combines three of my favorite things---illustrations, ice cream, and unique flavor combinations---to create an illustrated recipe site that equally appeals to both my stomach and my eyes! Seriously, with ice creams flavors like Ginger Caramel, Strawberry Bourbon, Mexican Corn, and Sunflower Seed, how could I resist! There’s even an ice cream recipe for dogs! I was in dessert/design heaven. And it doesn’t stop there. In addition to these wonderful recipes, Lili creates individual labels for her ice creams that feature her designs. How cute is that?? When I first laid eyes on her site, I instantly knew that I had to ask her to contribute a recipe to The Mixing Bowl and when she sent over this recipe for Blue Hawaiian ice cream, I couldn’t wait to share it will all of you. I’m a huge fan of tropical flavors (tropical lifesavers were always my favorite pack) and I can’t take my eyes of the ice cream’s lovely blue hue. Who doesn’t love blue-colored food??

Malaysian-born Lili Chin is an artist and animator based in Los Angeles. She is the co-founder of FWAK! Animation, which produced its first feature-length animated film in 2006, Los Campeones de la Lucha Libre (The Champions of Wrestling). She was also the co-creator, producer and designer on Mucha Lucha, a Warner Bros' hit animated series which ran for 52 episodes on Kids WB and Cartoon Network. When not animating, Lili draws the cutest dog portraits over at Doggie Drawings. I love the retro kitsch look of her dog portraits and, as an animal lover, the idea of a getting a personalized pet painting really appeals to me! If you don’t own a dog, have no fear, she draws other animals as well. In addition, as the proud dog owner of a rescued Boston Terrier named Boogie, Lili donates a percentage of her Doggie Drawing sales to Boston Terrier/Animal rescue (woo hoo!).

To check out Lili's ice cream site, We All Scream, click here. If you’re a fan of this site, I’m sure you’ll love it as much as I do. You can see more of Lili’s work via her Flickr page and on her Doggie Drawings site. Thanks, Lili!

To see a larger version of the recipe, simply click on the image at the top of this post. You can also view additional images from Lili after the jump.

Jelly Babies

Photo by Brian Valentine

As far as sweets/desserts are concerned, I’m not a fan of jellied things. I never liked Jell-o, not even as a kid. Nor did I like jellied candy, like worms or bears. I don’t even really like jelly beans, although I do quite enjoy Jelly Bellies. Don’t ask me to explain the difference. Needless to say, I don’t really enjoy eating gelatin-spiked foods, but I do seem to be fascinated by them. Jelly keeps popping up on this site over and over and over again. As an object of interest, I can’t seem to resist a wobbly thing! I think some of it comes from the fact that jellied foods often take on the oddest and most bizarre shapes, like these Jelly Babies, for instance. There is something so wrong about them, yet I can’t look away! For starters, who wants to eat a tiny person? Not to mention the fact that there’s something almost alien-like and scary about their design. I can almost imagine them coming to life and forming a small army of jelly people, which will then take over the planet, filling it with tiny jelly houses, tiny jelly trees, and tiny jellied jelly donuts. I’m just saying. It could happen.

Image by Paul Frank

Jelly babies have been around, in some form or another, since 1918. But artist Mauro Perucchetti was the first person to turn them into art. The sculptures, which are made out of  polyurethane resin, have been featured in several of his exhibitions and were most recently installed at Marble Arch in London's West End.

From the artist: “Twelve years ago I created a body of work inspired by the dilemma between cloning and religion, and cloning and medical ethics. I decided to use the jelly baby as an impersonation of cloned mankind. I was trying to capture the ambiguity that could be present in a cloned being. On first glance, they seem very sweet, but from certain angles, they can look slightly sinister, especially on a large scale."

My thoughts exactly. Like I said, watch your back. To learn more about the history of Jelly Babies, click here. You can also find more information on Mauro's work via the Halcyon Gallery right here, as well as on his personal website, here.

Tim Burton Caketrope by Alexandre Dubosc

Master of the Zoetrope, French artist Alexandre Dubosc has just released this stunning tribute to director Tim Burton, which features several references to Burton's films. Watch carefully and you'll see visual nods to the films Batman, The Nightmare Before Christmas, Sleepy Hollow, and Burton's latest project, the stop-motion animated film, Frankenweenie. The "Caketrope," as Dubosc calls it, is actually not an animated film, although it may appear that way upon initial viewings, but is, in reality, a movie composed of still images. It is the rapid succession of these images that creates the illusion of movement. Pretty cool! For Burton fans and cake lovers alike! To see more of Dubosc's work, including additional edible zoetropes, click here.

Inspiration Board: Springerle

My mom has been obsessed with Springerle cookies lately. She’s planning on making some for my sister’s wedding and Springerle madness has officially set in. She keeps buying and experimenting with all sorts of different wooden molds, the kind that are used to make these lovely German cookies. With all this Springerle talk surrounding me these days, it seemed like the perfect time to do a post on them!

Springerle cookies, which have been around since the 1300s and are traditionally anise-flavored, are created by pressing a patterned mold onto rolled dough and then baking. The result is a hard cookie covered in a beautiful bas-relief image. The molds themselves are usually inspired by folk art and are often imprinted with images of flowers, animals, and people (with flowers and animals). In addition to the cookie molds, there are also patterned rolling pins available, if you want to cover a large surface, like a pie covering. These little cookies are truly edible art! For more Springerle info and to check out a recipe for the cookies, click here.

Pictured above: "Lady" Springerle Cookies by The Springerle Baker. For more Springerle examples on this site see: Cookbook Excitement: Pie it Forward and Inspiration Board: Easter.

Birnbaum Owl Mold (18.95) from The Springerle Baker

Cookie made with owl mold from The Springerle Baker

Gingerbread Springerle by King Arthur Flour

Springerle Cupcakes by Bakerella

Springerle Cookies/Cake by Martha Stewart