Edible Art: Share the Sweet

I love it when I see something dessert related and within a few seconds I find myself smiling with delight. That's what happened to me recently when I first saw these wonderful candy designs by Norwegian designer Maria Tovslid. Titled Share the Sweet, Tovslid's series was created to change the way we read, interact with, and consume candy. The three pieces, the chocolate, the lollipop, and the licorice, are molded in such a way to draw attention to the experience of sharing. It's candy that not only makes sharing easy, but encourages it. What's better than that?? You can check out more of Maria Tovslid's work on her Web site, right here.

Bittersweet

I love people who think creatively with food, who create new dishes and flavor combinations, who don't take food or themselves too seriously and therefore end up making food that stirs your emotions, whether they are making you smile or laugh . . . or gag. Rick at Bittersweet is just such a person. He has only been blogging for eight months, but he has already posted recipes for Cough Syrup Cupcakes, Candyland cake, Twinkie Milkshake, Tie Dye Tiramisu, Chocolate Mountain, Red Velvet Pancakes, and Apple Pie French Toast, just to name a few. I don't think there's ever been a cake, a pie, or a cookie on Rick's site that I didn't like. Okay, I'll admit that sometimes his ingredients scare me, but I admire his originality and the sense of fun he brings to each and every recipe! Always unique and unexpected, Bittersweet is definitely one of my favorite places to visit.

Cookbook Excitement

I'm not a big buyer of "things," but if I have one weakness (besides clothes), it's baking cookbooks! I get them for xmas and birthdays and I buy them as gifts for myself. I'm even guilty of purchasing cookbooks and then never actually using them! They just sit on the shelf staring back at me. Needless to say, if there's one thing that I don't need, it's another cookbook. That said, there are a number of new cookbooks on the market right now that I'm super excited about. Here are just a few.

First up, Fat Witch Brownies: Brownies, Blondies, and Bars from New York's Legendary Fat Witch Bakery. Yes, that's right, you no longer have to go to NY in order to sample some Fat Witch goodness. Now you can make Fat Witch brownies, blondies, and bars right in your own kitchen! With over 50 recipes for everything from a Banana Bread Brownie to a Breakfast Brownie, you're bound to find the perfect brownie for you. (Releases September 2010).

For all of you out there who, like me, are fascinated with the current trend of alcohol-spiked desserts, there are two new cookbooks on the market to help inspire you. The first one, Booze Cakes, includes recipes for cakey desserts like Rum and Coke Whoopie Pies, White Russian Cupcakes, and Pink Champagne Cake, among others.

The second one, The Boozy Baker, was written by food writer, Lucy Baker (who also happens to be a co-writer for the Fat Witch Cookbook) and with 75 recipes it will cover all your drunken dessert needs. Inside the pages you will find recipes for Homemade Bourbon Vanilla Extract, Green Tea and Banana Cake with Sake Syrup, and Donut Bread Pudding with Tennessee Whiskey Sauce. Fancy!

The Mixing Bowl: Apricot Flaky Scones by Elisabeth Klos

I'm a big fan of breakfast. Eggs, hash browns, pancakes, toast with jam. I love it all! I will admit, though, that on most mornings I'm strictly a granola gal (I don't even put milk on my cereal, although sometimes I'll add berries on top, if I have them on hand!). Every so often, though, I like to treat myself with a little breakfast delight. These apricot scones, brought to us by painter Elisabeth Klos, are the perfect something special for when you have guests over brunch or on days when a bowl of corn flakes just isn't going to do the trick!

Elisabeth Klos is a fantastic painter based in California who also just happens to have a whole series of oil paintings devoted to desserts! It's the perfect combination of art and sweets! I'm really taken with the doughnut painting, but there's also something about that crust on the pumpkin pie piece that I just love!

From Elisabeth: I love painting and drawing sweets/baked goods because they evoke such a warm, nostalgic, happy feeling in me and in most of my customers. The process works something like this: First I do a decoupage under the painting with packaging labels from old flour bags, sugar bags, Hershey bars, etc. (You can see the label in the scone painting - the Gold flour symbol to the left of the scones.) Then I usually do color blocking as a backdrop to a simple portrait of the dessert using oil paint. Sometimes I use a rubber stamp to put text under the dessert.

Elisabeth's paintings are available for sale on Etsy, right here. If you're looking for something specific for the dessert lover in your life, Elisabeth will take custom orders as well. I think it would be really fun to give an avid baker a personal portrait of their most famous dessert: mom's apple pie in oil! You can find contact info and more images on her Web site. Click here to check it out and here to view her blog.

You can find the complete recipe and more of Elisabeth's work after the jump. Thanks, Elisabeth!

Spaghetti Ice Cream

Am I the only one that didn't know that ice cream shaped like spaghetti is like...a thing...in Germany? Yep, that's right. It's called spaghettieis (spaghetti ice) and it's not really noodles, but ice cream that has been pressed through a spaetzle press. To assemble, simply place the "noodles" over whipped cream, add strawberry sauce instead of tomato sauce and replace the cheese with white chocolate, coconut, or grated almonds and voila, you have spaghettieis. When I first saw it, I thought it was just another fondant-covered novelty dish, but I was wrong! It's actually well-known dessert in Germany and has been around since the 1960s! Want to try making it yourself? Click here for a recipe.

[Photo by Christian Cable]

The Mixing Bowl: Honey Joys by The Bunny Theory

This week’s recipe is by talented Australian artist, Carmen Hui (The Bunny Theory) whose Web site Forgotten Fancies I was fortunate enough to stumble upon a few weeks ago. Carmen's site focuses on chronically the various "stuff" in her life through illustration. She attempts to attach a level of meaning to each object and describes any significance it may (or may not) have had on her life. It's a really interesting and creative take on excess and the idea of putting a value on "things." It definitely makes you think about all the crap that you own. Maybe even making you think twice before you add something new to your collection! Hmmm . . . what am I going to think of these bright yellow flats in ten years?



For her Mixing Bowl contribution, Carmen has send us a recipe for Honey Joys, which are made almost entirely out of Corn Flakes! You know how I love a recipe with nontraditional ingredients and this one sounds really interesting! Also, it's super simple and not labor intensive, at all! I hope you'll get a chance to try the recipe! Let me know what you think! To check out Carmen's Web site, click here. Thanks, Carmen!

Book-Cut Cake

I’m a big fan of both paper-cut artist Su Blackwell and cake designer Kate Sullivan, so I was really excited to hear that Kate had created a cake based on Su's book-cut sculptures! (See pic at the end of the post for an example of Su's work.) The cake was designed by Kate as a thank you to the staff at her son's school. Such a great idea for a school party and it turned out so well! Great job, Kate!


Click here to check out Kate's blog and here to visit her Web site.

Edible Art: Lolli-Pop

I'm not a fan of labels, but I do love the concept behind this new photo book, Lolli-Pop, by Italian photographer Massimo Gammacurta in which he takes iconic symbols from companies like Nike, Channel, Izod, and MTV and turns them into lollipops. The project actually began as a limited-edition art experiment by Gammacurta and became so popular that he was able to develop into an entire book filled with his colorful edible logos. I love stories like that and I love the way that the suckers poke a little fun at corporations that most of the time take themselves much too seriously.



For more images from the book, you can visit Gammacurta's Web site, right here. You can also order Lolli-Pop via the publisher by clicking here.

Star Wars Cookie Cutters & Pancake Molds

In awesome cookie cutter news, Williams Sonoma has just introduced these new Star Wars cookie cutters! Featured in the set are cutter of Darth Vader, Yoda, Boba Fett, and a stormtrooper. Seriously, how much fun would it be to spend the afternoon making make Yoda and Darth Vader cookies??

And if that isn't enough, you can also buy these Star Wars pancake molds to complete your set. I imagine that both of these items are meant to entertain kids, but I know quite a few adults that would go gaga over them as well! Click here to check out the entire Star Wars collection!

The Mixing Bowl: Rhubarb and Fruit Pie by Eleanor Grosch

I first came across the work of designer and illustrator Eleanor Grosch many, many years ago when she was simply PushMePullYou Design and had a little Web site where she sold her geometric animal prints and indie rock posters. Back then, Eleanor was one of my desktop favorites! I loved the strong lines and simplicity of her work and her illustrations were always in high rotation on my computer screen! One of my all-time faves! It was therefore only natural that I’d invite her to share a recipe with us here on The Mixing Bowl. I can't adequately express how excited I was when she actually agreed to the assignment and then sent along this amazingly simple recipe for Rhubarb and Fruit Pie! The cinnamon and rhubarb combination sounds delicious! I hope you'll give it a try!



Eleanor Grosch of PushMePullYou Design has worked for companies like Keds, Giro, and Urban Outfitters, as well as for musical acts like Wilco, Feist, and Death Cab for Cutie, among others. In addition, she also works as an interior design consultant and has a notecard series titled Flock that was released by Chronicle Books in 2008 (Yay, Chronicle).




If you love illustration like I do, be sure to check out Eleanor's Web site, right here. Thanks, Eleanor! You can find the complete recipe and more pics after the jump.

Let's Get Baked

I love this little teaser video for the new Baked cookbook, Baked Explorations, due out in October.

a) Their first cookbook, Baked: New Frontiers in Baking, is my most favoritest cookbook in the whole wide world, so, of course, I'm just a little bit excited about the new one.

b) I love Olivia Newton-John. Really, who doesn't?

I was such a big ONJ fan as a kid, that, as an adult, I actually once said to someone "You’re a fake and a phony and I wish I never laid eyes on you." Yes, sometimes, I have the maturity level of a ten-year-old. Actually, now that I think of it, he may be the one person on the planet who doesn't like Olivia Newton-John!

To pre-order Baked Explorations: Classic American Desserts Reinvented, click here.

Vintage Chocolate Posters

I can't even express how much I love, love, love this vintage chocolate poster by Hervé Moran for Lanvin! I'm a big fan of vintage advertisements, but this one has my name written all over it! So colorful and cute! After stumbling across this print the other night, I spent a good chunk of the rest of my evening searching the Internet for more vintage chocolate posters to ogle and awww over. I found a ton that I love, but this Red Riding Hood ad still holds the top spot in my heart. I've posted the rest of my favorites below. Images are either inexpensive reproductions from All Posters or prints from the International Poster Gallery ($200-$2000).

Sweet Testing: Chocolate Stout Layer Cake

This is one of those cakes that has been on my "to do" list for a while now, but I only recently got around to making it! The whole beer dessert trend has been on the rise for a while now and the idea of putting beer into baked goods is not a new one, but, as I know quite a few beer fanatics that would smile big after being served a stout cake, it's still a topic that I wanted to cover. Besides, I think the beer dessert trend is still rising. I don't think we've reached the peak yet or that it's come to head, so to speak, so I think it's still relevant. :-)

The cake itself was really delicious! Sometimes a really tasty chocolate cake just hits the spot, you know, and this one had a really nice chocolaty flavor. I kept thinking of it as a very masculine cake, probably because of the beer and the color, but also because it's not overwhelming sweet cake, which was fine with me. Sometimes, too much sweetness ruins a cake. Oh, and it didn't taste at all like beer, but there isn't much beer in it, so I wasn't expecting it to. It was more about the fun of serving a beer cake than serving a cake that tastes like beer!

You can find the complete recipe after the jump.