Hanna-Riikka Heikkilä's Cakes

I’ve always been a little bit in awe of home bakers who are always decorating their cakes in such original  and interesting ways. They’re not professional pastry chefs. They’re cakes are not necessarily perfect. They simply enjoy using food as a creative outlet and bringing joy to the people around them Hanna-Riikka Heikkilä is one of those people. A visual artist and art teacher by trade, she makes the most gloriously unique cakes for her friends and family in Finland. Each and every one of her creations is so vibrant and funky, like little pieces of art. It really seems to me that, as an artist, Hanna-Riikka has found an ideal base material in cake!

I asked Hanna-Riikka to share a little bit about her cake making process with dessert girl readers. Here is what she said:

When did you start baking?

I feel like I have always been baking. I was able to bake at home when I was little girl. That's when the first attempts to decorate cakes took place. I remember, when I was a young girl, my mother let me to bake my own cake. I decided to make it green and she let me to do it! It was very important to me. A few years ago, when my children were born, I started baking again. Luckily, in the cake shops, there are many kinds of decorative accessories that you can buy.

What inspires you?

I am a visual artist and art teacher so the biggest inspiration is art. Usually one sees very figurative cakes, but I am more interested in abstract cakes. Colors, different textures and combinations inspire me. Quite often I become inspired in a shop where you buy cake accessories---the colors they have and so on. Usually I use sugar paste on top. It is the most important thing in my cakes. But of course I want the cake to be delicious, too.

I want somehow to break the conventions of the cake world. I hope every cake I bake and decorate is a piece of art.

Hanna’s cakes really are incredible. I think my mouth was hanging open a little bit when I first saw them. I wasn’t even entirely sure that they were cakes! For more info on Hanna-Riikka, you can visit her blog, right here. (Thanks, Hanna-Riikka!)

You can find more cake pics after the jump.

Sachiko Windbeil's Cupcake Toppers

I’m loving these edible cupcake toppers by pastry chef Sachiko Windbeil. Originally from Japan, and now living in New York, Sachiko’s toppers (or as she calls them “cupcake accessories”) are sooo darn cute, like little pieces of art. Of course, we all know that, at the end of the day, a cupcake has to taste good, but a sweet little Blue Jay on top certainly doesn’t hurt! Seriously, who can resist those Bird Watching toppers?? And the gourds?? Adorable! I also can’t get enough of the colorful Easter Bunny toppers. So lovely. Actually, I think all of these toppers would look equally great on top of cake, too, if cupcakes aren't your thing. All of Sachiko’s toppers are made out of fondant and available on her Etsy site, right here.  ~Erin

Pamela Michelle Johnson (Paintings)

Sometimes I’m able to look at a piece of art and I’ll instantly know what I like about it and why it makes me feel happy or sad or both. When I first saw Pamela Michelle Johnson’s food paintings, I was immediately hit with an overwhelming feeling of sadness. The pieces are somewhat upsetting to look at, and, at first, it was hard for me to really pinpoint why pictures of Oreos and Pop Tarts were upsetting me. There is real melancholy aspect to her work, a loneliness. These are painting of sweets, without any of the sweetness. Perhaps Pamela can explain it best.

From Pamela: Whether it is gluttonous quantities of larger than life junk food or the solitary empty wrapper, abandoned soon after devouring was complete, the images are charged with social relevance. The work flaunts our culture back at us. It questions embracing a culture of complete and instant gratification while ignoring the consequences of our indulgences. The work questions many of our cultural ideals and social norms. These are the pictures of our insatiable appetites; they are the pictures of the consequences. You can see more of Pamela's work below. You can also check out additional paintings via her website, right here. ~Erin

Rifle Wedding Cake

I am a huge fan of Rifle Paper Company, the stationery brand and design studio created by illustrator Anna Bond and her husband Nathan. Anna’s drawings manage to be extraordinarily lovely, while still maintaining a feeling a fun and whimsy. I’ve admired her work for years now, so when I saw this Rifle-inspired wedding cake by pastry chef Melody Brandon, I couldn’t resist sharing it!

Inspired by a popular Rifle floral print, Melody painted the cake by hand and then added tiny sugar flowers to the cake to create a 3D effect. Frankly, I did a little happy dance inside when I saw it. How could I not? It combines two of my favorite things:  Rifle and cake! It’s so sweet and charming, I don’t know if I could bear to cut into it, but I would…because it’s cake! For more info on the Custom Floral Portrait Print that inspired the cake, visit Rifle's website, right here. You can find more info on Melody Brandon’s dessert studio, My Sweet & Saucy Shop, on her website. ~Erin

Kristen Kieffer Cake Stands

When it comes to cake stands, I’m a real sucker. There’s nothing like a cute pedestal to add some extra fun and sass to your cake presentation and these cake stands by potter Kristen Kieffer will definitely do the trick! Created by Kristen in her workshop in Massachusetts, the stands manage to be simultaneously vintage and modern. I love the deco elements and the red and white carnival like stripes on the cherry piece. So fun!

From Kristen: All of my pottery is one-of-a-kind, and designed and handmade by me alone in my studio. I threw this form in two parts on the potter’s wheel, and later carved the foot and “skirt” to create a playful undulation. I decorate the surface with sponged and trailed slip (the clay version of, well actually, cake-decorating) in shallow textures of swirls, dots, and patterns. My influences vary from Art Nouveau to Haute Couture and furniture to fondant, and these stands bring it all together!

You can find the cake stands and more of Kristin’s work in her Etsy shop. ~Erin

The Mixing Bowl: Blueberry and Dark Chocolate Buns by Mountain Bakery

One of the best things about having a website, is that it gives you the opportunity to interact with all different types of people, from all over the world, that you would have otherwise never know. For me, Rose Kemmy is one of those people. A couple of years ago, Rose sent me a very kind email about how much she enjoyed and was inspired by this site. It was such a sweet note and I never forgot it! Then, just last week, I heard from her again, and guess what Rose has been doing over the past two years?? She's opened her very own home-run, micro bakery! Based in Norwich, England, Mountain Bakery is all about homemade baking, using only high quality ingredients and free range eggs. How cool is that?

Chipotle, parmesan and rock salt biscuits

Raspberry & vanilla butterfly cupcakes

Sourdough bread

Poppy and sesame seed buns

So, as you might expect, this is an extra special Mixing Bowl post. Not only because we're celebrating Rose's new bakery, but because this is the very first Mixing Bowl video!!! Hooray!!! I'm been longing for someone to do a video for years now and I couldn't be more thrilled with the one that Rose has produced! Not only is the video super cute, but the recipe, for Blueberry and Dark Chocolate Buns, is a great winter treat! Perfect for lazy Sunday mornings when it's just too cold to leave the house! I can just imagine myself snuggled up in a comfy chair with a cup of tea, a good book, and one of these buns. Heaven! Thanks, Rose! (The recipe video featured in this post was produced in collaboration with MakeMeMakeMe and Spindle Productions.)

For more info on Mountain Bakery, visit their website, right here. You can find the complete recipe for Blueberry and Dark Chocolate Buns after the jump.

Isabelle Chapuis Photography

I recently came across these quirky fashion photographs by French artist Isabelle Chapuis and instantly fell in love with them. Now, after seeing this new series by Chapuis, titled Barbapapa, I can officially call myself a fan.  The collection, which features a young model wearing cotton candy in all sorts of fashionable ways, is at once dark and humorous. The clothes, lighting, and expressions of the model are tough and moody, but the sugary pink confections brings with it the sense of silly fun. It is the juxtaposition of the hard and the soft that really makes these images special.

The Barbapapa photographs are currently on display at the Bibliothèque Nationale de France in Paris until February 17th, 2013. Personally,  I can’t wait to see more of Isabelle’s work in the future, but, until then, I’ll be enjoying these beautiful images, and the playfulness they inspire. You can check out more of Isabelle’s photographs via her website, right here. ~Erin

Sweet Testing: Whiskey Tart with Whiskey Whipped Cream

I know that I’ve mentioned before on this site that I love Baked, the New York—based bakery that has spawned a series of amazing dessert cookbooks, but I don’t know if I ever talked about my love of whiskey. Yep, that’s right, whiskey. I’m not a big drinker and, honestly, I didn’t even start consuming alcohol until a few years ago, but it was whiskey, friend of the Irish for centuries, that ended up converting me. I think it tastes a bit like ginger ale, but, really, I’m still pretty much a lightweight, so what do I know? I just like it. And whiskey and chocolate…even better! To further entice you into my whiskey world, I will add that this tart is not only delicious, but a cinch to make, so you can impress your friends and family with very little time and effort. Always a good thing! ~Erin

You can find the complete recipe after the jump.

How to Visit a French Bakery

Ahhh, France. The Louvre, the countryside…the pastries! It’s hard for me to think about France without thinking about the food. I’ve never been to France, but I definitely have this sort of idealized notion of french cuisine, especially french sweets! This video titled How to Visit a French Bakery perfectly captures all of my french bakery fantasies. Created as a collaboration between Ben and Gabrielle Blair (Olive Us) and filmmakers Tiger in a Jar, the video features three of Ben and Gabrielle’s six kids visiting a bakery in France, where they recently moved. Apparently, the Blair clan packed up and moved to France last year and are currently living in a farmhouse in the french countryside (sigh…).The video itself is beautifully shot and reminds me a bit of a Wes Anderson film. It’s fun and cute and the children are lovely and so well-behaved. If you’re like me and you daydream about visiting a charming little french bakery and eating croissants and macarons, you’re bound to like this video. For more Olive Us videos, click here. ~Erin

The Mixing Bowl: Crème brûlée by Marina Ekroos

This is the first ever “proud mama” style post that I ever written here on dessert girl. It concerns the hugely talented photographer Marina Ekroos and her new cookbook, Silmänruokaa (Visual Recipes). You may remember that a couple of years ago Marina contributed a Mixing Bowl recipe for chocolate macarons that was one of our most popular posts! Well, as it turns out, making those macarons really inspired and encouraged Marina to do more recipes and continue working on her concept of single shot recipes. For those of you who are not familiar with Marina’s work, her photographs capture the development of a recipe (ingredients, process, finished product) in a single frame, so that you get a complete recipe in one image. How cool is that? She now has an entire cookbook filled with gorgeous photos, including the macaron recipe that she created for dg, and I couldn’t be prouder! It was such a treat for me to see a dessert girl recipe in a real live book and I’m so happy to hear that Marina’s experience here was a good one. The finished product is really lovely and even though the recipes are in Finnish, I would still recommend checking it out. The photographs alone make it a great coffee table book.

To help celebrate this momentous occasion, Marina is back, sharing with us her delicious recipe for crème brûlée (see image at the top of this post), which is also featured in her book. I'm so excited that someone is finally tackling crème brûlée for this site! There is something so fun about a dessert that you have to crack open. Who doesn’t love the feeling of whacking the hard, caramelized top of a crème brûlée with a spoon? It’s such a satisfying feeling, almost as if you are excavating a cave wall, on a search for buried treasure. It’s also a great dessert for this time of year. Quite wintery and wonderful! And the perfect way to impress your friends this holiday season.

You can find the complete crème brûlée recipe after the jump. For purchasing info on the cookbook, along with information on how to buy limited edition prints from the book, click here. Thanks, Marina! ~Erin

Henteco Cookies

Do the Japanese have cute down to science or what? I can't get over how adorable these cookies are. It's crazy!! They would make great stocking stuffers or party favors for a child's birthday. Unfortunately, for me at least, they're only available in Japan, at a bakery called Henteco, which, as far as I can tell, means "quirky" in Japanese. Please let me know if that's not correct! If you live in Shinagawa in Tokyo, I would recommend heading right over there immediately to see these in person! For the rest of you, you can click here to check out the cookies in more detail. ~Erin

You can find more Henteco pics after the jump.