Black Cocoa Five-Spice Cake
Thicc Mint Cookie Cake
A glorious later of chocolate cake topped with peppermint cream and enrobed in bittersweet chocolate ganache. From The Cake Book by Rebecca Firth.
Plum Cake
Yellow Cake with Golden Buttercream
Coconut Cake
A simple, magical Coconut Cake for confidence, clear thinking, and protection.
Chocolate Cake with Chocolate Icing
Broken Heart Cake
One of the last things my friend said to me was that the hospital had “shitty banana bread.” I promptly baked and shipped him a loaf which I believe he got to try before passing away in hospice the evening before Valentine’s. When I smelled more ripe bananas in the kitchen I immediately thought of him, of that banana bread, of how, as a chef, he was always saying to “put butter on it.” This is my broken heart in a cake, black cocoa banana with American buttercream piled high. I miss you, dear friend. I’ll make sure to always put plenty of butter on it.
One for Sorrow (Two for Joy)
Applesauce Cake with Cream Cheese Frosting, for Sadi
. . .
My dear friend was dying. I typed this while eating my toast, drinking coffee. My dear friend was dying and I simply didn’t know how to process this. I’ve dealt with death many times before but this particular circumstance was new to me. Part of my heart in a special way for over half of my life, I came up with the idea for the cake while he was still in hospital, not yet in hospice care.
The first thing that came to mind was the old “One for sorrow, two for joy…” superstition about magpie’s. One for the sorrow, for the loss, the second for the joy, for hope, for the time that we had together, and for who he is as a person. Surrounding the bird on top of the cake is a ring of thyme, a potent herb used in healing but also symbolic of affection, bravery, and courage. Sprinkled about are a few pale rose petals emblematic of friendship. The cake itself is apple and cinnamon, two ingredients packed with love. Cinnamon sparks protection and healing as well.
He lived far away so I could not take him the cake, I had to send all of my love and care through the air and via an occasional FaceTime call (hell yes modern technology). Bea ate a slice for breakfast one morning and I like to think that, with each eaten, somehow we sent him a message.
Cold Moon Cake
Vanilla Cake with fridge-cold Whipped Cream and chilly Lemon Curd comprise December’s full moon cake for the Cold Moon. This particular name comes from the Mohawk tribe for the time when bone-chilling weather descends. As well, the Oglala tribe calls this the Moon of the Popping Trees, and Cree refer to it as the Frost Exploding Trees Moon.
Chocolate Cake with Toasted Meringue
Beaver Moon Cake
The full moon of November is known as the Beaver Moon. According to the FARMER’S ALMANAC, it is named as such as this is the “time of year when beavers begin to take shelter in their lodges.” As well, “During the time of the fur trade in North America, it was also the season to trap beavers for their thick, winter-ready pelts.” This moon is also known as the Digging Moon and Frost Moon among others. Two layers of chocolate cake with chocolate frosting the deep brown of a beavers pelt topped sanding sugar “frost,” design insipired by @saltadenabakery.
Hunter’s Moon Cake
Chocolate Cake with American Buttercream and Blood-Red Ganache Drips. This year it was on Halloween and was the second full moon in October. The Hunter’ Moon marks time time when food is being hoarded by all creatures big and small in preparation for the coming cold.
Harvest Moon Cake
Whole Wheat Applesauce Cake with Cream Cheese Frosting, topped with one of the Baked Apples from a few posts back. This special moon rises at sunset for several nights in a row, bright light allowing for later harvesting. Belonging to neither September or October, its home on the calendar ever year it is based upon the autumnal equinox: whichever month it rises in following that date is when you will find it. This year the equinox was September 22. Excitingly, this is the first of two full moons in October, the other falling on All Hallow’s Eve!
Corn Moon Cake
Four layers of Corn Cake with Sweet Corn Whipped Cream and Caramel Corn for today’s full moon. Usually we think of September’s moon as the Harvest Moon, the closest full moon to the autumnal equinox. But, every three years, a moon in October falls closer. That’s when we get the Corn Moon. (In October we’ll see two full moons including one on Halloween!). Other names for September’s full moon: The Lakota Sioux refer to this as Moon When the Plums Are Scarlet, some call it the Barley Moon, and the Omaha named it the Moon When Deer Paw the Earth.
Self-Portrait in Cake no. 13: Momma Has Cracked
I’ve been home too much, gone all hare-brained, batty, squirrelly, bananas. Bit of a fruit loop. Sponge cake layers made from the ashes of articles about mothers, COVID, and mental illness filled and frosted with Banana Whipped Cream.
Sturgeon Moon Cake
The full moon for August is generally referred to as the Sturgeon Moon. But sturgeon + cake = ?. Thankfully, it is also nicknamed the Blueberry Moon as well as the Moon When All Things Ripen.
Given these springboards, the final result is inspired by all three (even the Sturgeon!).
The cake itself is two layers of White Almond Cake (almond harvesting season runs August through October) frosted in Peach (do I really need to explain this one?) Buttercream.
On top of the lot is an abundance (!) of summer bounty: flowers, strawberries and blueberries, fresh tomatoes straight from our garden, an egg gifted from a neighbor’s chicken, a ring of dripping honey to thank the bees, and, in honor of the sturgeon, tiny caviar-like black sprinkles.
FYI, freshly-squeezed tomato “water” is delicious on peach buttercream. Composition, etc, inspired by @sharon.core and @ksjaar.
“I Want to Punch Covid in the Face” Cake
Inspired by my daughter’s repeated sentiment, I decided it best to let her do just that. We frosted and decorated a two-layer Chocolate Cake with Buttercream to look like the illustrator-rendition of that Covid f*@ker. FYI, Mom got her punches in too.
Stag Moon Cake
July’s Full Moon, known as The Stag Moon and The Thunder Moon, rose just after midnight on the 5th. At first I was befuddled how to represent a Stag in cake form—same for a thunderstorm—so I made a list of what first came to mind for both:
Strong
Loud
Powerful
and landed on a magical and symbolical-heavy creation.
The cake is Chocolate flavored with almond and lots of coffee. The filling is Pomegranate Swiss Meringue Buttercream and the lot is frosted with Vanilla Swiss Meringue Buttercream:
Chocolate: positive energy energy energy
Pomegranate: growth, like that of antlers and a sky from white to that weird grey which signals a particular kind of storm)
Almond: passion (both the buck and thunderstorms)
Coffee: thunderstorm energy and bolting through forests
The colors of the frosting are white, sky blue, light grey, and darker grey for the dawn to reality of a divine thunderstorm.
As for the twig, herb, and flower “antlers,” I looked to Zeus. In Greek Mythology, The Oak Tree is a symbol of the God of Thunder. My family and I took a walk around the neighborhood until my husband spotted a good-sized Oak (he knows these thing; I do not). There we gathered twigs.
At home, I laid them out with some cuttings from our lavender and rosemary plants—both good for protection—and spent forever trying to craft reasonably horn-looking cake toppers.
The resulting cake played on tart and sweet (2 t of Pomegranate Molasses flavored the filling for a 6” cake just right to my taste and gave it a buck-like shade of brown), with faint almond and lingering coffee on the tongue.
It’s got a “Midsommer” look, in its way, just like last month’s Full Moon Cake, but I suppose that’s just summer. The growth, the heat, the color.
“And so with the sunshine and the great bursts of leaves growing on the trees, just as things grow in fast movies, I had that familiar conviction that life was beginning over again with the summer.”
― F. Scott Fitzgerald, “The Great Gatsby”
Summer Solstice Cake
Lemon Cake with Lemon Verbena and Thyme bakes into the top. Split and filled with Whipped Cream and Strawberries.
For this cake, I chose to celebrate summer, light, flavor, and growth with a nod towards the strawberries and cream common in most Swedish Midsommar Cakes. I left out reference to the cultist murder from the film some of use might be thinking of.* ;)
• Lemon is a glowing fruit good for imbuing happiness, protection, and love. • Some use Lemon Verbena to ward off negativity and "can be used for creative endeavours and for festivals that celebrate the gifts of Mother Earth."
• Thyme suffuses healing and beauty. • Yogurt is now being studied as an aid for depression, something that those coming from the darkness to the light may be needing help with. • Strawberries are a fruit of love and fertility
More information and the recipe available via my Patreon page! *Midsommar if you don’t know what I’m referencing. Oh, and the beautiful watercolor border is by @edythpress!
Portrait of Dad
Marbled Chocolate and Vanilla Beer Cake Frosted in Dots of Sweetened Whipped Cream and Topped with Chopped Roasted Peanuts.
Marbled Chocolate and Vanilla Cake: Piano keys. For his intense love of playing and listening to the music ever since I was a girl. Chopin’s Raindrop Prelude.
Bottle of Coors Light: This went into the cake batter. He used to be a heavy drinker, especially of beer. I chose Coors Light as I grew up in Colorado and he still lives there. He loved that f@#king beer. If painting a portrait of my childhood I would use dabs here and there of the yellow that colored the old cans.
Chopped Roasted Peanuts: He doesn’t drive anymore, but when he did he always kept a container of roasted peanuts in the car wedged somewhere in the midsection between the driver and front passenger seats. This is a tastier addition than the beef jerky that was always in the glove box.
Sweetened Whipped Cream: A nod to Hoosier Sugar Cream Pie, the state pie of Indiana where he grew up. If you look you will see that some of the cream dots have “disappeared.” He has Alzheimer’s. This references how he is progressively disappearing from himself. Or we are from him, from his memory. Both, really.
How to Eat Strawberry Shortcake
1. Crave Strawberry Shortcake.
2. Decide that’s what’s for lunch. Think of options. Think of rolling pins and biscuit cutters.
3. Feel lazy.
Flower Moon Cake
The full moon of May is known variously as the Flower Moon, Milk Moon, as well as Mother’s Moon. My cake is rather straightforward. It’s a Hot Milk Sponge Cake (via Alice Medrich) with flowers piped with the Swiss Meringue Buttercream in The Baker’s Appendix. The kiddo helped me decorate (I called it Art Class), having chosen the frosting colors as well as piping some of the flowers and “all of the leaves, Mom!”
Scooby-Doo Banishment Cake
So the kid had been watching Scooby Doo for five weeks. Seriously, nothing but Scooby Doo. Every version of the television show (Scrappy Doo 😐), every movie, every damn LEGO movie!! I realized last week that it’s a comfort thing for her and I’m not about to take that away but, I mean, something’s got to give. So when she said “Let’s bake a Scooby cake together!!,” then proceeded to art direct and leave the kitchen I was cool with it. We ended up with this colorful cake, Vanilla/Vanilla in flavor and just as colorful inside. She gobbled a slice and, the next morning, I swear to the goddess of cake, she turned on Peabody and Sherman. I was stunned. Magic! ✨Banishment! 🔥 ...For about an hour 😂😭.
Self-Portrait in Cake no. 12: Parenting During Covid
Read about this crazy mess of love and see an upclose car crash shot (!) here.
Snack Cake Cake
I really love this cake. Like Top 5 love. Inspired by the cream-filled snack cakes of my childhood, particularly the Zinger, the cake and the frosting both are rich, deeply chocolaty, and not-too-sweet and the creamy, dreamy filling is adapted from the Homemade “Cool Whip” in the BraveTart book. The full recipe is available to my Sugar + Patreons!
Quarantine Cake
Along with the honor of being interviewed by Patricia Escárcega for the Los Angeles Times I was asked to create a Quarantine Cake to run with the Column One story How to Revelive Stress During a Pandemic? #quarantinebaking . Oh, and running a recipe with a Column One story has never happened in the paper’s history until my humble contribution 😯🍾! No pressure. Nope. Anyway... my cake riffs on one known variously as Depression Cake, Crazy Cake, and Wacky Cake. The recipes, and their histories, differ save for all resulting in a baked good that is easy and economical to make. Requiring no eggs, milk, or butter, the batter comes together—by hand—in less than ten minutes and is out of the oven in less than 30. The finished cake is deeply-hued and bittersweet due to a higher than usual amount of cocoa, an ingredient of love and happiness—something every single one of us could use more of. There’s also a teaspoon of cinnamon for healing and a cup of brewed coffee for that extra jolt of energy, both literal and figurative, we need to get through this. Chocolate not your thing? There’s a vanilla variation at the end of the recipe.
Pink Moon Cake
Lemon Yogurt Cake with Lemon Swiss Meringue Buttercream for the full moon in April. In the Christian Church it is the Paschal Full Moon, or the moon that determines the date of Easter. Its other nickname is the Pink Moon after Phlox Subulata, a flowering plant native to Eastern North American which blooms in early spring. The cake design is inspired by the brightly colored flowers of the plant. As for flavor, it is the Lovely Lemon Yogurt Cake from “Simple Cake” by @odettewilliams topped with more lemony-ness in the buttercream. Lemon is bright and uplifting and correlated to moon magic. Yogurt is seen as helpful for healing depression in both the magical and scientific worlds. I’m thinking we can all use A LOT of brightness these days. And yogurt. And cake. “Where there is cake, there is hope. And there is always cake.” Dean Koontz
Homesick—and Heartsick—for NYC: Raspberry Bran Breakfast Cake, easily veganized
Inspired by the Vegan Raspberry Bran Muffin that I used to (often) eat for lunch from the sadly no-longer @birdbathgreenbakery @citybakerydaily. I needed to bake something NY as that city and its people are constantly on my mind. I want to hound my friends there but am settling for Instagram and FB stalking along with occasional texts. The idea for this cake popped into my head as my mind wanted to bake but my body wanted something, eh, healthier? I don’t know. I’ve got to take care of both right now, however—and with whatever—I can. WE have to. So this healthyish cake goes out to NYC, its people, and ALL of you. Take care of yourselves ❤️. RECIPE
Worm Moon Cake
Carrot Cake with Garden Pea Cream. The full moon in March is known as the Worm Moon for as the ground thaws, those squirmy creatures wiggle their way towards the sun. Once exposed, they feed returning Robin’s and other birds. Alternately it’s known as the Sap Moon as it heralds the tapping of Maple Trees. The cake is the @sweetlaurelbakery Dark Horse Carrot Cake from their eponymous book. Packed with magic from almond flour (prosperity) and walnuts and carrots (fertility), the recipe uses maple syrup as the sole sugary sweetener. The Garden Pea Cream (exactly as it sounds: peas and cream) comes from “Sticky Fingers Green Thumb” by @stickyfingersbakery. It’s basically spring on a plate. Only without the worms 😏.
Self-Portrait in Cake no. 11: 44th Birthday
The cake itself is chocolate, an ingredient that is basically magic everything, and there is a pinch of cinnamon for extra spark. As for the recipe, it is one known variously as Crazy, Wacky, or Depression, depending on your source. The same, frankly, can be said for me 😏. The frosting and filling is whipped cream. There’s no deep meaning for this, I just really like whipped cream, though I did tint the filling purple in honor of Bea, my heart 💜. As for its application, the cake is only half frosted (hello middle age!) with some ups and downs and a few clumsy spills. The streak of black celebrates my good darkness, the ruffles along the base honoring how the uniformity I have found in areas of life help keep me stable. The whole lot is supported by a solid (beautiful @aheirloom) foundation and flurried with rose petals because I am incredibly lucky to be surrounded by so much love. Oh, and the Statue of Liberty? I just cannot let go of New York City, of my identity as a New Yorker. But that’s a whole different cake 😉.
Birthday Cake for Courtney
Two layers of Chocolate Cake with Swiss Meringue Buttercream. Look absolutely cribbed from @amandaefaber—what I now call #fabering—since I seem to do it so much.
For My Valentines
Two-Layer Chocolate Cake with Ballet Pink Vanilla Buttercream.
Snow Moon Cake
This White Cake with Lemon Curd and Vanilla Buttercream is in honor of February’s full moon. Known variously as the Cold Moon, Hunger Moon, Rowan Moon, Ice Moon, and Quickening Moon, the name Snow Moon is pulled from The Farmer’s Almanac: “The Full Moon Names we use...come from Native American tribes, Colonial Americans, or other traditional North American names passed down through generations.” Cake-wise, I brought in some cold by using a white cake recipe which calls for ice water while the lemon in the curd is bracing and bright and has uses in moon magic.
Uplifting Lemon Cake
I used an absurd amount of 🍋 in the cake and buttercream because: happiness. The raspberries were a last minute add for some symbolic strength.
Flourless Chocolate Prune Cake with Rosemary Salted Whipped Cream, or
A Cake for
Love (Chocolate and Vanilla),
Longevity (Prune; Plum)
Memory (Rosemary),
Purification (Salt),
and Healing (Orange snuck into the cake).
Read more & recipe HERE
First Cake of 2020: Wolf Moon Noyaux Cake
I don’t know. I baked this White Cake faintly flavored with Noyaux Extract, that enticing potion made from the pits of apricots which must be toasted to render the amygdalin inert so that it does not convert to cyanide in the body. I had this notion of a blank canvas, new beginnings (f**ing New Year’s traditions), but the first full moon in 2020, the January moon, is the Wolf Moon. Oh, and there’s a penumbral eclipse. And I’m also kind of angry today. So, yeah, I don’t know. First cake of 2020. Let’s see where this year cakes us.
Deb Perelman’s Smetench Küchen
Perfection. Recipe from Smitten Kitchen Every Day
Homesick for NYC: Apple Cider Doughnuts
The first time I visited the Penguin Random House offices was to see the cover mock-ups for The Baker’s Appendix. After the meeting with my lovely editor @ashley_rosy and the brilliant @msquinn1002, I treated myself to a hot Apple Cider Doughnut from the @carpedonutnyc truck parked on Broadway. It’s hard to describe how I felt, watching the frenzy of people and cars and bicycles, but I can recall thinking “I did it! I really fucking did it!” before burning my tongue on that they-say-fresh-they-mean-fresh doughnut. Cake recipe from Martha Stewart available here.
Homesick for NYC: Ample Hills
I’ve been missing NYC in a visceral, achy way lately (okay, since we left, but...). To help I’m trying my usual cake therapy, in this case embarking on a new project baking cake versions of some of my favorite, most beloved, most missed treats from the big 🍎. First up is a Whipped Cream Cake with Salted Caramel Buttercream and “Crack Cookies” inspired by the Salted Crack’d Caramel ice cream at Ample Hills.
Self-Portrait in Cake no 10, Perimenopause
Coffee Walnut Cake with Lemon Curd and Lemon Buttercream.
Lemon Curd: Mood swings, both tart and sweet.
Coffee: Wake me up before you go, go.
Lemon & Coffee: I guess the combo is some sort of weight loss thing? And god knows us perimenopausal ladies need to keep that important info in our back pocket!
Ground Walnuts: Represents fertility and clarity in magical thinking. The ground part is important here.
Irregular Ruffles: Irregular everything.
Broken Clock: Kind of obvious.
A Cake for Healing
This Applesauce Spice Cake with Browned Butter Buttercream was baked with healing in mind and donated for a Depressed Cake Shop pop-up. Cake, in general, is a symbol of happiness. Both the apples and the cinnamon baked into the cake correspond to healing in magical thinking. The grey frosting (a @depressedcakeshop standard) represents depression, the coral and green the flower of the healing aloe plant.
Olive Oil Cake with Browned Butter Buttercream
Recipe HERE.
Snow & Rose Cake
Inspired by the book of the same name by Emily Winfield Martin. Cake key: Nods to the main characters come from the faintly vanilla layers—one white and one red —and the red buttercream roses and white nonpareils. The frosting is a Honey Buttercream tinted violet in reference to two cakes mentioned in the book. The meringue mushrooms are a nod to another character, Ivo. It’s a lovely book, beautifully illustrated, calming on the brain-palate, and rather fun to cake. PS: my first-ever buttercream roses and meringue mushrooms!
Self-Portrait in Cake no. 9: Food As Medicine
Capsules filled with Chocolate Cake or Funfetti Buttercream.
Cream Cheese Pound Cake with Pickled Fruit and Whipped Cream
I’ve been experimenting with Fruit Shrubs this summer as a way to cut back on wine. In the past, I’ve discarded the fruit without much thought but this time I nibbled a bit and, blown away by the lovely, sharp-sweetness, knew immediately that I wanted to try it on a cake. Pound Cake clicked, but a typical butter-only version didn’t seem right. I ended up going with Joy the Baker’s sublime Cream Cheese Pound Cake which I think pairs perfectly. That said, I’ll admit the pickled fruit makes it a weird one, definitely not for every palate, but HERE’s the recipe should you care to try it!
Tea and Cake with Demons
Chocolate Cake with Ermine Frosting, it’s Inspired by the book of the same name, Tea and Cake with Demons: A Buddhist Guide to Feeling Worthy. When I set out to decorate I imagined something simple but that’s not quite what happened. Enter my nearly 7-year-old daughter who, after digging through my decorating bin and art directing from color onward, is really responsible for this gem.
Self-Portrait in (not) Cake no. 8: I Am (temporarily) Out of Ideas
Self-Portrait in Cake no. 7: I am Fing Jealous of Your Success (but I still love you)
Chocolate Cake with Strawberry Black Pepper Jam and Basil Buttercream. Correspondence-wise, Black Pepper represents jealousy while the strawberry and basil represent wealth and prosperity.
Self-Portrait in Cake no. 6: Too Many Self-Help Books
A Vanilla Cake with Vanilla Buttercream slowly being pressed to death under the weight of all this overwhelming, frankly somewhat unhelpful, advice.
Self-Portrait in Cake no. 5: Keep It Together
Chocolate Cake with Swiss Meringue Buttercream and Sprinkles.
Self-Portrait in Cake no. 4: I am Easily Lost
Coconut Cake with Coconut Buttercream
Self-Portrait in Cake no.3: This is My Brain on Anxiety
This is a Lemon Cake with Lemon Curd Filling and Lemon Boiled Milk Frosting. The design of the cake is meant to express how I feel when anxiety takes hold. I often describe it as though my thoughts are like butterflies which have escaped and my net is lost.
“Presence”
A vanilla-vanilla cake version of Presence by artist Shirazeh Houshiary
Bergamot & Thyme Olive Oil Cake
Infused with intention of inviting success (bergamot) and courage (thyme) into my life using the magical correspondences of each ingredient.
“Balance”
A vanilla-vanilla cake version of Balance by artist Berit Mogensen Lopez
I went to my books of magic and correspondence and meaning and symbol. Sometimes I need to look further than my cookbook shelf to bake what I need. This recipe has Chocolate for healing and positive energy. Maple sugar for the latter too; black pepper and clove for dispelling negativity; cinnamon for focus; coffee for clarity; walnut for wishes; yogurt to ease depression; baking powder for extra magic. The flower stenciled out on top is a snow drop which, in the Victorian Language of Flowers, symbolizes hope.
Black Hole
Black Cocoa Mayonnaise Cake with (Activated) Charcoal Buttercream. Inspired by Black Holes, @anish.kapoor, and some pretty heavy mental business that I don’t even begin to know how to talk about (though know I am okay). Both Black Holes and Activated Charcoal absorb absorb absorb. The mayonnaise is the opposite, all slippery fat and moisture. So I guess this cake is what I can not yet put into words, these opposing forces working within me, my faith that gravity is stronger on my end, and the comfort I take in absolute blackness.
The Lottery
Lottery Cake created on June 27th, the day the events in the short story by Shirley Jackson take place. I baked up two layers of dark chocolate beet cake which I filled with red raspberry jam and frosted in the blue of a “clear and sunny” day, surrounded with “flowers...blossoming profusely” and set upon “grass ... richly green.” And then I stoned it. The “blood” stained slip of paper sealing its fate lay at the bottom right.
An Elegy for Van Gogh
Read more about this cake HERE.
Self-Portrait in Cake n. 2
In the seventh (eighth?) grade, a teacher made us memorize the helping verbs, something I have never forgotten. To this day, when I feel a panic attack coming on, I recite them over and over in my mind. For #worldmentalhealthday2018, I decided to bake up an homage to that string of word pearls I carry with me wherever I go. The cake is actually a boxed yellow mix with Hershey’s Cocoa back-of-the-can frosting as that’s what I considered great cake to be at 12 (and still kinda do). My royal icing wasn’t quite the right consistency so it’s a bit tough to read. That I wrote is as it plays out in my mind doesn’t help either: am is was were would be been may can must might could would should have has had will do did done.
Self-Portrait in Cake n. 1
Goth-dark chocolate cake flavored with too much coffee (you know better) and frosted in Bavarian Cream, the filling of choice for every birthday party cake of my childhood. On top is an opinionated, bittersweet ganache hastily applied without forethought, a partially-dried red rose for complicated love, and some dried calendula flowers for bright and optimistic thoughts. Yet the end result is incomplete due to the missing half-slice.
This is My Brain on a Good Day
Two layers of Black Cocoa Cake filled and frosted with Raspberry American Buttercream and decorated to match how I was feeling that particular day, a bit dark, a bit bright, a bit shiny, a bit creatively chaotic.
Anxiety
Sick of my own bulls$@t, I decided to bake all of my anxiety and fears and frustration into a really terrible cake. And then destroy it. It’s got soggy cereal, a rotten tomato, hot sauce, a cold egg and flour, and too much baking soda, black pepper, and sugar. Topped it off with cheesecloth embroidered with the word ANXIETY, then soaked with terrible-smelling bitters. The intention was to set it all on fire, but the 🔥 didn’t catch, so I just smashed the hell out of it.
Into the Water
A Book as Cake created for Paula Hawkins in celebration of the release of her second novel, Into the Water. See image below for the key.
Fates and Furies
A Ylang-Ylang-scented layer and an orange layer filled with Creme Patisserie. Frosted with Swiss Meringue Buttercream and topped with spun sugar. Created to interpret Lauren Groff’s novel and served at her book launch party.
Jane Eyre by Charlotte Brontë
Two layers of Bergamot Vanilla Cake filled and frosted with Swiss Meringue Buttercream the grey of British skies. I removed the center of the cake, crushed it up, then pressed it back in, a nod to “hidden madness.” On top are a few reeds reminiscent of the landscape in the book and a house burnt sugar to represent the burning of Thornfield Hall.
It Was a Piece of Cake
A mixed-media piece of hand-embroidery on a linen napkin and two layers of White Cake with White Swiss Meringue Buttercream. The rest is up to viewer interpretation.