Tiffany Blue

We were taught in school that blue is the least appetizing color because it is not a natural food color (even blueberries are really purple). However, I have found that a lot of people like their pastry to be Tiffany blue, probably because it is a color of glamour and status. I'd like for more of my cakes to take on the qualities of jewelry.

Poodles and linzers

A 1950's inspired birthday cake.

Linzer cookies decorated with a little royal icing for Spring. The one in the center is filled with apricot preserve.

Pat the Bunny

Poppy seed, raspberry, and pear butter Hamentashen baked for my friends the Melnicks for Purim.

I like to make my own stationary when I write letters. I decided this time to incorporate some text in the drawing. I thought that a little graphic design practice might help my cake decorating. "Oma" is the German word for grandma.

A "Pat the Bunny" 1st birthday cake. It's hard to see in the photo that the sides of the cake are blue. The top of the cake is orange fondant and the bunny and flowers are gumpaste.

Another 1st birthday cake. You can see its only 4 inches next to the penny.

Fred Anderson's 80th!

Last Sunday was a celebration/tribute concert at the Velvet Lounge in honor of Chicago jazz legend Fred Anderson's 80th birthday. My close friend, Dan Melnick, who works at the Jazz Institute of Chicago threw the party and asked me to make the cake. He said there was talk of a grocery store sheet cake and he wanted to treat Fred to something a little more special.

He gave me the image above to work off of, which is a photo of the much-loved wallpaper from the old location of the Velvet Lounge. The cake was about 14x18 inches, vanilla cake with vanilla buttercream (both with real Tahitian vanilla bean), and decorated with rolled fondant. Dan said the cake was a hit and that it may be featured in Down Beat magazine. Keep your fingers crossed!

Ninja Cake.

Easter Cookies.

We are holding an Easter cookie decorating class at le Flour on April 11th for kids 8-12. Each student will get white cookie canvases in the shapes of eggs, bunnies, flowers, and carrots (like the ones I've decorated above) and we will help them pipe, paint, and sprinkle to their heart's content. I am looking forward to the class because it's the first I'll teach professionally.

Although teaching has never interested me much, I like teaching art because you spend some time explaining and demonstrating, but most of the time is spent watching the students self-explore. The cookies are vanilla bean sugar cookies with royal icing. They don't hold their shape very well when baked, but they make up for that in delicacy and crumbliness.

Looney 'toons

The picture doesn't show much, but the cake is very small, slender, and tall, like a pillar candle. I like this shape for an individual cake so you may be seeing more.

This is Warehouse Mouse, a Muppet-like character from a Disney Channel show called "Imagination Movers." I don't know anything about the show, but he's a very cute puppet! I painted a gumpaste cutout with food coloring to make the mouse.

This is a letter with photos that we got from one of our customers. The characters are also gumpaste and painted food coloring. The cake is based on the invitations for the shower.

Cookies

I call these "moon cookies." They are marbled vanilla and chocolate sweet dough, dipped in chocolate. On their sides they look like half moons, but this way they look like cloudy landscapes.

St. Patrick's Day sugar cookies.

Sheet cakes, and more adventures in cake.

Working fast is important in the food industry because ingredients are very expensive and saving time is the only way to make money. But when I first became a pastry chef I found that quality standards were still very high and I asked my boss whether I should prioritize speed or perfection. His answer was a short, "both!" I was upset because I felt like I needed somewhere to begin, so I chose speed and did the best I could within those parameters. My new chieftain, Nicole, believes in quality first and I think her attitude is reflected in the delicacy and beauty of her pastry.
I revisit this dilemma every time I make a cake because so much time can get lost in decorating. Cake decorating is something that I'm really growing to enjoy and eventually want to perfect. But instead of making careful decisions or straightening every line, I find myself watching the clock and falling back on motifs I use again and again. I think my unchanging writing style is one of the biggest factors in making all the cakes look so similar. Hopefully under Nicole's influence though you will begin to see new attention and techniques in my work. I think ultimately it doesn't matter where you begin, practice will bring both speed and skill, but its nice to see beauty and experimentation along the way. Here are some of my latest "experiments."

The St. Patrick's Day Menu I designed: