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.
I decorated this cake for a tropically themed "castaway" party celebrating the removal of a kid's full-body cast. 
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.
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.
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.
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. 
Ninja Cake.
Easter Cookies.
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.
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.
