[today leilani labong will be posting two special guest posts on caitlin williams and james freeman. stay tuned for their home tour next!]
first comes love, then comes cake. for a food-centric town like san francisco, last october’s low-key city hall nuptials between confectionarian caitlin williams (a former co-owner of the famed miette patisserie) and james freeman (CEO of the cult coffee brand, blue bottle) seemed more serendipitous than most unions. caitlin, who retired from miette on the day of her wedding, is now creating art-inspired sweets for the blue bottle coffee bar at sfmoma’s new rooftop sculpture garden. (dare we say the cakes are upstaging the garden’s actual works of art? just a humble observation made by a sweet tooth…) enjoy every bite. i did. [image above: vanessa gates]—leilani labong
[images above, photo credit: charles villyard]
for her picture-perfect wayne thiebaud cakes, caitlin gained insight into the american artist’s mind by spending a day with his original paintings in sfmoma’s archive—a dream scenario for the art enthusiast. Seen here: a chocolate layer cake with new orleans-style coffee ganache and vanilla buttercream, as well as a white cake layered with lemon curd and iced in a luscious raspberry buttercream. which would you choose?
CLICK HERE for the rest of the post (including more delicious images!) after the jump!
this showstopping butter cake is lined with a thick chocolate ganache and bears a striking resemblance to grid works by dutch artist piet mondrian.
a poodle-shaped ice cream sandwich, inspired by german artist katharina’s fritsch’s 1995 installation, baby with poodles (in which 224 black plaster poodles protectively form four concentric circles around an infant), is made by squeezing vanilla bean ice cream between two pieces of rich chocolate shortbread.
richard avedon’s photograph, ronald fischer, beekeeper, davis, california, may 9, 1981, was the inspiration for this honey-pistachio frozen parfait, covered in bee-emblazoned white-chocolate-cardamom sheets. “richard avedon: photographs 1946-2004” is on view at sfmoma until november 29.
