[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.
48 Comments
wowie wow wow!!! this looks so amazing. my mouth is watering and my eyes are popping out of my head. delightful!
That’s one of the best wedding photos I’ve seen! (and the cake’s not bad either….)
So gorgeous! Thiebaud is one of my fav artists!
That Mondrian cake is gorgeous as is the poodle ice cream sandwich. Almost too nice to eat. ALMOST.
Wow, the pink thiebaud cake is the cutest thing in the whole world!
really interesting and different from typical cafe desserts =D
Woah! I love the grid cake! Not completely feeling having insects on my food, however, these are adorable and I love them. Very unique.
Now I just want to eat cake.
I agree with Laura Hale, the wedding photo is simply adorable, so much character!…as for the cakes…they look so delicious and beautiful…I definately need to make a trip to the West Coast!
Happy Early Anniversary- Caitlin & James!
I love love LOVE Caitlin’s lace dress! How can I find out where she got it? I need a dress to wear to our rehearsal dinner & this is exactly what I’m looking for!
These are all equally incredible… but the Mondrian is so eye catching when cut! The primary colors just really set it off!
make me eat cake
that chocolate layer cake looks amazing!
My dress! It’s a vintage wedding dress I bought at Ver Unica (here in San Francisco). They also have a new vintage shop (also in Hayes Valley) called Encore.
I would love to get a bite of the “Beekeeper’s” delightful chocolatier……..mmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmm yummy my mouth is watering.
<3 <3 <3
all so cute.
Wow, these cakes are gorgeous!!
I love both Blue Bottle Coffee and Miette – I buy coffee beans and always a macaron from them. What a gorgeous pairing!
So yum! I did a post about Thiebaud’s cake artworks- this is great update post for me! I love the Mondrian cake too!
laviejaime.blogspot.com
Blue Bottle and Miette co-habitating in the same scrumptious place…I can hardly contain myself. I’m heading to that cafe asap. Thanks for the update!!
This is a little bit like torture. These cakes look so luscious.
These are GORGEOUS! I can’t stop drooling over the top Wayne Thiebaud cake. Simply perfection!
That cake designed like Mondrian’s work is AMAZING. I {heart} Mondrian’s work and now all I want to do is host an artsy party with that cake as the centerpiece…
YUM. That is a marriage made in dark roast and confection heaven. I love the Richard Avedon block, white chocolate is so under appreciated.
What a lovely piece. I visited SFMoma’s new rooftop garden recently – the pairing of these artful confections with Blue Bottle coffee is an inspiring foodie escape, especially on a sunny summer day.
Oh my lord–those are so exquisite. Coffee ganache–no question.
Anyone familiar with Sharon Core’s series of Thiebaud sweets?
Google it!
I absolutely love the mondrian cake and the poodle ice cream sandwich.
Love the Mondrian-esque cake!!! So Creative!
OK, they look good, because they were inspired by looks created by other artists. But how do they taste?
Greg, come by the SFMoMA (next time you’re in San Francisco?) and see! Hand churned vanilla bean ice cream in the salted dagoba chocolate shortbread (the Fritsch poodle cookies) are my personal snack. Another favorite, the orange whip (same vanilla ice cream, orange granita, citrus soda, paper straw) in homage to Robert Frank just came down, but is being replaced by a Recchiuti fudgesicle in honor of the Ellsworth Kelly Stele I right in our garden.
So cute!!!
Caitlin, gogeous work. So glad that Rose Beranbaum gave us this link on her blog. Curious about what tool you used to get the pattern on the sides of the thiebaud inspired cakes. Would love to know.
Best wishes and many sweet years together!
CAKE!!!
this brought me such joy. i wrote a huge paper on wayne thiebaud in college.
Wayne Thiebaud is one of my favorite artists and you gotta love the mondrian sliced cake! Mmm…I want cake now!
Great looking lace dress, gorgeous looking and sounding desserts…and who better to be inspired by than Wayne Thiebaud, I saw an inetrview with him once and he was the sweetest, pardon the pun, nicest most unassuming artist I have ever seen…a real gem.
Sad! I was there last week and I spotted the bar on the roof, but didn’t wander over!!! Would have so gotten a poodle sandwich since I saw the installation there. How genius. Thiebaud is my fav.
At least I went to Miette!
fantastic work! i’m definitely taking a fieldtrip to the rooftop garden to taste Caitlin’s desserts.
Thiebaud was a teacher of mine in school, and he used to paint along with us students. It was amazing to watch him layer colors one on top of another. Amazingly talented, humble artist and teacher.
I love the cakes and the confectionarian. So so clever. I just posted a recipe and instructions for a Mondrian cake on my blog, http://feasting-art.blogspot.com/2009/08/mondrians-pound-cake.html
May be of interest to your readers.
If I wasnt a webdesigner, I would definetely be a cakemaker :)
These are so inspiring! Makes me want to go visit SFMoMA again! I love the mix of food & art.
Brilliant!
As a great fan of Thiebaud, I have to say I love these cakes !
How did I miss these posts? I’ve been eating Caitlin’s cakes since she sold them at the Farmer’s Market. The Mondrian cake tastes as good as it looks. Today, I had one of her waffles at Blue Bottle FB – crispy, golden goodness. Love the wedding/house pics too. Congrats, Caitlin on your (and James) success! ps. And please thank James for hosting the Pork Prom/Groundhog Day events.
I love these so much. I love Thiebaud… seeing his cakes recreated in real life is amazing.
im doing u as a project in high level art i love ur work and u two look buetiful together
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