Feasting on Art

The next few posts have been carefully planned to coincide with my parents visiting from the States. I last saw them in June ’08 and I can hardly believe I will have them sitting here with me in my flat tomorrow morning. Needless to say, I am very happy and I decided to make this bread a ‘welcome to Australia’ treat for their arrival. I made it for my friend Cassie when she came to visit me in London and we decided that the lemon glaze is what makes this loaf so special.

Vincent van Gogh, Still Life: Red Poppies and Daisies, 1890
oil on canvas, 65 x 50 cm, Private Collection

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Sometimes it is really nice to just have a box of cookies laying around the flat. There is no better snack and this cookie has everything I love, orange, chocolate, vanilla, almonds, and hint of spice through the addition of cinnamon and pink peppercorns. Did I mention they are in the shape of a moustache?? Could I possibly love them even more!?

Jeff Koons, Moustache, 2003
260.4 x 53.3 x 191.8 cm, polychromed aluminum, wrought iron, coated steel chain
© 2009 Jeff Koons, Serpentine Gallery

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Unintentionally the majority of the recipes on this blog have been vegetarian. I find that when I cook for myself I rarely eat meat but my partner is hungry an hour later if there is not a substantial amount of protein in the meal. With the exception of the spring onion crespelles, which contained bacon in the ragu as a flavoring, this the first recipe here on Feasting on Art to feature meat. The still life paintings depicting poultry and game are not the most attractive and I foresee a struggle with my photographic recreations. I managed to come up with a solution for the dead hen but I don’t always think it will be so easy. I hope you enjoy this warm and filling recipe.

Giacomo Ceruti, Still-Life with Hen, Onion, and Pot, c.1970s
oil on canvas, Private collection

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Let me first point out that if you decide to make this cake for anyone, call it by it’s other name, ‘Mystery Cake.’ I first heard of Tomato Soup Cake when I was flipping through a Michigan cookbook when I was working at a historic village during summer break after my Freshman year of college. It was at a time in my life when I considered cooking to consist of pouring a bowl of cereal or making a peanut butter & jelly sandwich. I was immediately disgusted with the very idea and promptly forgot about the whole thing until I started working on this blog. I prepared this cake the day before two of my college roommates arrived here from Michigan. As soon as they were in the door I had them seated at the table with a wedge of cake, impatient for them to taste the mystery ingredient. They were both stumped, guessed it was carrot cake (it looks very similar in colour and the taste is not too far off), and seemed a bit surprised when I gleefully pulled out a can of tomato soup for the big reveal. I have to say that the entire cake is now gone so in the end the can of soup is not too much of a deterrent, after all, it is delicious.

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