Feasting on Art

Originally I started this blog to establish a forum to study and write about art as well as experiment in the kitchen (experimenting with photography was an added bonus!). I do however, have certain goals, one of which is to curate an exhibition revolving around the idea of a meal. I won’t go into detail but you can imagine my delight when I discovered Caitlin Williams Freeman’s Mondrian Cake from the cafe at the San Francisco Museum of Art. It is my dream! In cake form!! I decided I had to make one but I wanted my version to be easily recreated in any home kitchen. The cake was delicious but there are a few things I will change the next time I try this recipe. First, I will use angel food cake rather than pound cake – I think it would better absorb the natural food coloring and not appear so yellow. Secondly, I will try mixing the berry juices into the batter to see if I can achieve an even stain. Although the slice of cake pictured below turned out pretty even, my results throughout the rest of the cake were spotty at best. Finally, I would wrap the outside in fondant to hold all of the segments together. Using the natural food colorings will not achieve the bright results found in Freeman’s cake but it does provide a pretty tasty way to insert a bit a flavor into each slice.

The painting recreation was inspired by Bridget from The Way the Cookie Crumbles.

Piet Mondrian, Composition No. 8, 1939-42
Oil on canvas, 74 x 68 cm, Kimbell Art Museum, Fort Worth

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With the 4th of July just around the corner I wanted to be sure to post a couple of recipes in time for the festivities.  In the 1850′s, strawberry shortcake parties were a popular way to celebrate the arrival of summer (2). This sweet dessert is traditionally made with baking soda to produce a crumbly biscuit often referred to as a scone in the UK. For a lower calorie version of the dessert, angel food cake is used to replace the shortcake (my version includes a variant of this cake). In Japan a sponge cake is used to instead of shortcake and is commonly served at Christmas and at birthdays (3). The oldest printed reference is from Michigan from the 1840′s (4) and because I am a native Michigander it is only appropriate that I choose this dessert to celebrate the 4th!

Bryant Chapin, Still Life of Overturned Basket of Strawberries, 1922,
Oil on canvas, 33 x 43 cm, Private Collection

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I was given the opportunity along with a handful of other food bloggers to submit a guest post to the wonderful site The Kitchn. The cake was so good that I decided I had to post the recipe here too. This is the second time I have worked with a still life by Manet and you can find most of the general information about his life and art in my previous post. I would like to give a big thanks to The Kitchn and I hope you enjoy.

I have been saving this still life for a very special post and a very special day. It is the perfect cake for afternoon tea and with my house guests leaving tomorrow, I thought it would be an appropriate send off with its delectably moist centre and very delicate crumb. The grapes dotting the cake are beautiful in the afternoon sunlight when the light seems to glow from within their semi-translucent skin. I used both red grapes (little surprises found throughout) and green and discovered that pooling a bit of honey around the tart little fruits peeking out above the cake makes this afternoon treat even more irresistible.

Édouard Manet, Fruits on a Table (Fruits sur une Table), 1864,
oil on canvas, 45 x 73.5 cm, Musée d’Orsay, Paris, France

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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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