shabbat shalom!

hi!...first of all i want to tell everyone that i purchased some edible gold and silver leafing and it is on its way!!! : ) look forward to a blingin' mini cake sometime in the next few weeks!

alright secondly, in honor of it being sunday i would like to direct you to a few photos. sorry i am lazy but there are so many good examples of what i am about to say...just click here and you will find some hilarious pictures. be sure to browse a lot of them! now, i had the thought to look this up out of curiousity and as i browsed the images i realized why i wanted to share these. as i have considered my desire to become a pastry chef and cake decorator i have thought a lot about what it is exactly that i want to focus on. shows like cake boss and ace of cakes are super fun to watch and i am always COMPLETELY amazed at how accurately they can make their replicas of everyday objects, buildings, places, characters, etc... but whenever i watch those shows i must admit, i get totally stressed out because i feel like i will never be able to make super grand cakes that look just like a giant crayon box or simba from the lion king!...wait, i not only feel like i won't be able to, i also know that i won't be able to, and guess what? after much discouragement and being overwhelmed i have decided i don't really care that i won't be able to because i don't want to. a few things that i have learned about art since becoming an art minor is that while replicating things can be super cool it isn't my favorite kind of art because it can never be true. it will always be the second best thing, because the first best thing is the thing you are replicating (um, confused yet?). for example, if you are making a temple cake even if you could make it look super accurate and detailed it would still not be as good as the temple!...so why try?

have any of you ever seen this painting by Rene Magritte? (the caption says: this is not a pipe.) the whole point of this painting is that it is an image of a pipe and not a pipe. it is funny because we often spend a lot of time replicating things...but why?...just to see how close we can get them to looking like the original? i think that is the reason...because when someone can get something to look super real it really is amazing. but sometimes time is better spent coming up with something totally it's own.

i have a question for you...which of the following two sculptures would you stop and think about and admire the longest?

bird in space by Constantin Brancusi

or

male redstart by Dorothy Doughty

i would probably look at the detail on the male redstart and admire it for how "real" it looked...but that is as far as my appreciation would go. bird in space is not only aesthetically pleasing but interesting in how it actually captures the movement of a bird...and it almost draws you in to look closer just because you wonder "how the heck does this have anything to do with a bird?" haha...

so i have come to the conclusion that my favorite art (or cakes) is art that uses everyday shapes, colors, and feelings as inspiration but does not attempt to replace it. Margaret Braun, the cakes i posted a few times ago (didn't see it? click here), is the best example of this i think. she uses objects and elements from the world but she doesn't try to replace them. her cakes look like cakes. and not only do they look like cakes, they are interesting all by themselves, without trying to look like another object.

so, while i fully appreciate cakes like this:

or this:

i have had to come to terms with the fact that if you can't get them to look THAT good, then don't try (must i remind you of this?). because nothing is worse than a failed attempt at replicating!...i think with practice i could learn to replicate things, but i have decided it wouldn't be worth my time. i would rather use things as inspiration and create things that will be appreciated on their own. with that said, the birthday cake i made for my cousins involved a little bit of replicating (the wii remotes, golf balls, some painting, etc..) and it was fun, but it wasn't perfect. i know it was actually far from perfect and could use a lot of improvement, but really nobody can get representations perfect because they are just that, representations. anyway, i am not opposed to fun cakes like that! especially for children's birthdays and other celebratory events, but i must say, there is nothing better than a well-designed, aesthetically-pleasing, perfectly-frosted cake! : )

these are three of my favorite wedding cakes done by Buddy from Cake Boss

...and so that is my goal; to be able to create unique cakes that look more like art than they do cartoons.

THE END.

also...if you are reading this and you haven't given me ideas for cake business names scroll dooooown and comment on my last post!