Modern Art Desserts - by Caitlin Freeman (Hardcover)

About the Book

""Taking its cues from works by Andy Warhol, Frida Kahlo, and Matisse, this collection of uniquely delicious dessert recipes (and step-by-step assembly guides) gives readers all they need to make their own edible masterpieces"--

Book Synopsis

Taking cues from works by Andy Warhol, Frida Kahlo, and Matisse, pastry chef Caitlin Freeman, of Miette bakery and Blue Bottle Coffee fame, creates a collection of uniquely delicious dessert recipes (with step-by-step assembly guides) that give readers all they need to make their own edible masterpieces.

From a fudge pop based on an Ellsworth Kelly sculpture to a pristinely segmented cake fashioned after Mondrian's well-known composition, this collection of uniquely delicious recipes for cookies, parfait, gelées, ice pops, ice cream, cakes, and inventive drinks has everything you need to astound friends, family, and guests with your own edible masterpieces.

Taking cues from modern art's most revered artists, these twenty-seven showstopping desserts exhibit the charm and sophistication of works by Andy Warhol, Cindy Sherman, Henri Matisse, Jeff Koons, Roy Lichtenstein, Richard Avedon, Wayne Thiebaud, and more. Featuring an image of the original artwork alongside a museum curator's perspective on the original piece and detailed, easy-to-follow directions (with step-by-step assembly guides adapted for home bakers), Modern Art Desserts will inspire a kitchen gallery of stunning treats.

Review Quotes

"Cookbook meets exhibit catalog in this art-themed collection."
--Library Journal

"Let them eat cake...and art! Thanks to Caitlin Freeman, an author neé pastry chef with a unique and fresh talent, we can do just that. Freeman has written a visually rich book of charming dessert recipes from which you can re-create edible versions of your favorite works of modern art."
--Trendland

"This book gets my ganache flowing--if only art history always tasted this good."
--Todd Selby, photographer and author of Edible Selby

"Brilliant, quirky, and irresistible. Having tasted many of these dishes over the years, I'm not sure what's more exciting, the recipes or the stories behind them. All dessert books should be this much fun!"
--Daniel Patterson, chef-owner of COI restaurant

"Only Caitlin Freeman is brave enough (and crazy enough) to dream up desserts inspired by works of modern art--and inventive enough to pull it off. Who looks at a Cindy Sherman self-portrait and sees an ice-cream float made with bubblegum soda, or at a Richard Avedon photograph of a beekeeper and pictures a glossy honey-pistachio parfait? This is more than a cookbook, it's a journal of the creative process."
--Oliver Strand, food journalist and coffee columnist for the New York Times

"The desserts Caitlin Freeman has created for the SFMOMA Blue Bottle Café are masterpieces in their own right. It's one thing to make the most perfect white cake, frosting, and ganache; it's another to use those media to create art, as she has with her Mondrian Cake. That is Caitlin's special gift, and one that she has generously shared in this beautiful book. It, too, is a masterpiece."
--Charlotte Druckman, food journalist and author of Skirt Steak: Women Chefs on Standing the Heat and Staying in the Kitchen

"This book touches the body's most sensitive organ--the stomach. Most artists dream of creating works so provocative that they stimulate the brain while enervating all the other senses. Caitlin Freeman, probably the most innovative baker this side of Mars, does this spectacularly. Here's a cookbook that demands you genuflect before its sheer creativity. It says 'on your knees' in a sugared tone."
--Bompas & Parr, authors of Feasts with Bompas & Parr and founders of the Bompas & Parr studio

About the Author

A self-taught baker and longtime owner of the San Francisco cake and sweets shop, Miette, CAITLIN FREEMAN was inspired to bake by the confectionary paintings of California painter Wayne Thiebaud. After selling Miette in 2008, she started the pastry program at Blue Bottle Coffee Co. and coauthored The Blue Bottle Craft of Coffee. Her artistic creations for the Blue Bottle Café at the San Francisco Museum of Modern Art have been featured in the New York Times, Design Sponge, Elle Decor, San Francisco Chronicle, Huffington Post, and more. She lives in San Francisco, California.