Lessons on Art as an Act of Self-Love
A Creative Vacation
I just got back to Seattle from a “creative vacation” in Washington, D.C., and Alexandria, VA. Every year, I make time to head off somewhere for a break from bakery life, and a chance to refill my tank of creative reserves. I teach a lot of classes and workshops each year, but one of my great joys in life is to be a student — and to develop my skills even further in the company of some of the legends of my art form (i.e. cake!). My annual creative pilgrimage is therefore an opportunity for me to do something artistic for its own sake — not for paying clients, not for anyone or any reason other than my own self-fulfillment.
Meeting Pastry Chef Maggie Austin
Last year (i.e. 2018), my “creative vacation” took me to Chicago, where I was lucky enough to meet and take a class at the French Pastry School with of the most talented and celebrated cake artists of my generation: Maggie Austin. If you haven’t heard of her, check out her stupendously beautiful and highly original work HERE. (If her work looks familiar to you, it’s probably because she made edible Christmas decorations for the White House during the Obama administration, and photos of her cakes went viral on the Internet around that time.)
After meeting Maggie in Chicago last year, I asked her if she’d be willing to teach a sugar flower workshop in Seattle some time. I told her I’d be willing to host the workshop at my cake studio, Honey Crumb, as we have tons of space (more than 2,400 sq ft!) which is flooded with natural light during the day. To my great surprise and delight, Maggie and her business partner (her sister Jess) agreed! So, in September 2018, we were honored to host Maggie and Jess for TWO sugar flower workshops — one on David Austin / heirloom roses, and one on “classic” wedding flowers (spray roses, hydrangeas, and foliage). The workshops were extremely well attended, with about 13 students in each one, and all of us had an unforgettable time learning from such a gifted teacher (and getting to know our creatively-minded classmates!).
Back to School for a Sugar Flower Workshop
Fast forward to December 2019, and I knew I needed a bit more “Maggie time” in my life. I flew to Alexandria to attend a four-day sugar flower workshop at the gloriously beautiful River Farm (which was once George Washington’s summer home, before it became the headquarters of the American Horticultural Society). I snapped the pic below as I was walking up the path on Day One of the workshop.
River Farm, Alexandria Virginia
Sugar Flowers Inspired By the Dutch Masters
I was so happy to see Maggie again, and to be able to enjoy four days as a student. The theme of the workshop was Dutch Masters, and our work was inspired by the still life paintings of the likes of Rembrandt, Vermeer, Pieter Brueghel the Elder, and Hendrick Terbrugghen, among others. If you’ve ever seen a classic Dutch Masters still life with fruit and flowers, in a moody chiaroscuro style with bold saturated colors and velvety black draping in the background, then you’ll have a good idea of what we were aiming for as we hand-sculpted various fruits, flowers, foliage, and other adornments (like quail eggs) out of sugar!
Below are photos of the flatlay of all the sugar elements I created for my final arrangement. Contents: 1x heirloom rose (styled after David Austin’s “Heritage” variety), 1x bearded iris, 1x blue Himalayan poppy, 3x daffodils, 1x parrot tulip, 1x lilac branch, 1x apple, 3x quails’ eggs, 1x blue bud, 3x green buds, 2x tapered/striped leaves, 3x branches with buds, 6x small coleus leaves and 4x large ones (and, not shown: 3x wildflowers loosely inspired by Bishop dahlias, 1x “asparagus” flower inspired by white mullein, 12x green grapes, and 3x “calyx flowers” that resemble Cape gooseberries or tomatillos — both members of the physalis family).
As you can imagine, it took a huge amount of work to create all these pieces! All of Maggie’s students worked really hard during the four-day workshop to sculpt all the elements and then add color and dimension to them. One of the most time-consuming aspects of sugar flower work is the “dusting” phase (i.e. the part where we bring out a bunch of tiny little jars of powdered edible pigment — aka “petal dust” — and use various paintbrushes, as well as our fingertips, to apply them to the flowers and fruit and leaves we’ve made). This step is often neglected by some sugar flower makers, who are not convinced that it adds much to the finished product — whereas I’ll be on Team Petal Dust forever. To take a plain blue poppy petal and add darker blue shading at the base, and touches of bright white highlight to the raised “veins” of the petal, is to transform the finished flower completely. Without the petal dust, the flower would end up looking flat and lifeless. So, to my baker / cake artist friends, I urge you: Don’t skip the dusting part!
Sugar daffodil components ready for petal dust (see dust colors above left).
Completed sugar daffodils.
Once I’d added color to everything and had begun assembling certain elements (e.g. leaves) into clusters with floral tape, it was time to arrange all the elements onto the cake. We used faux cake tiers in class, which were 6” tall, 6” diameter styrofoam rounds. These tiers were covered in chocolate fondant, accented with black petal dust to create a distressed look, and sprayed with edible lacquer (aka confectioners’ glaze) so that the exterior would resemble vintage leather with a patchy sheen. The faux tiers were the perfect vessels for arranging so many different (and heavy!) sugar flowers, fruit, and foliage — without worrying that we’d tear through a delicate cake with soft buttercream filling. But for what it’s worth, all of the sugar flower-adorned cakes you see on our Instagram feed and website are actually real cakes. It’s always a challenge to ensure that the integrity of the tasty cake is maintained beneath the weight of all the sugar floral embellishments on the outside.
It took me about an hour and a half to arrange all my sugar flowers onto the faux tier. This is about average for me; I try to take my time with this part — whether I’m working on a dummy cake or on a real one — because the flowers themselves are so fragile and represent so many hours of work. It would be a shame to break things just because I was in a hurry! Here’s my finished cake (photo by Maggie, with extra-special Dutch Masters-style editing!):
Sugar flowers, foliage, and fruit arranged on a distressed “leather” cake tier: My homage to the Dutch Masters.
Every time I choose to take a class or a workshop, or even watch a cake decorating video on YouTube or elsewhere, I become a student of my craft all over again. I often think of what Julia Cameron says in The Artist’s Way, about giving ourselves permission to be beginners. Because that’s what gives us the chance to become better artists.
In the past, I’ve given up on certain hobbies and interests because I couldn’t get over the gap between my fledgling skills and my own high expectations of what I “should” have been able to accomplish. I noticed I was plagued by the desire to be an “expert” — even when I just starting out at something! I’ve had to face my frustrations and work through them, fully aware that mastery is an illusion and there’s always room to grow. Learning to treat myself with respect has come with time, and is accompanied by the realization that my inner artist is a tender soul who needs lots of nurturing and compassion, not criticism and pressure.
My time at River Farm this year has enabled me to rediscover the Flow Experience — in which creativity is set free and the mind and body are in harmony. It’s a state in which I can rest AND move myself forward at the same time. I’ve been able to gather enough energy to pour a few more bucketfuls of love on my inner critic —which we all ought to do as often as we can, so that self-criticism can morph into self-care and compassion. December is a time that usually brings a great deal of stress (and, frankly, depression) for many of us, including myself. I find that creating something new has a magical way of carrying me through struggles in which I might otherwise have become stuck. And, it’s reminded me that the attitude of the beginner is a healthy one — there are no preconceived expectations, and there can be no stagnation. There’s only curiosity, and wonder, and the joy of discovering new skills and renewed passions.
ALL PHOTOGRAPHS AND WRITTEN CONTENT (INCLUDING RECIPES, CUSTOM DESIGNS, COLLABORATIONS, VIDEOS, TIPS, GRAPHICS, AND TUTORIALS) BELONG TO HONEY CRUMB LLC, UNLESS OTHERWISE STATED. WE ASSERT OUR OWNERSHIP UNDER COPYRIGHT LAW [17 USC sec.102(a)]. COPYRIGHT LAW PROHIBITS YOU FROM USING OUR INTELLECTUAL PROPERTY TO PROMOTE YOUR OWN BUSINESS — WHETHER YOU GENERATE INCOME AS A RESULT OR NOT — OR TO CREATE TUTORIALS FOR THE PURPOSES OF TEACHING OTHERS. WE WORK HARD TO CREATE CONTENT FOR OUR READERS TO ENJOY AND USE, SO PLEASE DO THE SAME FOR YOUR OWN SITE, BLOG, SOCIAL MEDIA ACCOUNT, OR PUBLICATION. COPYING AND PUBLISHING OUR WORK WITHOUT PERMISSION, OR CLAIMING IT AS YOUR OWN WORK, MAY LEAD TO LEGAL ACTION FROM US. IF YOU WISH TO FEATURE OUR WORK, PLEASE CONTACT US FOR DETAILS.
