On the sweetness of simple art and cakes.

I have been a fan of Nikole Herriott's work for ages. Her cakes! Her blog! Her shop! That said (exclaimed?), when I saw her most recent post, On the Sweetness of Simple and Chocolate Cake, my adoration was cemented (frosted? royal icing-ed?).

There is just . . . something about these photographs. They make me think of Baroque paintings and Caravaggio, Vermeer, and Rembrandt, still lives and rainy afternoons and salons.

The connection between art and cake is something I ponder a lot, on this blog as well as in my own creative work, and it's so lovely to see how she has explored this. Of course, I have no idea if her mind was on Baroque art or old, dead, male painters when she styled these shots. Nor do I know if she was thinking of art at all.

In the text that accompanies these photographs, Nikole writes that she likes "the idea of mixing by hand, of cocoa powder and flour and of sugar and fat. . . . pudding pans and cake tins . . . pink buttercream . . . [and] pewter plates."

There is such a fine line between the everyday and what we call art. So fine, that I usually don't see it at all. 

Photographs by John Cullen

All images courtesy of Nikole Herriott. Thank you!