(Living)

Museum-Worthy Desserts In Honor Of Art Basel 2014

by Kate Wolfson

With Art Basel Miami Beach in full swing, we’ve got art on the brain, and thanks to pastry chef Caitlin Freeman, we can also have it on our plates. She dedicated an entire book, Modern Art Desserts, to sweet treats so beautiful they belong in a museum. If you didn’t have the chance to taste the decadent desserts inspired by Mondrian, Thiebaud and Avedon, among others, at the Blue Bottle Coffee inside the San Francisco Museum of Modern Art before it shuttered for a 3-year remodel, take comfort in knowing her book is chock-full of recipes you can try at home. But fair warning: These complex recipes are not for the faint of heart, so we suggest gifting a copy to a friend who knows their way around an oven. In light of the biggest contemporary-art event of the year taking place in Miami right now, we thought we’d let you feast your eyes on three of our favorite artful desserts from the book. That is, until you can convince someone to bake them for you.

Feast Your Eyes

Photo: Modern Art Desserts

Dijkstra Icebox Cake

Dessert photo: Clay McLachlan. Original art: Rineke Dijkstra.

Lichstenstein Cake

Dessert photo: Clay McLachlan. Original artwork: Estate of Roy Lichtenstein; photo by Ben Blackwell.

Mondrian Cake

Dessert photo: Clay McLachlan. Original artwork: Mondrian/Holtzman Trust.

Modern Art Desserts Book

Available at Blue Bottle Coffee