- be coolinary cameo in witch gardens video!

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May 21

be coolinary cameo in witch gardens video!

I have some exciting news! A few months ago I helped my pals Bobby and Kyle make a music video for a local Seattle band Witch Gardens and it is all finished! My job was to contribute a few Hook-inspired food stuffs and a birthday cake for two separate scenes.

The video premiered on Vice today which is very exciting, but I also embedded it in this post just for you. Check it out!

Read more to see how I made food cool enough to be in a music video!

I was asked to make a bizarre assortment of things: a green jello mold, roasted chickens, some frosted pies, and a birthday cake to be exact. The jello and the chickens were pretty straight forward.

The pies were just discounted grocery store pies covered with frosting I made using Crisco, powdered sugar, and food coloring. Not the most delicious concoction I have ever made, it’s true, but I promise it wasn’t intended to be a meal for anyone and apparently, that’s how food styling works.

The birthday cake required the bulk of my efforts because after frosting those pies I wanted to make sure I contributed something that wasn’t only edible but tasted good too (what a novel idea!). The Witch Gardens crew sent me a stream of random and eclectic images as inspiration for the cake (pictures of skeletons, cats, aliens, children in creepy masks, Shrek, and a golden retriever to name a few), so using all their imagery I came up with a combination Dia de los Muertos and cat themed cake. You can imagine the images I was given for me to come up with that combination…

First, I made Smitten Kitchen’s Best Birthday Cake and then I frosted it with Martha Stewart’s Swiss meringue buttercream. Both are solid recipes that work for me every time.

Then, I masked the sides of the cake with rainbow sprinkles. This is a great way to make a sharp looking cake when you aren’t too sure about your frosting skills. Simply hold the cake at an angle with one hand and then, working with a palmful of sprinkles at a time, gently cup them to the side of the cake, catching the excess sprinkles in a bowl below. You can do this with chocolate shavings, sanding sugar, chopped nuts, or cake crumbs too.

Then I made a stencil with two different cat images I found online and used black food coloring and powdered sugar to make a black frosting paste to paint on.

Then I outlined a border of the stencil using edible glitter.

I carefully peeled off the stencil and applied some golden whiskers with gold leaf.

Then I added some colorful eyelashes and made more defined eyeballs using various kinds of sprinkles.

So that was my adventure in the world or music video food styling. It was super fun and I love being asked to do collaborative projects like this, especially when it involves helping talented artists. Well done Bobby and Kyle and nice work Beth, Casey, Sara, and Karolyn of WItch Gardens and thanks for giving my creations a chance to shine on the big screen!