Let’s Eat Cake: A Delaware Valley Chapter Collaborative Project and Exhibition
This collaborative project is a “cookbook” of cakes. Each participant was asked to make an edition of pages responding to the theme of ‘cake.’ It could be a favorite cake recipe, imagery relating to ‘cake,’ or an imagined cake.
The idea for this project was inspired by a visit to view the wonderful assortment of recipe books at the German Society of Pennsylvania. We hope to exhibit our books there sometime in the future. In the meantime, please enjoy this online exhibition!
Page: Chocolate Cake
Book: Magnet closure box with paste paper made by the artist.
Page: Cake Equation
Book: Piece of Cake
Cardstock, PVA, cardboard, paper. Recipe box in the shape of a piece of cake, recipes inside. Chocolate icing made with paper filigree.
Page: Layer Lift
A box binding covered with merlot-colored Lokta paper and a luscious paper resembling frosting that was brought to me from Japan by a friend. The title lettering was cut from paper that was hand-painted with acrylic paint, as were the violets. The violets also include wire and beads.
Page: Chameleon Cake
Book: Blobs: made from my daughters’ paintings piled on top of each other to make a collaged chameleon cake.
All recipes housed in a hinged box. Watercolor on Johannot and Strathmore paper, with rose gold foil.
Page: Cake Kuchen Gateau Pastel Torta
I chose to place my GBW entries in a box so I had the option of taking one out if I wanted to try one of the recipes. The cake box is handmade and covered with Skivertex alternative leather and paper doilies. There is a doily covered insert that lifts out of the box that holds the items.
Page: 24 Thread Count Layer Cake
Inspired in part by the simplicity of a standard cake box, this piece has 27 unique cakes inside, and 20 additional cakes on top. The layer cakes on the top are sliced and ready to serve, and some of the slices create shapes resembling letterforms which spell out the words: “Let’s Eat Cake.”
Sophy DiPinto
Let them Eat Cake, a two volume set.
Book # 1 White Icing Layer Cake
This book has and adapted raised cord binding, where the linen cords morph in to layers of icing. It is
bound in Dover bookcloth and lined with marbled paper.
Book #2 Li’l Cupcake
This book is a drum-leaf binding, it is covered in Dover bookcloth and features and inlaid image of a cupcake.
Jane Griffith
The binding is a drum leaf structure that allows all of the pages to be viewed fully. The design is inspired by Wayne Thiebaud’s iconic paintings of cakes. The cover includes a pop-up of one of Thiebaud’s cakes, as well as pictures of several cakes from his work.
Valeria Kremser
My book for the cake project has been bound to resemble a slice of cake. It is a link stitch with a flapped cover and pink endbands. The stitching and endbands give the feel of icing and the slipcase has stitching on it to resemble jam between the layers of cake.
Karen Lightner
This album binding is based on Hedi Kyle’s Spider Book. The instructions for this structure can be found in Hedi Kyle and Ulla Warchol’s book The Art of the Fold, on pp. 136-140. The paper used is Shizen Pastel Paper (Cocoa), handmade in India. The marbled paper is from Cockerell in Cambridge, England.
Some pages were sewn in to allow for easy viewing and turning, others were attached with photo corners for access to the verso, and others taped in if the verso was blank. My hope is that the album (closed) looks like a slice of chocolate cake with marbled icing spread across the top and dripping down the edge.
Mary Phelan
I was obsessed with blueberries this summer and was fortunate to live half a block from the Italian Market where fresh fruit and vegetables are plentiful. I hope you will enjoy this pleasant recipe that brings a taste of summer to mind no matter when you eat it.
Maria G. Pisano
As a result of Covid 19, some people lost their sense of smell and taste, but we have all collectively lost our sense of touch – the unspoken connection we make with one another, from a simple handshake to a hug or a kiss. In my recipe card, I pricked the perimeter of the dish, creating a textural circle that could be touched and felt by the participants, searching for a tactile means to connect. Additionally I likened the structure of the book to a cake, reinforcing the circle, with all the participants present and celebrating who we are as artists, with a candle in the center burning bright with hope.
Rosae Reeder
My Cake box was inspired by a decorative dessert box. The top is a clear with some lovely sequins that move. Just a sprinkle on the top.
Page: Ceci Nest Pas Une Sponge Cake
Box: Good Enough for Government Work
Page: Christmas Cake
My recipe for the project is a Christmas Cake that my mother makes every year for the holiday, that I wasn’t able to go enjoy this year. Pochoir printing was used to make the cake image on the recipe card. My enclosure for the project changed from a box of cakes to a cake box, with a faux drizzle on the top and a tray to hold the recipes for future use. The enclosure was custom made of board and book cloth.
Page: Cake 2020
My book for the cake project has been bound to resemble a slice of cake. It is a link stitch with a flapped cover and pink endbands. The stitching and endbands give the feel of icing and the slipcase has stitching on it to resemble jam between the layers of cake.
Page: Blueberry Crumb Cake
I was obsessed with blueberries this summer and was fortunate to live half a block from the Italian Market where fresh fruit and vegetables are plentiful. I hope you will enjoy this pleasant recipe that brings a taste of summer to mind no matter when you eat it.
Page: Carrot Cake
Folded double-slot slipcase made with handmade paper. Rubber-stamped old vellum labels.
Page: Covid Cake: A dark and dreaded recipe for a global pandemic.
Includes appalling leadership, horrific health consequences and a disastrous economic downturn beyond your wildest imaginings.
Coronavirus Image: Lino Cut using Speedball Block Printing Ink, recipe printed on HP Deskjet 6940 in Avenir Roman on 70lb Mohawk Text
Page: Matcha White Chocolate Brownie Cake
Page: Petit Four Horseman
Book: Let’s Eat Cake; Petit Four Horsemen
The images for Petit Four Horsemen are hand drawn, cleaned up in Adobe Photoshop, printed on tea stained cardstock, and painted with watercolor. The case was designed using Autodesk Fusion 360 and printed with a Monoprice Maker Select Plus.
The Delaware Valley Chapter of the Guild of Book Workers 