Flower cakes that are wobbly works of art

Gelatin cakes are gaining in popularity partly because they are gluten-free and partly because they are fun to eat. While they are often gorgeous to view, they usually don’t taste that great. Pastry chef Jena Derman decided that she wanted to try her hand at making them, although she had ideas on how to amp up the flavor. What started as a fun project for a friend has now morphed into something much larger.

Derman makes her own flavors using sheet gelatin and fruit purees to create colors, and utilizes milk jelly (gelatin mixed with sweetened condensed milk) to create the flowers, which helps give them their opacity. The petals get their shape from a leaf pastry tip that injects the milk jelly into the clear gelatin–and–coconut water base.

The pastry chef likes the process of creating these cakes to liposuction, albeit in reverse. It definitely takes an artist’s touch to pull off these amazing, wobbly masterpieces. Derman explains how to make gelatin cakes in the August issue of Food & Wine magazine, and you can also follow her on Instagram to see more of her artistry.  The cake made in a Bundt pan that has the flowers visible in each slice is one that wowed me.