ZE SRDCE---A PIECE OF CAKE

xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx photo by Hana xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx
The Day of Hearts is approaching, and we think of decorating or cooking or making it special for our Lovies and our Special Someones.

I usually put a red or rosy cloth on the breakfast table, Chris brings me a rose for the table, just because he DOES, and I’ll make another foray into the Holiday Closets to seek out the pretty swag of white eyelet and red calico hearts which fits so neatly in the close space between front door and security door without squashing.

And again I’ll fail. I’m sure I had it SOMEWHERE, for we’ve hung it for years, but when the time comes to bring it out for its annual blaze of glory, it’s nowhere to be found. I notice it sometime during the Fall or April, and think, “THERE it is!!! Now I’ll know!” And I never do.

Friend Maggie is making origami Valentines over on Cheap and Cheerful, and Love is in the air (though it may be a bit frostbitten from all those whirling snowflakes of late). We think of loved ones, we contemplate the lace and the frills, and there’s a certain moving on from the reds of Christmas to the bright flash of Valentines, which blush their messages of closeness and love, giving way to the pale hues of Spring's promise of warmth and growth.

I look in often on a wonderful new site I’ve found---it’s listed in the sidebar as A Piece of Cake. It’s the blog of a talented artist named Hana, whose skills with baking and decorating are exemplary. She takes the most exquisite care with her work, with the tiniest of frillery and the most fragile lace. I had understood not a word of her language, but the message of the beautiful was just so moving that I commented several times upon her work, in English, of course.

And she replied, then she went back and translated almost all the posts; it seemed that it was just for me, out of her kindness, and I so appreciate that. And I appreciate her gift---she is an artist in every sense; she began with the Australian method, which I’d read of long ago in the lightweight Wiltons of my own cake-decorating days. It’s a complicated, painstaking skill of stringwork and the most ethereal butterflies and scrollwork and flowers.

There are cupcakes with hand-applied whimsies and those with delicate patterns that Faberge would have wept rather than eat such loveliness.

The gingerbread hearts in the picture are just works of art, each one. I try to imagine the held breath, the gentle touch, the absolute surety of the hands it must take to create such perfection.
I like to think she's there in the warmth of her kitchen right now, with the scent of sugar and vanilla and spices, her hands as sure and true upon the piping as an artist with a brush.

Go look. Be amazed. Everything is just lovely, and on down the pages, you’ll encounter the most ethereally elegant tiered cake in the history of the World. It’s simply stunning, fit for a Fairy Wedding, and it’s hard to believe that small Fairy hands did not do this delicate lacework, did not fly up and attach these pale strands which defy gravity and seem to have no anchor.

Her name is Hana, and she is a genius in her métier. Please look in---you’ll be delighted.

http://hanascakes.blogspot.com/