Bake Your Art Out

Each year, the Blanton Museum of Art’s Blanton Bake-Off invites bakers and art lovers worldwide to recreate any of the works from its permanent collection into their very own confections. Today, the Austin, Texas museum announces its three winners, whose submissions draw reference works spanning from the early 17th century to as recent as the past year. 

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This year’s winners—Tiffanie Huang, Karen Saenz, and Mitzi Avila—were determined from a public poll conducted last Friday which uncoincidentally also happened to be World Baking Day.

The youngest of the winners at just 16 years old, Huang took inspiration from Brazilian artist Lygia Clark’s Planos em superficie modulada (estudo), 1957, to create her painterly black-and-white layer cake. Saenz took home this year’s title for best confection made by an amateur adult baker for her gluten-free carrot cake inspired by Peter Paul Rubens' Head of a Young Man, 1601-1602.  “I had the idea all along to have the Young Man looking longingly at a bite to eat,” shares the artist who has honed her craft by transforming her three daughter’s illustrations into birthday cakes. 

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Despite the majority of contestants being amateurs, one award is designated for business owners who create baked goods for a living. Avila, the winner of this category, is an interior designer and owner of Austin's Cookies and Chill bakery. Her creation was inspired by both the exterior painting of Kay Rosen’s HI, 1997/2023, as well as Snøhetta’s sculptural installation titled Petals, 2023, that surrounds the Blanton’s outdoor patio. The Mexico-born, Texas-based baker paired her blueberry-roll cake with a cream-cheese swirl filling with a white-chocolate recreation of Snøhetta’s sculpture. “When I moved to Austin, the mural by Kay Rosen made me feel welcome,” Avila says of her inspiration. “I’m an interior industrial designer, so my nerdy side came up,” she adds, noting that 3-D software and a clay mold came in handy when building her edible sculpture.

Prizes for this year’s competition include a gift card to local Austin eateries, including Quack’s Bakeries and Easy Tiger, along with a membership package to the museum. Now in its fifth year, the contest began in 2020, during the onset of the Covid-19 pandemic, and was inspired by culinary creativity in television shows such as The Great British Bake Off as well as the museum’s artworks.

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Established in 1963 in Austin at the University of Texas, the Blanton Museum of Art holds the title of the largest university art museum in the United States. With over 21,000 works spanning from the Italian Renaissance and Baroque period to modern and contemporary American art, the Blanton is most recognized for being the home of Ellsworth Kelly’s 2,715-square-foot chapel (Austin, 2018) as well as pieces by Thomas Gainsborough, Ming Smith and Alice Neel, among others. The annual Blanton Bake-Off showcases a new form of art appreciation—both in the gallery rooms and in the kitchen.