The Metropolitan Museum of Art is cool and all, but what if you could stroll around a museum and look at cakes instead? (Bonus points for Costco-style tastings along the way.) Flipping through cake designer Maggie Austin's book, Maggie Austin Cake: Artistry and Design, is like scrolling through Pinterest in real life. The intricately-frosted cakes are embellished with fondant flower appliqués, lacy patterns, pearls, stained-glass-style brushstrokes, and other incredible designs that make you wonder who could possibly cut through such beauty.
Even though the book has painstakingly-detailed instructions to recreate these select masterpieces at home, we understand if you just want to sit here and stare at them instead. Here are nine of our favorites.
A brushstroke of genius. Would tile a kitchen with this pattern.
Would it be weird to make a wedding dress molded after this stark-white design? Asking for a friend.
If your personality is a little more abstract. You can paint this pattern with your fingers!
Cake with a pearl earring. Okay, lots of pearls, arranged artfully like right-aligned text in Word.
You may not be able to pull off a headband with a giant flower in the middle, but this cake can. And there's gold, too.
Ombre cakes > unicorn frappuccinos.
What the Coldplay song was written about, probably. The texture of beehive and the look of a sunny rose garden.
Sometimes a little goes a long way, particularly with jewel-toned flowers.
That moment when you realize a cake is more dressed up than you are.
Maybe start with the cake basics before you tackle these designs:
Photos © Kate Headley, excerpted from Maggie Austin Cake: Artistry and Design.