Francophile Friday : Au Rocher de Cancale, Paris
31.5.24
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| Au Rocher de Cancale Paris Cafe illustration © Shell Sherree all rights reserved |
I'm don't know why, but this pretty Paris cafe reminds me of a wedding cake! How about you? Perhaps it's the decorative mouldings, like white fondant icing pressed onto the pastel-tinted surface.
My vintage is showing, as I'm not talking about naked cakes or smashcakes. No, I'm reminiscing about the tiered and structured wedding cakes that one of my beautiful aunts used to make for all of the family and friends in years gone by: a firm-yet-pliable royal icing carefully molded (after preparatory layers of (1) warmed jam and (2) marzipan) onto a traditional fruit cake. Do you remember those? And the slices in little rustling paper cake bags that the wedding guests would be given to take home, and if you slept with it under your pillow, you'd dream of the person you'd marry? I'd love to see how a slice of naked wedding cake hold up to that. The smashcake would look ... well, still like a smashcake. Either way, your pillows will never be the same.
Back to today's illustration, where the resident cafe cats (which may or may not be a figment of my imagination) are very much at home, and waiting for you to join them. The book on the table might well be by Hemingway, its owner off in search of the next part of Paris's moveable feast. And on that note ...
Happy Francophile Friday to you! (You can order fine art prints of this beauty Here.)