This cake was made for my daughter’s art teacher, Caitlin, and her now husband Eric. She asked me to create a non-traditional wedding cake that was colorful, and inspired by one of her favorite artists – Georgia O’Keeffe. Wow, was I intimidated! But I do love trying new things. After doing some research, I drew inspiration from several of O’Keeffe’s paintings. I knew there was going to be a skull, landscape, and morning glories on the cake. All of those were firsts for me! I sculpted the cow skull from modeling chocolate. I made the morning glories and leaves from gumpaste, and wiring a floral piece like that was also a first for me. The tree was made from modeling chocolate. I also tried my hand at painting a landscape – inspired by O’Keeffe’s love of Mount Pedernal, where her ashes were scattered. Before painting the cake, I textured it with royal icing. I’d never painted a landscape before, and did do some practicing beforehand. It was definitely challenging. I wasn’t sure about how all of this would come together, and made some mistakes along the way, but I really loved it in the end. I just hope I did O’Keeffe justice with this cake – she created such beautiful artwork. And I really learned A LOT from this experience, both about caking and a fabulous artist.