A California Cake Walk
Through the eyes of Ninette Paloma, we are invited into the early-morning mist of California’s farmers’ markets, where the season’s first cherries and fragrant herbs become the soul of the kitchen. She elegantly captures the “sculptures of edible art” created by local bakers, reminding us that a recipe is more than just ingredients, it’s a reflection of the landscape itself.
The sun is just beginning to rise over the Pacific Ocean when baker Danielle Michaan tucks a shopping list into her bag and loads her family into the car. It is market day in Santa Barbara, and she is determined to get her hands on the season’s first cherry crop – the star ingredient in her roasted cherry and rose sourdough scones. When she pulls into the entrance rolling her shopping cart behind her, farmers are still arranging their crisp produce onto long tables; the downtown streets, still damp from the morning mist. Her daughter Chloe is the first to spot them: baskets of crimson stone fruit piled high at the Burkdoll Farm stand. “I’m always here bright and early,” Michaan explains. “It’s become a small family ritual, my husband and our eight-year-old twins heading out together before the crowds arrive and while the stalls are still overflowing.” Michaan is the culinary talent behind Coco et Sel, a bakers’ blog devoted to botanically infused recipes that reflect the area’s vibrant landscape. She is one of an inspiring group of California bakers working closely with local farmers to spin flour and flora into sculptures of edible art.
Just up the street, Ojai farmer BD Dautch is sharing recipe ideas for his tender bundles of lemon basil, their paper-thin leaves perfumed with the scent of sweet citrus. This is where you will find Roxanne Rosensteel, a Santa Barbara baker whose coveted cakes have been the subject of celebration across the country. “BD has an incredible selection of herbs and edible flowers,” she says. “I use the bay leaves year-round to infuse custards and jams.” Dautch also offers a tightly edited supply of perfectly ripened fruit, an intuitive compliment to the river of green that dominates his stall. “I almost always use a mix of fruits and flowers to decorate my cakes,” Rosensteel emphasizes. “To me, an individual dessert plate is not complete without some resplendent fruit to go with it.”
Due to its dizzying array of microclimates, California has long led the nation in flora diversity, boasting over 6,000 species of plants, 400 produce commodities, and over 3,000 organic farms. For cake artisans, this abundance translates to a creative medium rich with regenerative inspiration. To experience one of their cakes is to taste the passing of time: the tender stinging nettle after a long rainy winter in Michaan’s mint and nettle chocolate cake or Rosensteel’s late harvest sheet cake with plums dark from the August sun. “My bakes always begin with the seasons, the fruits and flowers that decide to appear, the quiet shifts in light that make me crave something new,” says Michaan. “My recipes are shaped by nature-they celebrate the season itself, and I love bringing in ingredients that feel a little unexpected: florals, wild herbs, even the weeds that most people overlook.”
Tucked high above the beach town of Carpinteria, Mary Gonzalez and her partner Rob Peed preside over a two-acre organic flower and herb farm called Sweet Mountaintop Farms, a favorite among California bakers. Prized for their generous selection of fragrant herbs and photogenic flowers, Gonzalez and Peed are a mainstay at the local farmers’ markets, even offering personalized services such as workshops and private tutorials. When Gonzalez appears at a birthday party for Michaan’s daughter with large buckets of pastel flowers, guests gather around the table to make fresh floral crowns, wrapping the delicate flowers in braids of quiet ceremony while Michaan makes a chamomile syrup for the cake, sprinkling petals over the mascarpone frosting.
For Rosensteel, a relationship with Penryn Orchard Specialties is essential to her minimalist creations, where a single heirloom strawberry might balance thoughtfully over a wave of pistachio buttercream. Farmers Jeff Rieger and Laurence Hauben pride themselves on harvesting unusual selections with an exacting eye – a key component when structure and abstraction play vital roles in an artisan’s work. “Penryn Orchard Specialties has really exquisite and rare fruit varietals that I use throughout the year,” emphasizes Rosensteel. “In the summer I’ll pick up some teeny Mirabelle plums to adorn a wedding cake, in the autumn they have the best selection of persimmons and pears for holiday desserts.”
On a sunny morning in September, Rose Wilde is putting the finishing touches on a rye and honey dome cake she has created for A Riviera Cake Walk, an annual celebration of local bakers I once hosted in my downtown studio. Wilde is the best-selling author of Bread and Roses, a cookbook and homage to California’s year-round natural resources where every element of a plant – from petal to pistil – weaves its way into her recipes. She pipes ribbons of coconut buttercream between layers of fig and fennel jam, dusting chlorella powder over the dramatic structure. With the help of Michaan, wildflowers are positioned in spectacular clusters, like dancers suspended in choreographed movement. Rosensteel sums it up nicely: “Desserts are inherently ephemeral, and using seasonal produce helps to orient the event to a specific time and place.” Guests press their forks into rose and lemon chiffon cake and pavlovas whipped with lime and mint leaves. It is the first day of autumn, and around the cake table, California’s bounty is on sweet display.
Words - Ninette Paloma @ninettepaloma
Photography - @ninettepaloma @alibeckphoto @roxannerosensteel
Bakers - Danielle Michaan @cocoetsel , Rose Wilde @trosewilde , Roxanne Rosensteel @roxannerosensteel
Farms - @sweetmountaintop @penrynorchardspecialties @earthtrinefarm