Julia believes beauty is in the details. Notice the intriguing marriage she created by pairing this rustic cake with elegant china and linens. Even though styling for a fall dinner for no special occasion, Julia spared no fine point.
Julia’s Thanksgiving 2004 went down as the most catastrophic in Usher family history. First, her local organic turkey farmer went out of business, leaving Julia short one rather important ingredient. Second, a painstakingly sliced onion side dish met its demise
In September 2006, in one of her first articles for her Prep School column in Sauce magazine, Julia gave general prescriptions for how to transform any sweet bread pudding into a savory one. She followed with a recipe for this
This ceviche, developed by Julia for her June 2006 Prep School column in Sauce magazine, combines several Latin American influences: most notably a Peruvian red pepper called ají rocoto and an Ecuadorian-style marinade made with multiple fruit juices. Fresh mango,
Another set of cupcakes from Julia’s 2005 Mary Engelbreit’s Home Companion food-styling feature, these bite-size cakes take flight with vibrant royal icing top coats and butterflies crafted from sliced almonds. Aside: Julia was asked by the magazine to re-style the cupcakes in
This cupcake composition was yet another styling job done by Julia for the April-May 2005 issue of Mary Engelbreit’s Home Companion. Based on the carrot and zucchini cupcake recipes in Cupcakes Year-Round by Sara Neumeier, these treats seemed most at home
Originally snowball cupcakes intended for winter, these treats from the book Cupcakes Year-Round by Sara Neumeier were re-styled by Julia to work in a spring 2005 issue of Mary Engelbreit’s Home Companion. The simple addition of paper ears and cotton tails
The last set of cupcakes from Julia’s 2005 Mary Engelbreit’s Home Companion food-styling feature, these jelly-filled cupcakes with peanut butter frosting are every kids’ dream lunchbox or after-school treat. Again, recipes and styling cues were taken from Sara Neumeier’s book, Cupcakes Year-Round.
It’s always thoughtful to personalize an event – and what better way than with wedding cakes for each guest! This dainty sweet, made in Julia’s very early wedding cake shop days, is decked with embossed fondant fronds and shiny silver
One of Julia’s signature wedding cake styles, back in the days of her bakery in the late 1990s, was the chocolate lace wrap – premium chocolate piped freehand and wrapped around each cake tier. For technique details, see Julia’s much
Here’s a closer look at Julia’s signature chocolate wrapping technique. As you can see, chocolate wraps are incredibly intricate and beautiful. But you know what?! They’re super functional, too! After all, how many other ways do you know to cover
Another blast from Julia’s distant bakery past, this wedding cake with its vibrant fondant appliqués was as pretty and playful as it was pink!
Intricate fondant appliqués, such as the big and small daisies here, are easily made with standard gumpaste cutters. The vines are equally simple fondant cords, hand-rolled and applied with a small amount of royal icing. Though simple to make, the
Made for a St. Louis wedding by Julia circa 2000, this cake with suspended tiers was one of the first of its kind in the country – a precursor to today’s gravity-defying ones, the only difference being that Julia’s cake
One lesson Julia learned during her early bakery days is that an absence of color on wedding cakes doesn’t mean said cakes need to look bland. On this cake made circa 2000, Julia added plenty of captivating texture with curved
Fondant tiles take the sides of this cake from traditional to ultra-modern. Made by Julia during her bakery-era circa 2000, this wedding cake was the first in a series of mosaics that Julia popularized.
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