Suzani and Ikat Cakes

Many years ago, just after the opening of Chaikoff cafe (Кофейня "ЧайКоф") in Said Baraka Street, Tashkent, the pastry chef created this masterpiece decorated in the red and black style of a Tashkent suzani. No one dared eat it - too beautiful to cut.

Finding this photograph recently I wondered whether suzani or ikat cakes had become a *thing*. And it seems they have become a small trend. Not only cakes but also cake tins and cake stands.

Here are examples of wonderful cakes made in Europe and the USA embellished in traditional Uzbek patterns. Yet none of them really measure up to this Chaikoff chef d'oeuvre, do they?

 

Related posts:

Samarkand: Recipes and Stories from Central Asia and The Caucasus

Tea with Bread and Jam – a Traveller’s Appreciation of the Finer Things in Kyrgyz Life
The Glory of Uzbek Bread