Too Sweet to Pass Up

Craving something sweet, but feeling too chilly to stand in line at Georgetown Cupcake? Make a note on your calendar to visit the American Art Museum with your loved ones on Valentine’s Day and you’ll be part of a lucky crowd that gets to see artist Zilly Rosen’s confectionery composition of Presidents Abraham Lincoln and Barack Obama, made from more than 5,000 cupcakes! Each cupcake will play a vital role as one “pixel” in the sugary, stippled, work of art. Rosen, whose work has been featured on The Today Show, will spend the afternoon of February 13 and the morning of February 14 putting together her double portrait in the museum’s Luce Foundation Center, where it will be on view from noon until 5 p.m. on Valentine’s Day. Stick around afterward and you’ll be asked to help “de-install” the work by eating the cupcakes.

In case you need more encouragement we'll offer a preview of the bill of fare: those sampling Honest Abe will enjoy a vanilla cupcake with chocolate butter cream frosting, while onlookers who opt for our newest president will bite down on a chocolate cupcake with vanilla butter cream frosting. Both sets of cakes will be sealed with a colorful fondant that will contribute to each president’s likeness. If neither flavor sounds yummy to you, we have highly classified information that the treats making up the stripes of the American flag in the background will be red velvet. Mmm.

Members of our New Media department will be dutifully filming the whole process (and we’d be lying if we said the free cupcakes weren’t an incentive to work on a Saturday), so should you not be able to attend the incredible edible event, you can check back with Eye Level to view the time-lapse video of the portrait’s candied creation and delicious demise.

Update: With our live Webcam watch artist Zilly Rosen create A New Birth of Freedom, a double portrait of Presidents Abraham Lincoln and Barack Obama made from more than 5,600 cupcakes.