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Karin Pfeiff-Boschek told Bored Panda that her journey with pastry started in childhood, but didn't evolve into a profession: "I grew up in and live in rural Germany. Both of my grandmothers were avid bakers and as a child I spent much time in the kitchen, enjoying the smells and sights of freshly baked breads and pastries. I began baking for my family when I was a young teenager and have been baking much of my life."
"In my twenties, I spent many summers in Paris and was fascinated by the beautiful baked goods in every pâtisserie on nearly every street corner. I did not become a baker, however, but became interested in fabrics, eventually designing, dyeing, and creating my own works of textile art. Nonetheless, I enjoyed baking, often experimenting with various doughs and batters."
"My American-born husband learned to bake pies from his mother, a prize-winning pie baker and a very good cook. I thought the pies were delicious, but began to wonder whether one could decorate them in a manner similar to the way cakes are turned into works of art. This was just at the time that I opened an account on Instagram and I began uploading pictures of my attempts at pie decoration. To my surprise and delight, the comments were positive, resulting in a rapid rise in the number of followers of my account," says the artist, who now has an impressive number of over 90k followers on Instagram.
If you think that these pies look straight out of recipe book pages—rightfully so. The artist has published a detailed guide on how to turn your favorite pies into edible works of art in her accurately-titled book "Elegant Pie." In this step-by-step book, Pfeiff-Boschek shares 25 of her best recipes and techniques to become a pie artist and carefully walks us through all the processes from the best tools and dough preparation to baking.
"I have endless ideas for new designs, many more than I have time to actually create. Inspiration comes from nature, from inanimate objects and from traditional graphic and geometric designs. I have two firm principles concerning decorative pies: They must taste delicious and they must look good when baked, not just before baking. No one would serve their guests an unbaked pie or a pie that did not taste good. Therefore, decoration must not be detrimental in any way to enjoyment of the pie."
"It takes anywhere from 2 hours to 6 hours to artistically decorate a pie. I usually begin by making the pie shell, filling it, and then either place a flat top crust on as a base for further decoration or add decorations to the fruit filling. Alternatively, I may just use colorful fruit as its own decoration. If I want to color the dough, I only use natural colors such as freeze-dried berry powders, turmeric, red-beet, or spinach powder."
"We eat some of the pies I make but usually give them to friends and neighbors. This is a problem during COVID-19 lockdown and I have therefore been baking a bit less. I spend a lot of time training our 14-month-old German Shepherd Dog, Halgrim as well as working in our large park-like garden. We bought a 19th-century abbey that we completely restored ourselves."
This form of artistic expression both satisfies one's eyes and sweet tooth, and this is probably the reason the vibrant desserts with stunning designs have been a hit across social media. Bakers around the world take their craft to amazing levels, so if you like this, you might want to check out other sweet posts on Bored Panda, like stunning 3D illusions that are not what they seem by The Bakeking, creative cakes by Darci with a cute bonus in the form of doggos on cakes, and these beautiful "embroidered" cakes by Leslie Vigil.
