Valentine's Day Cake

2/16. Valentine's Day Cake, oil on linen panel, 5x5 in.

Instead of giving my wife a store-bought cake on Thursday, I made her a small heart-shaped one and let Breagha help sprinkle the red sugar on top (though she was more interested in licking it off her hand). We took a picture of it and on Saturday I thought I'd paint the last piece before it was gone. I quickly came to believe that, despite anything I used to think of Wayne Thiebaud, only he could capture the fake-colored sugar and shortening essence of a cake. (If anyone is wondering, the stuff at the top of my painting was my crude attempt at the plastic wrap.)