Nobody throws a birthday party better than an art museum and nobody celebrates birthdays harder than cake makers.

Last Friday night I attended the celebration of MOCA Jacksonville’s fifth anniversary downtown.  If you caught the previous post about this event, I mentioned that I would be assisting Chef Katie Dumphy of Tasteful Creations for the evening.  I did just that.  And ate a lot of cake, too.

Set-up was from 4 to 6 Friday afternoon.  Of course it was pouring, but five of us arrived at the loading dock of the museum and managed to get everything inside with no problems.  I went upstairs with boxes of cake and saw other chefs working on their masterpieces.  I felt like I was at a Food Network Challenge.  It was excellent.

After set-up, I went home and got ready for the party.  I was able to bring two friends to also assist the chef, so we arrived back at the museum at 7:30.  It had been completely transformed. 

Hors d’oereves  were being served downstairs and there was a dj and dance floor on the upper level.  A station had been setup for guests to create their own party hat and decorate sugar cookies.  Upstairs was full of people mingling and admiring cakes.  All 12 of the cakes featured were complete masterpieces.

I loved all of the cakes, but my particular favorite (besides Chef Katie’s) was done by the chefs at Etiquette of Chocolate.  Coincidentally, I had just gone to Etiquette of Chocolate with my family a couple nights before the event to check out the shop and meet the chefs. 

The Etiquette of Chocolate cake is pictured below.  Each level of the cake was dedicated to a different artist.  The artist’s name was written on the layer next to his design.  Of the five layers, my favorites were Warhol and Murakami.  The cake was a true piece of art.

Chef Katie’s cake was a contemporary abstract design.  It was well executed and very colorful.  The cake was chocolate with cheesecake swirls.  It was the most delicious cake that I tasted all night.

The evening concluded with the awards ceremony followed by some song requests I was dying to hear and dancing.  By midnight we were all packed up and ready to go.  I had a most excellent time and recommend the party next year!

Here’s to five years for the MOCA downtown!  Cheers!

This entry was posted on Wednesday, May 21st, 2008 at 10:30 am and is filed under Art, Downtown Jacksonville, Events, Reviews. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. Both comments and pings are currently closed.