Tuna Birthday!

You don't plan on spending your birthday doing hand-to-hand combat with a tuna sandwich. But life is full of little surprises. And when the challange is to paint a tuna sandwich. And you have a deadline, the tuna sandwich takes precedence over champagne et macarons. I'm always saying I never eat birthday cake...
 Last weekend I took myself off to Soho to do chocolate cake research for the same illustration project.

First I went to very 'Frenchie' Ceci Cela patisserie.

And got this layered affair to practice on.

I did manage to get a sketch out of it before I was compelled to eat it. It was melting under the table lamp. What else could I do? Next I headed to Francois Payard's new patisserie.

Tres mignon.

Payard's little Sacher cake didn't even make it to the sketch page.

But it did help immerse me in essence of chocolatie cake research. Just what a pastry artist needs...

The tuna sandwich will not be eaten. It has dried up under the lights. But there is nothing like having real props to work from. The new Ladybug kitchen timer is from the Soho Pylones by the way.

BONJOUR TUNA BIRTHDAY!