Happy Preppy Fourth Day!

Hello-Hello, and a very Happy Independence Day!

Today we reprise last year’s post of July 4, 2008, not because of any stellar qualities it possesses, as it really has none, excepting those words we quote from others far more gifted. We celebrate our freedom and our bountiful land. Enjoy!

Fireworks over the Potomac (file photo)

I WISH THAT EVERY HUMAN LIFE MIGHT BE PURE TRANSPARENT FREEDOM.

Simone de Beauvoir

Whipped Bakeshop, Philadelphia

Remember the post where we referenced Love Story to say “I’m sorry” to Thom Browne and Brooks Brothers (about the Black Fleece thing from way back) and used a lame photo of the book cover? It was really The Princess at her tackiest; we didn’t even use the original cover, ours was from a reprinted edition. Honestly. Think how much better it would have been if we had only known to use this completely and totally TDF cookie from the Whipped Bakeshop in Philadelphia!

The fabulous 4th cake you see up top is also from this divine establishment, an absolute masterpiece by Zoë Lukas, a wedding cake created for two actors who play Ben Franklin and Betsy Ross in Old Town Philadelphia. And for those who just have to know (like yours truly) the top two tiers are chocolate cake with vanilla buttercream, and the bottom tier is vanilla buttermilk cake with lemon buttercream (the applied decorations are paper.) As TP is frequently wont to say, how cool is that? You can also see see Zoë’s fine hand in these sailboat cookies.

Courtesy Whipped Bakeshop

If you would like to feast your eyes on more of Zoe’s incredible creations, just click this Sweets by Zoë link to view her Flickr photos. Now Fair Warning: these are so luscious you’ll be bug-eyed; there are rumors about people who stared too long at the yummies they actually started gnawing on their keyboards. True story.

We leave you with this incredible photo from the Grucci Family. We have been fortunate enough to experience their work a number of times; they are also artists and masters of their craft.

FREEDOM IS THE OXYGEN OF THE SOUL.

Moshe Dayan

HAPPY FREEDOM FOURTH!