We Can't Stop Looking at These Celebrity "Pietraits" of Oprah, Eleven, and David Bowie
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Jessica Clark-Bojin, known on Instagram as @ThePieous, has found an incredible way to mix her love of pie making with her geeky pop culture obsessions. Her holiday projects especially — including her spooktackular and scrumptious looking Halloween series, as well as her desert wonderland "12 Days of Crustmas" — utilize everything from the color of the filling to the type of dough to create visually stunning pieces of pie art. Now, as part of her National Pie Day celebration, the geeky baker has completed a series of "pietraits" featuring well known celebrities and popular fictional characters. They are the first in a 12 month mission for the baking artist "to take 'pie art' to places its never been before."
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Vin Diesel, Prince, and Oprah as well as Stranger Things' Eleven, Wonder Woman, and Supernatural's famous pie-eater Dean Winchester are among the 13 separate crust portraits already completed, with two more set to be featured on Instagram before the January 23 holiday. Unlike past projects, each piece of pie art was made at the suggestion of one of Clark-Bojin's Instagram followers. Also unlike other projects, Clark-Bojin spent a lot more time completing them.
Each portrait is incredibly detailed, bearing a striking resemblance to its real-life inspiration. The work requires significantly more design work than her other pies, taking up to four to six hours per pie.
"I wanted to start the year off with something really fun and interactive that would put a smile on peoples faces," Clark-Bojin tells Food & Wine. "Celeb pies are always my top request so I figured that would be a good place to start."
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Although some of her pieces are more challenging than others, many can be recreated at home, something the geeky pie lover encourages. The trick to getting them right, Clark-Bojin says, is speed. Before even beginning her baking, Clark-Bojin draws everything out on a computer, prints and then cuts out all of her stenciled pieces using cardstock and acetate.
"I would say to anyone who wants to try their hand at pie portraits to make sure they have all their tools ready to go and their dough pre rolled out and chilling in the fridge," Clark-Bojin says. "Then you can work quickly and keep your pastry nice and light tasting out the other side."
While she has yet to announce next month's theme, Clark-Bojin confirms she's already got "some exciting ideas lined up."
"I've certainly had a blast working on this series and you can bet you'll be seeing more celeb 'pietraits' on my channel throughout 2018," she tells Food & Wine.
