Hasta La Ideas

From fashion week festivities to parties at the Met, Sweet Jewels have been a recent hit on the NYC scene. New Yorker Julie Le whips up the multi-layered treats by blending cake with frosting, dipping them in chocolate and hand-rolling them in coconut.

Le—a librarian at the Metropolitan Museum of Arts Costume Institute by day—explains “I like watching my friends take a bite into their first cake ball, because the interior is what always surprises them once they get through the hard coconut covered chocolate shell.”

A self-taught baker and entrepreneur, her newest recipe is inspired by An Choi, a Vietnamese eatery in the city’s Lower East Side, and a collaboration with Lipstick Queen‘s Poppy King is in the works, where Le will create cake ball flavors inspired by shades of lipstick. When she has a spare moment, Le also designs one-of-a-kind necklaces she threads from vintage chains under the moniker Crunchy Jewels.

“Cake balls are entertaining all around. They are sweet, the ultimate indulgence in bite sized proportions, not messy like cupcakes, and there is a filthy connotation that goes with it that has everyone giggling like teenagers” Le said. “The jokes about my yummy, tasty balls never get old.”

Sweet Jewels sell from her Etsy shop, with prices starting at $14.

Participate in our next exhibition: details here.

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The ice cream season is happily upon us. Many thanks to Vicki Lam and Christina Yan for their inspired photography which graces the cover of the summer issue of the magazine (out July 2nd!)

Watch for tasty ice cream recipes in the Sweets column written by Tara O’Brady.

And if you are looking for the mercedez-benz of ice cream scoops, look no further than Sherman Kelly‘s classic 1935 design (as pictured below.) Made of aluminum and equipped with its own defrosting system, this scoop is easy to use, non-stick and easy on the eyes. Once you try it, you’ll never go back. Available at the Moma Store.