The invitation reads “MOONLIGHT CELEBRATION Honoring Barry Jenkins and Tarell Alvin McCraney”, two local Miami boys made good. The Miami Times reports on the event here.
Moonlight, the Academy Award and Golden Globe winning Best Picture, is brought to us by two local boys made good. Barry Jenkins and Tarell Alvin McCraney together created a wonderful coming of age film set in the mean and hot streets of Miami’s Liberty City where they grew up. Due to the overwhelming success of the film and the pride in its locals sons, Miami named a street after the award winning film, Moonlight Way. Later the film went on to win 155 awards in various festivals and competitions.
The Affair (Moonlight Celebration)
On Saturday, April 22, 2017, the African Heritage Cultural Arts Center (AHCAC) where “Moonlight” was partly filmed and cast, welcomed home Jenkins and McCraney to honor them in a “Moonlight Celebration,” organized by Miami-Dade County Commissioner Audrey Edmonson.
What the invite didn’t say was that Pedestal Creative Dessert Co. was providing the sweets for this 125 guest event complete with lunch and us. Some of Miami’s most famous movers and shakers were there and we got to feed them our phenomenal cupcakes.
The Desserts
Pedestal creates three flavors representing the 3 shades of Chiron, the main character. The story is told in three acts with each telling a different time in Chiron’s life. That combined with the color theme used in advertising campaigns, Pedestal chose chocolate covered blueberry as the base flavor for these creations.
Inspired by the lead character, Chiron, in the Moonlight movie, these creations start with our moist and delicious dark chocolate wild blueberry cupcake kissed with cayenne pepper to represent the fire Chiron has inside. To tell our cupcake story in three acts, we top each cupcake with different delicious frostings for the journey from childhood to adulthood like Chiron. and that is what helps tell our cupcake story in three acts.
Chocolate Covered Blueberry (border cupcake) ACT I
Blueberry is our favorite fruit around here. Drawn from memories of picking them in the woods near my grandparents’ home to hunting for the ripest and juiciest in the grocery store, wild blueberries conjure wonderful flavor fantasies just like this cupcake. Here, we pair wild blueberries with dark chocolate in a moist and juicy cupcake. Chocolate covered fruits are nothing new but this pairing is special because we add a hint of cayenne to wake up the senses then top it with our double vanilla buttercream made with both Mexican Vanilla and Tahitian Vanilla for sweet and subtle spicy flavor ride.
Young Chiron is wild and looking for his place in the world. He learns you can run from others but you can’t run from yourself. By adding our double vanilla buttercream to this cupcake, we amp up the intensity of both the chocolate and blueberry letting you know you can’t run from this flavor. This combination reminds you of biting into a sweet, tender and juicy chocolate covered blueberry.
Moonlight (surround) ACT II
Moonlight brings many memories to mind but some nights you look up and see a blue hue reminiscent of a giant blueberry in the sky. So, this cupcake is our interpretation of that blueberry in the night sky. A moist and delicious dark chocolate cupcake with wild blueberries throughout kissed with a hint of cayenne topped with our moonbeam buttercream, a misleading white frosting infused with the very essence of blueberries and moonlight, okay… blueberry vodka. Finally, we sprinkle it with sparkling pearl sugar because what would moonlight be without something shimmering to make it look magical and the taste is what moonlit dreams are made of.
Teenage Chiron learns to find his inner strength thanks to help from his friend and mentor, Juan. To represent that strength, we chose moonbeam buttercream flavored exclusively with blueberry vodka. The vodka helps to accentuate the cayenne pepper in the cupcake so now his strength is more obvious and pronounced as are the flavors in this cupcake. This is more grown up but we add shimmering sugar because we know this is where Chiron begins to shine.
Blueberry By Moonlight (letters) ACT III
This creation starts with our moist and delicious dark chocolate wild blueberry cupcake. Inspired by the lead character, Chiron, in the Moonlight movie, we top the cupcake with our delicious blueberry buttercream spiked with vodka to represent his strength and kissed with cayenne pepper to represent the fire Chiron has inside. Cover that with sparkling blue sugar for some shimmer and an ocean reference for Chiron, our Blueberry In The Rough aptly renamed in honor of the movie to Blueberry By Moonlight.
Clearly, Chiron has grown into his own man, our blueberry in the rough, if you will. This time we own it by using fresh blueberry buttercream spiked with blueberry vodka to represent Chiron’s strength and his ownership of his identity and life. Juan took Chiron to the water and baptized him, in a way, to free his soul from stresses of everything that came before. Kevin took him to the ocean to release him from his fears showing Chiron the unknown is not always something to be feared. Sparkling blue sugar serves as a reference to the ocean that has special meaning to Chiron.