Among many activities, it feels like one sign of being a true adult is making bread. Whether you were building a sourdough starter during 2020, are always a fan of making quick bread with overripe bananas, or like to make focaccia for your friend game nights, it’s fair to say there’s no shortage of breads to experiment with. Of course, bread dough offers the perfect canvas for creativity. Take TikTok user @thug.loaf, for example. This baker and artist recreates famous album covers on loaves and pastas, including Weezer, Tyler The Creator, Radiohead, and beyond. While this type of pastry art requires lots of skill and hard work, you too can start your own (simple) bread art journey ASAP. You can make easy focaccia art with just some tomatoes, herbs, and other veggies. So, if you’re hosting a focaccia party anytime soon, these ideas are just for you.
1. Little Cherries
Few things are cuter than some cherry decor. Little cherry tomatoes can easily be transformed with basil leaves and chives to craft pairs of cherries. This idea, courtesy of @taylermadeit_ on TikTok, will look sweet and taste of delicious herbs and olive oil.
2. Quilted Pattern
Quilt patterns on baked goods are really having a moment. I mean, just look at these amazing cookies! After forming a hatched pattern in your dough, you can add any colorful veggies and/or herbs into each small square. In the case of @vineyardbaker on Instagram, they used an array of peppers and olives to add thrilling pops of both color and flavor to these little focaccia rolls.
3. Feminine Focaccia
Who knew that focaccia dough would be the perfect canvas to make a portrait? TikTok user @mcfadyenclan crafted a woman out of a variety of herbs, peppers, onions, and tomatoes. If you’re feeling super artsy, you can even try your hand at recreating this Mona Lisa focaccia art.
4. Garden With Bees
No matter what time of year it is, you can always make it feel like spring with this garden focaccia with buzzing bees. Simply craft some flowers with chives or green onions with tomato, pepper, and red onion buds. Then alternate black olive slices with yellow bell peppers to craft cute pollinators. It’ll be too adorable to eat, but you must power through and serve it up.
5. Bouquet With Hearts
Of course, you can opt for real flowers on your focaccia dough, too. Here, @oakcitysourdough on TikTok used chives to act as stems and built out a pink-hued bouquet with edible flowers. To add an even more whimsical aesthetic, they add bell pepper hearts to fill in the empty dough spots. I know this is Valentine’s Day-themed, but I would definitely make and eat this on any random school day as a little treat.