Why Butter Molds and Sculptures Are Everywhere Right Now

I love murdering innocent cherubs. I swipe their legs off with crusts of bread, crush their wings beneath twisting radishes, and save gleeful decapitation for last, sprinkling their fleshy cheeks with flakes of salt. Eating angels is fun—when the angels are made out of butter, at least.

Right now, butter molds and sculptures are everywhere. They reign supreme on TikTok and Instagram, where dairy products are considered “coquette” and butterfat and milk solids are transformed into seashells, farm animals, and any other adorable creature or object that springs to mind. The butter works feel apiece with both lavish 17th-century gatherings (“In this extravagant era, the mastery of food signaled status, and a meal became a style of performance art,” Aimee Farrell wrote in a piece on butter sculptures for T: The New York Times Style Magazine) and the resurgence of playful retro-style dinner parties (minus the scary jello salads). In my humble, saturated fat-loving opinion, it’s a trend to embrace. Butter molds and sculptures have long delighted visitors of both fine dining restaurants and state fairs—so why shouldn’t we spread a little cupid onto toast?

Photo: Nikki Haggeman and Kaitlin Sherman

“Butter sculptures and molds have been trending lately because food art has temporal value,” says Brighid Burnes, a CalArts-educated cook at popular Los Angeles restaurant and wine bar Stir Crazy. “It can only really be experienced exclusively by people who are physically present and able to eat it, consuming with their bodies as much as their eyes.” For parties hosted at Stir Crazy, Burnes collaborated with restaurant co-owner Mackenzie Hoffman on giant butter renditions of a conch shell, a cowboy boot, a French chateau, and a fish. “I usually assemble a bunch of butter sticks together to create a big block or the general shape of the object,” Burnes says of her process. “Then, I start chipping away at it using a knife and sculpt with my hands to define the shape. Lastly, I use ceramic carving tools to add small details and garnish it with cutouts or butter accessories.”

Photo: Courtesy of Stir Crazy

Hoffman notes that the butter sculptures are both functional, inviting party guests to really get involved, and thoughtful, especially when formed into shapes particular to the commissioner. “Instead of a simple Mound of Butter à la Antoine Vallon, it seemed cheeky and exciting to carve the mound into a figure more outstanding, expressive, and ultimately personal to the guest,” she says.

“It’s an artful approach to compel people to be present,” adds Burnes. “Now more than ever, I think chefs and artists are exploring ‘culinary arts’ in a more literal way.”

Photo: Courtesy of Suea

After all, butter molds make sense in a world that both embraces food as an artistic medium and an experience to be shared on social media. Pioneering chef and artist Laila Gohar, from whom many a lifestyle trend has sprung, has gone viral countless times over the last few years for her work with butter, transforming it into everything from disjointed sections of Michaelangelo’s David to chicken drumsticks to Ionic columns and the Venus de Milo, which she filmed herself casually smearing onto a piece of bread.

“The first butter sculpture I made was in 2018,” says Gohar. “At the time I hadn’t seen contemporary butter sculptures around. I was doing research and reading about the first butter sculptures that were made of yak butter in ancient China. The idea started from there.”

Photo: Laila Gohar

There are plenty of other chic chefs and food artists who regularly enchant the internet with their butter creations, too, like food artist Suea’s butter and ghee candles and butter Le Corbusier armchairs, or fashion designer-turned-pastry chef Paris Starn’s butter doilies and butter tree. “Butter is so moldable,” says Suea. “And everyone loves it.”

“Butter is incredibly easy to shape, limited only by your imagination—and its low melting point!” says Starn. “Butter as a standalone art object first came to my attention when I saw butter sculptures displayed at state fairs. Since then and throughout my career, I’ve realized butter is an ingredient that makes a meal or a dish feel extra special. For me, butter has a sentimental quality. As the saying goes, ‘everything is better with butter.’”

Meanwhile, for the home cook, butter molds serve as an easy way to jazz up a table. You just spread creamy softened butter (salted, unsalted, home-whipped with your own Maldon—whatever you prefer) into a mold (wooden is classic, but silicone candy molds are easiest), refrigerate to set, and then let it soften a bit before serving. I bought my own inexpensive silicone molds online after seeing them in TikToks from tablescape-focused account @dontcookforcowboys, thinking they would be great for a holiday party that I eventually had to cancel due to a raging case of bronchitis. (I have no regrets, and continue to happily eat butter cherubs and butter scallop shells while standing next to the kitchen sink.)

Processed with VSCO with v3 presetPhoto: Nikki Haggeman and Kaitlin Sherman

The women behind @dontcookforcowboys, Nikki Haggeman and Kaitlin Sherman, call butter molds “incredibly charming,” and say that they’ve been a focal point amongst guests at their IRL dinner parties, who love them just as much as the TikTok commenters. “For us, it’s about showing our love for our guests with the little details,” they wrote over email. “Butter is malleable. You can turn a simple ingredient into a masterpiece, and it creates a whimsical touch for tablescapes. We think what makes it a trend is its accessibility, and the way it gives people the ability to have their own creative freedom.”

Vlogger Claire Dunhit, better known to her 664,000 TikTok followers as @condimentclaire, recently went viral on the app with videos demonstrating how she uses her family’s vintage wooden butter molds, turning out a ruffled pat of butter with a cow in the middle. 

“I grew up in Los Angeles but my family is French, so we’re accustomed to great butter with big chunks of salt in it,” says Dinhut. “Since buying butter like this in the US is expensive, it was always easier—and cheaper—to buy great cream, whip it up, and toss in some of our favorite chunky salt, sel gris from L’Ile de Ré. If we were having people over, it was always a nice touch to prepare the butter in a butter mold. Nowadays, if I’m making butter for myself at home, I don’t often use the molds; however, if I’m bringing butter to a dinner party or hosting one myself, I like to do so. Pure showmanship.”

The fashion-ification of food—making it playful and elegant to look at in a way that goes beyond classic fussy fine dining presentation (the swoop of sauce, the cylindrical molds)—is all around us. And sure, that can lead to food that is only engineered to get likes online, and doesn’t actually taste good. Thankfully, butter’s inherent deliciousness eradicates any concern in that area. As the great Julia Child once said: “With enough butter, anything is good.”

What it all boils down to, Dinhut believes, is a renewed craving for decadence. “The internet has recently been so obsessed with butter that anything having to do with it is bound to trend—butter churn, butter mold, butter lip gloss, butter candle,” she continues. “I feel as though there was a demonization of the fat in prior years, and it’s finally being celebrated—as it should.” Consider it a fortunate churn of events.