Cupcake Photography!

How has your week been?

When I haven't been painting, I've been researching, studying, and practicing my photography.

I built a softlight box, used to light food shots.

My downfall is that my wonky schedule (go to sleep around 5 AM, wake up at noon or 1:00, such is the life of a cop and his wife) doesn't lend itself to photography by natural light. Anything I bake will be done around 4 at the earliest, which is already past optimal natural light time.

So I researched DIY softlights, since the $90 versions were unacceptable to me. And after a trip to JoAnn and Home Depot, I built myself a pretty awesome box.

Birthday Cookies!

I tortured my Twitter followers on Memorial Day with my constant pictures of the goodies I was baking for my brother.

He's turning 22 on June 5th, and his girlfriend is already sending him baked goods but I couldn't pass up the opportunity to fill up one of those APO boxes with cookies, cookies, cookies!

Does anyone else do this when they bake? I like to keep a list of the ingredients and their amounts at quick eye level. 

I did three different cookies: Chocolate Chip, Double Chocolate Chip, and Blondies.

{Baking} Memorial Day Cake

This cake was equal parts impressive and infuriating.

The task was simple: provide a festive dessert for my family's Memorial Weekend barbecue. Due to scheduling conflicts, we couldn't do it on Memorial Day itself, so we did it on Saturday instead. And it turned out for the best, since we are currently being hit by a tropical storm.

And it started out simple enough. I wanted a white layer cake with dyed layers. I combed through recipes and finally landed on one that turned out to be a bust. I didn't read the fine print and it required a meringue method... which totally goes against the concept of colored layers since you can only fold in egg whites.

So that batter went into the trash.

{Recipe} Holy Cow Cake

I don't know where this recipe originated. I did a bit of research and some people indicate that it's a Duncan Hines original, but I haven't bothered to pin it down. This is one of those recipes that transcends its originator and becomes all about who perpetuated it.

In this case, this was the cake my mother-in-law used to make for parties, meetings, birthdays at work, or holidays. None of us have had it since she passed, but since we were having a barbecue on Sunday for my whole family, I decided there was no time like the present.

I ended up tweeting that the shopping and baking process was a lot more emotional than I had anticipated, but I survived and everyone loved the cake.

Warning: this cake is DECADENT. Ridiculously so. It's one of those cakes you should only make, like, once a year, for a huge group. It's rich, it's delicious, it's sinfully fattening. But once in a while, it's totally worth it.

Yes, the ingredients really ARE this simple.

{Recipe} Angel Food Cake

Or as geometry enthusiasts might like to call it: "Angle Food Cake."

If you've ever made an Angel Food Cake from scratch, then you know there is going to be a lot of ONE THING in this post:

{Recipe} Nutella Cookies

My brother-in-law bit into one of these, stared at me as he chewed, then asked, "Do you know what heaven tastes like?"

Apparently, it tastes like these cookies.

Recipe included after the jump!

Mailing Cupcakes

Ah, the United States Postal Service.

On the one hand, our local post office is uncommonly friendly. Apparently my mother sends so many packages to my sister (at the Air Force Academy) and now my brother (Kuwait) that one of the clerks recognized my maiden name and described my mother and younger sister in detail to me.

And when I went to send these cupcakes last Tuesday, the lady who was ringing up the packages cheerfully told me that I was sending cupcakes ALL WRONG and that I needed the long mailing box and not the tall flat rate box. That resulted in me waiting until Wednesday to send them, but it also meant the cupcakes would get less jostled in the mail, so, worth it.

On the other hand, even when they ask if there are baked goods or perishables inside, they aren't very gentle with it after it leaves the facility. Perhaps there is no perfect AND cheap way to send cupcakes, but this method worked well enough, and with a few tweaks next time, maybe my brother will actually get cupcakes that don't look smashed. 

Now, I am no baker. When I make baked goods, my first priority is taste, not appearance. I even took that stance with my wedding cake, turning down bakers who made gorgeous cakes that tasted like cardboard until I found my dream cake (and it tasted AMAZING). So when I was sending cupcakes, my first priority was freshness, and appearance took a backseat.

{Baking} Espresso Bars

Is there anything better than a gooey chocolate brownie?

Well, for coffee addicts such as myself, YES! A gooey chocolate-espresso brownie!

Except I cheated and used instant coffee, put into a coffee grinder until it was a fine powder. Oh great, now you know my secret!

{Baking} Chocolate Orange Cupcakes

Yay! A successful baking endeavor!

I told my friends I was going to be getting my KitchenAid out of storage and asked if anyone wanted cupcakes sent to them. This was for two reasons. One, I have less people in my immediate vicinity to bake for. When we lived in Tallahassee, we lived next door to some of our closest friends. As a result, our condo was constantly overrun with hungry men raiding the fridge and pantry. Baking was a cinch, because I knew I could put out a cake or cupcakes and they would be gone in a matter of hours, and I wouldn't be the one eating them. 

Second, my younger brother is now in Kuwait. He likes cookies just fine, but he'll get those in excess from my sister (who specializes in snickerdoodles and nothing more) and knowing I'm a baker, he expects a little more from me. So I wanted to send cupcakes domestically to see how they would hold up against the good ol' USPS.

Four of my friends responded in favor of receiving cupcakes, so I broke out my new Williams-Sonoma cookbook and baked their Chocolate Orange Cupcakes.

{Baking} A Depressing Souffle

I used to bake quite a bit. Mr. Cheddar's mother used to work across the street from a wholesale kitchen outlet store, and for my 23rd birthday, they bought me a refurbished KitchenAid mixer, something that had been on my wishlist for the better part of three years. Unfortunately, when we made the move back home, my KitchenAid along with my four-years-running collection of baking accessories went into storage, and my baking days became a thing of the past.

A few days ago, I broke down and got my KitchenAid out of storage. And because I never do anything half-baked (haaa!) I thought it would be a good idea to kick off its homecoming with a very difficult meringue or souffle.