An afternoon to waste, a grumbly tummy, camera at bay, and an idea to make vanilla cake sprang to mind. I have to admit this is straight up just a box cake, nothing wrong with box cakes, in fact, good ‘ol Betty Crocker cake mixes are handy, affordable and don’t take any time really. All you do is pop the ingredients into a bowl, whisk and bake, then let it cool and frost to your heart’s content.
I waited until the cake was cooled down enough to frost with the store bought icing and I went for it with my camera. Angles galore and finding the right light; the bathroom light at this point in the day was perfect… try it, it wont disappoint, maybe make sure your bathroom is clean before placing your food on it’s countertops… but trust me you can use light in any room when it’s hitting just right.
I was reminded of my year-end project I did whilst in Photography School, in Scotland. I stood on many a chair and always commandeered the kitchen (my poor compliant flatmate!!). I loved fixing colors to food and making all items from scratch.
I think that’s where I felt like I cheated with this box cake, since I love the art of cooking and baking from scratch…..to see a plain egg, thrown together with salt, flour, and whatnot, become something beautiful, really makes my heart happy.
However, when you realllllly don’t fancy going to the shops for proper ingredients, and you are feeling a tad lazy, go for the box cake, it will taste delicious and give you a tiny bit more play time to photograph the outcome !!!
I started with a plain icing and tried to make it look textured, then added strawberries on top, I loved the contrast between the white icing and the bright red berries.
Then I restarted and topped it with hundreds and thousands (aka sprinkles).
The funny thing you wont see in the photos is that I don’t have a round cake tin so I had to improvise and cut out circular pieces of the rectangular cake; this cake mix was beautiful, airy and light, fluffy even, which didn’t make it easy to cut circles into… so I’ll let you in a little trick us folk behind the camera do from time to time… we fake it!!! Choose the right angle, pose your lens just so and you wont be able to see the ugly back of the cake that didn’t quite get iced properly!!
I like the end results of these images, but know that I have much more I desire to learn when it comes to food photography. I believe when you can nail an image right from the get go in camera you are onto something.
So here’s some tasty images that might just make you go grab a box cake and make one yourself!!
