A Little Photoshoot

Alongside making cakes, I love photography. I did it as part of my A-Level's and I knew it would become a massive part of my cake life.

I am lucky enough to own a Nikon camera, therefore I capture all of my cakes on there. I decided to take photos throughout the making of a pretty in pink cake.

I love becoming a food stylist as such when it comes to taking photographs, as it isn't just about the cake, you have to think about the lighting, the background and any extra props.

I particularly like using a plain, white wall as a background, as it makes the cake stand out so much. As for the lighting, I use an extremely bright light which I keep on my bedside table. The purpose of this light is to actually help me gain more Vitamin D, as I am deficient in basically every vitamin, but it works perfectly for photos too!

As I have created more and more cakes, I have definitely improved the photographs I take. I used to just place a cake on the kitchen work surface and snap a quick photo, but I now use some sort of tablecloth or blanket to place the cake on, it makes such a difference!

As for any added 'props', I love incorporating flowers into my photographs. Many of my cakes are actually decorated with fresh flowers, therefore if there are any spare, I will pop them in a vase and place them next to the cake.

Another effective decorative element is just cake sprinkles! I love scattering sprinkles onto the surface e.g. the tablecloth, so simple yet so so effective. My favourite sprinkles has to be gold stars and of course freeze-dried raspberries (I basically use them on every cake!)

I am definitely becoming slightly obsessed when it comes to decorative items, whether it be pretty candles or paper straws.

I have photographed the whole process of making of a pretty in pink cake, see photos down below.

I hope you love these photos as much as I do!

Isabelle x

I love taking photos, even before I've made the cake! Here I decided to take a before photo of the utensils, cake tin and pretty props! Just look at that teapot!

I always use my Kitchenaid to make my cake mixture, hence the large bowl! The mixture is so light and fluffy, exactly what you want in a cake.

After the cake is baked, I tend to leave it in the tin for 5-10 minutes and then I remove it and leave it to cool on a wire rack for as long as possible. This cake creates three layers, as you can see above.

I then prepare buttercream (I have gone into more detail about buttercream in my previous blog - The Pretty Cupcakes). I then pipe a ring of buttercream around the cake to create a border as such, and then fill in the middle with more buttercream. I always use my trusty little palette knife, which I was kindly given by a retired cake decorator, and I couldn't be without it.

I carried on filling the cake with buttercream until I reached the top. I then use my palette knife to cover the whole cake in buttercream, leaving the top till last. This is known as the crumb coat, ensuring all of the crumbs are securely glued to the cake, meaning they will not sneak into your final layer of buttercream. This has to be my favourite step!

I then went onto to cover the whole of the cake in a lovely blush pink buttercream, I also decided to cover the cake board and sprinkle freeze-dried raspberries and gold stars over it. Covering the cake in buttercream is something that improves each time I do it. I am a bit of a perfectionist so I find it difficult to leave a cake alone if I feel that there is something wrong, but my mum always reassures me that it looks lovely as it is.

I absolutely love this photo. The flowers are a clue as to what the finished cake will look like!

AND, there we have it! This is the finished cake. I decorated it with fresh roses, I find Lidl to be the best place to buy flowers from as they are cheap yet absolutely beautiful! I also added meringue swirls, stripey paper straws and cute little fondant doves.

Here is a birds eye view. I had a few flowers spare so they were perfect for photo opportunities. You can now see the sprinkles on top of the cake.

I could carry on posting photos all day!

Lastly, this was me during the process of making the cake. (Don't worry my hair is down only for the photo, which I dragged my boyfriend in to take!)

Oh! I couldn't forget this photo! I bought this apron when I visited Paris on a school trip and as I was buying it I said "This is the apron I'm going to wear when I have my own cake business." Dreams do come true!