Blueberry, Lemon & Almond Cake

You might have seen some similar pictures on Instagram quite a while ago - now I finally got around to editing all the pictures of the cake I made back then. I feel a bit sorry to say that I didn’t actually come up with the recipe, but adapted this one right here.
I’m happy to tell you that it tasted amazing, though! It was quite filling (lots of almonds), but SO good!

Anyway, here’s my adapted recipe - go ahead and make it! :)

Cake4 cups (400 g) ground almonds
1/2 tsp salt
2 tsp baking powder
1/2 cup (120 ml) rapeseed oil
1/2 cup (120 ml) honey or maple syrup
2 small organic lemons
3 large eggs (replace with chia seeds* if you are vegan)
2 cups (300 g) blueberries (save half for topping)

Glazing1 cup/240 ml (250 g) Greek yogurt, drained (use vegan cream cheese if you are vegan)
2 tbsp honey or maple syrup
1 tsp vanilla extract

Preheat oven to 350°F / 180°C. Combine ground almonds, salt, and baking powder in a large bowl and set aside. Heat oil and honey in a sauce pan on very low heat until combined. Grate the zest from the 2 lemons and add it to the honey/oil batter. Divide them in half and squeeze the juice from three of the halves into the mixture, saving one half for the glazing. Add the batter to the bowl with the dry ingredients. Beat the eggs and then fold them into the batter together with 1 cup of the blueberries. Stir gently around with a wooden spoon until combined. Grease a 8-inch spring form cake tin, and add the batter to it.

Bake for about 40-50 minutes (depending on size of the pan and oven), or until golden on the outside and baked all way through (you can cover the cake with tin foil during the last 15 minutes of the baking time, if it starts looking burned). Remove from oven and let cool for at least 30 minutes before removing the sides. Meanwhile, start making the glazing. Drain yogurt in a milk cloth or coffee filter for about 10 minutes. This is to make the yogurt less runny. Discard the water and combine the thick yogurt with honey vanilla extract and the juice from the remaining lemon half. Leave to chill in the fridge. When the cake has cooled completely, cover it with glazing, top with the remaining blueberries and serve. You could also just serve the cake with blueberries and yogurt on the side.

* You can replace three eggs with 3 tbsp chia seeds and 9 tbsp water that you combine and let sit for 15 minutes.

Enjoy!

P.S. Just a reminder that the private view of my exhibition is tomorrow, if you’re in London and want to come. Would love to see you!

7 Tips for Great Food Photos without Fancy equipment + a Giveaway

A while ago I wrote about my experience at a professional food photography shoot, when Hanna asked for tips on how to take great food pictures without having a studio or owning tons of pretty props. So I want to share 6 tips with you today that I’ve found helpful myself for getting some professional and great looking food photos without any fancy equipment. This post goes hand in hand with another post on food photography I wrote a while ago.

1. Learn the basics. Start to learn as much as you can about photography - composition, light, framing, focusing, etc. You won’t be able to take great food photos without mastering the basics of photography.

2. Collect props. You might not have millions of plates, cutlery, towels, and other props - but I’m sure you do have some. Start with what you have and make good use of it. Whenever you see something that you think would work well, keep it. This doesn’t mean you have to buy stuff, sometimes you already own a prop that you just didn’t think you could use for a food photography shoot. Keep your eyes open, it could be anything from an old piece of fabric to a bowl you’ve kept jewellery in before.

3. Get inspired & learn from others. What do you like about certain food photos? Have a look on Pinterest, and create a board with your favourite food images. What attracts your eye? Is it the styling? Or the colours? Or the type of food? Do what they do.

4. Find what works for you. Find the best spot in your home to shoot in - it will probably be somewhere by a window, as there’s lots of light. The same goes for backdrops and anything else - find whatever works best for you, and keep doing it. E.g. get some wood and paint it white (or whatever colour you prefer), and use it as your ‘go-to’ backdrop.

5. Always shoot in good light conditions! Shoot during the day, and use natural light.

6. Be creative. Experiment. Play. This one is similar to tip number 2 - you might not think of a certain prop or backdrop in relation to food photography, but be as creative as you possibly can be. Here’s an example: I sometimes use a wardrobe door that I can easily take off, and place it on the floor as a backdrop - who would have thought a wardrobe door could come in handy for a food photography shoot?
It’s the same with styling - rearrange, play around with your props, have fun. When I shot the muffins in this post for example, I tried lots of different options - I used different coloured towels, put the muffins on a plate, … you never know what works (or doesn’t work) until you try.

7. Edit your photos. Please do! Edit your photos! You’ll be surprised at how much of a difference it makes.

It all comes back to basics and making the most of what you have. Be creative.
I hope these tips help. If you want to read more about my thoughts on food photography, check out this feature on Shutterhub.

Shutterhub are also giving away a free one year membership to their site which let’s you create your own portfolio, be part of their community, and showcase your work in exhibitions. To enter simply comment and let me know your biggest problem when it comes to food photography (or anything else you’re struggling with in photography, if photographing food isn’t your thing).
The giveaway closes on 16 April at 11.59pm GMT, I’ll randomly draw a winner.

AND, Shutterhub are also offering 50% off their one year membership, if you want to create your portfolio right now - just sign up by 20 April and enter the discount code HELENA50.
Thank you Shutterhub team for being so generous!

P.S. I used this muffin recipe and slightly adapted it.

Food Photography

Last week I had the chance of being on set of a food photography shoot for the Sunday Times Magazine. It was wonderful! Such a great insight into food photography, and everything that’s going on behind the scenes.
I’ve done some food photography (see here and here - and read some tips here) myself, but in contrast to the Sunday Times shoot, I did everything on my own - from planning and preparing to cooking/baking, to styling, to photographing, to editing, and finally eating.
I can tell you, doing all that yourself can be very stressful, especially when you’re making something delicious that you just want to get your teeth into. Being patient and taking the time to photograph your food can be hard. And you don’t want to rush the process either, as you want to ensure you’ve got some good shots.

I’ve learnt a few new things on set the other day, e.g. that being picky is a good thing when it comes to photographing food. Don’t just settle for a shot that looks great at first sight, but take a closer look, especially if there’s a ‘repeating element’ in the photo (such as rice, chips, lettuce, …). Those things can easily create ‘gaps’ in between each other, leaving black holes. Go back and rearrange single parts, e.g. move a piece of lettuce slightly to create a homogenous image.

Relating to what I said before, it can really help to have a team of people working with you. Don’t feel like you have to do it all yourself. Of course you can, and it can be tempting to feel in control of everything, but it is so much easier to share tasks. If you want to focus on photography, work with someone who does a good job in the kitchen, and consider another person to help you out with props and styling.
Having a team of people on set also helps to judge the photographs and to get helpful feedback.
I’ve worked with my mum a few times before, she made most of the food, which let me focus my energy on styling and photographing. Just find people who are just as passionate about food as you are, and that you work well with.

That’s another thing - you have to really love food to work in food photography. Otherwise it can get really boring very soon. It’s still life after all, and in a way it’s all very similar.
I do love food a lot, so I really enjoyed being on set of a professional food shoot for a whole day. But even though I love food, I felt tired at the end of the day, and had definitely had enough of food for the day. I might not have actually eaten that much throughout the day, but being able to snack on so many different things all the time over the day really makes you feel like you’ve stuffed yourself.
But if you do love food enough, you’ll find that the next day you’re up for more food all over again ;)

This is a rather general post on food photography, and I’d love to share more specific advice with you. Is there anything that interests you in particular regarding food photography?

Happy 3. Advent / Baking Cookies

Being back home definitely put me in the Christmas mood - I feel a bit lazy, and chose to take the easy way for today's Advent's post. Which means I opted for one of the easiest and fastest cookie recipes in order to take some photos of the process.
Anyway, the recipe's at the end of the post, for now I'll hand over to Hanna:

Happy 3. Advent everybody! Are you enjoying the holiday season? I definitely am :). Tomorrow is my last day at university and after that I'll be able to spend all day doing Christmassy things - making presents for my family, ice skating, watching Christmas movies and of course, baking some cookies! In my opinion, there are few holiday traditions that are cosier than spending the afternoon inside baking and trying new recipes. There are some cookies I make every year (vanilla crescents I'm looking at you), but I always try to experiment a bit as well -this year I definitely want to go ahead and make some gingerbread.

So in celebration of the holiday season - why don't you take the afternoon off today and host a little cookie party? Just enjoy the day, maybe invite some friends over and spend hours decorating with chocolate and sprinkles, talking and drinking coffee as the sun slowly sets outside. After all, it's only one more week until Christmas and after that, we have to wait another year until we can eat all our favourite treats again!

And when you can finally get to take your cookies out of the oven, your home will also smell heavenly (definitely the second best thing about baking - after eating of course).

You'll be able to find loads of yummy cookie recipes on Hanna's pinboard, and my own one right here.

Recipe for 'Florentines' cookies. Note: not exactly the healthiest of recipes out there ;)

175 g sugar
75 g honey
125 g butter
150 g cream
175 g almond pieces
100 g sunflower seeds
150 g chocolate (melted)

Mix sugar, honey, butter and cream in a pot and heat up. Cook for about 5 minutes at low heat - keep mixing. Add almonds and sunflower seeds, and keep mixing at low heat for another 5 minutes.
Preheat the oven to 200 °C.
Spread out the mixture onto a baking tray (use baking parchment so it doesn’t stick), and cook for 12 minutes in the bottom half of the oven - until gold brown.
Let cool down on the baking tray, then flip over the whole big ‘cookie piece’. Melt the chocolate and spread on top of the flat surface. Let cool down until the chocolate has hardened again. You can either turn over the big cookie piece again, or cut into small pieces straight away.

Enjoy!

How to take pictures of food

Last week I talked about how to take pictures of people, today I want to focus on how to take great food photos.
It certainly requires a bit of practice, but I believe that you can totally do it if you apply some simple tips.

1. Clean background and surface
Make sure you’ve got a setup that will put the focus on your food by keeping it simple. Decide on what style you want the surface to be (e.g. rustic, glamorous, dreamy …). Also consider the colour, material, and texture of your backdrop. E.g. a wooden table will look natural, colour coming off the wood will look rustic. You can see different examples here and here. Will it make the food stand out, and will the colours of the food go with the colour of your backdrop?
Finally make sure there is nothing distracting lying around in the background or on the sides. If you can’t find a clean background just put up a simple piece of cloth.

2. Props
Before you start shooting have all the props ready that you might want to use. Think of what ingredients are included in the recipe, e.g. I used cinnamon as a ‘prop’ in the photos for my apple cinnamon cake.
You might also want to have a few different plates ready, as well as cutlery, and other items that can make your photos look more interesting.

3. Light
Light is always so so important! I prefer working with lots of natural, indirect light. You can also use a piece of white styrofoam (or something similar) to reflect some light.
If you have direct sunlight coming in through the windows make sure you have a light curtain to diffuse it.

4. Composition
Experiment. Move around, try some close-ups as well as wide shots to give an overview of the scene. In general make sure there isn’t too much going on, you don’t want the picture to look too busy. You can do so by putting your main piece of food in the centre/focus of the photo - not necessarily the actual centre of the frame, but considering the golden angle.
Also add and remove some items and props, take pictures of different combinations of food and items.

5. Perspective
Try some shots from above, from the side, on a slight angle. Again it’s all about experimenting and seeing what works in relation to what props you are using. Some plates and other items look better from above, close-ups of food might look better taken on a 45° angle from the side/above.

6. Focus on the fundamentals
Focus on the basics of the food - both in terms of actual camera focus, as well as keeping the set-up simple. What do you want the viewer to look at instantly? Where do you want the eye to go first?

7. Add some details shots
In addition to photos of the actual food take some detail photos of some of the props and ingredients. Shoot close-ups of spices, chocolate pieces, cutlery, etc. to mix things up a bit and to make the overall set of photos look more interesting.

8. Vertical and horizontals
This one is simple - shoot verticals as well as horizontals. You never know which one looks better until you’ve tried.

9. Edit your photos
Finally, this one will really enhance your photos, and get the most out of them. It will add that little extra in the end. Use whatever editing software you’re comfortable with, it doesn’t have to be fancy. To start with, all you want to be able to do is to crop, colour correct, adjust contrast and brightness.

In general you should have enough time to set everything up, and take a lot of photos. Don’t do it if you’re in a rush, or if you can’t wait to eat your food (yes, I’m always tempted). Also take more than one picture of each set-up variation, so you will end up with a whole lot of photos to choose from in the end. This is especially important if you are just starting out and aren’t quite sure yet what works.

I hope you’ve found this advice helpful. As I’ve said, you won’t become a pro overnight, but you can certainly improve your food photos if you apply these tips.

P.S. The pictures above are some of the outtakes from the apple cinnamon cake shoot.

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Apple Cake with Cinnamon

So, I love baking. I even thought about making a cookbook a while ago, then realised that a baking book would be more suitable. For now I’m focusing on other things, but I still love the idea and will keep thinking about it. Anyway, let’s start by adding a bit more of a foodie feeling to this space every now and then - starting with this apple cake today. I can tell you it’s delicious! It’s super easy, simple and quick to make, and it really does taste awesome - no matter whether you eat it while it’s still warm (with vanilla ice cream - yum), the next day or even a couple of days later. It will stay moist, with just the right kind of sweetness. Here’s to the simple things in life.

(I’ve used this recipe as a guideline.)

Ingredients:
85 g butter (about 8 tbsp)
190 g flour (1 ½ cups)
1 ½ tsp baking powder
1 tsp cinnamon (or more if you like)
½ tsp salt
175 g sugar (a bit less than a cup)
1 large egg
120 ml milk (½ cup)
1 ½ tsp real vanilla sugar
4-5 apples (peeled and sliced)

2 tbsp sugar (depends on how much sugar & cinnamon you want to sprinkle on top)
1 ½ tsp cinnamon

Preheat oven to 175°C (350°F), and butter a 20-25 cm pie or cake pan.
In a small bowl whisk together flour, cinnamon, salt, and baking powder.
In a larger bowl beat butter and sugar until fluffy. Mix in the egg, milk, and vanilla sugar until just combined.
Add dry mixture gradually, mixing until just smooth. Pour into pan.
Arrange apple slices on top, mixing some into the batter, or layering them on top of each other.
Mix sugar and cinnamon together, and sprinkle over the cake - as much as you like. Bake for 10 minutes, then reduce oven temperature to 150°C (325°F) and bake until golden brown, for about 45-55 minutes. If a tester comes out with a few crumbs that’s fine, as it means the cake will be moist and not too dry. Let cool in pan, and enjoy with some vanilla ice cream while the cake is still warm.

Vanilla Stars

Since I'm back home, covered in lots and lots of white snow, I feel even more like winter and Christmas. So first thing I did was photograph some yummy Christmas cookies. Of course photos first. Well, eating and taking photos at the same time actually.

So now let's share some food love:

Vanilla Stars

you'll need: 

300 g butter

400 g flour

150 g sugar

a little bit of salt

1 egg

2 vanilla beans

80 g icing sugar

100-150 g quince jelly (or some other kind of sticky jam)

how to do it:

Cut 200 g of butter into small pieces. Mix with flour, salt, and egg until smooth.

Wrap the mixture into transparent film, and keep in fridge for at least 1 hour.

Then roll out the dough and cut out cookies, in whatever shape you like really.

Melt 100 g of butter. Add half of the inside of one vanilla bean + one whole vanilla bean to the butter.

Mix other half of inside of vanilla bean with icing sugar.

Bake the cut out stars for about 10 minutes - 200 degrees celcius.

Straight after baking spread some vanilla butter onto each star. Let cool.

Heat up jam a little bit, mix until smooth, and spread onto half the amount of stars. Put the rest of the stars on top. Sprinkle with dusting powder.

(apparently it takes a couple of days for the cookies to develop a full vanilla flavour.)