Halloween Cupcake

Halloween Cupcake, a photo by (Ashley) on Flickr.

I haven’t shared a photo in a while! My new basement studio is working out quite nicely.

MMmmm red velvet cake cupcakes… sooo goood….*drool* & Being pregnant means I got to have two HAHA

Happy Halloween everyone :)

Spring Supplies

Spring Supplies, a photo by (Ashley) on Flickr.

Spring has sprung!

I took a nice trip to the west end of Toronto today to one of my fav baking supply places McCall's. www.mccalls.ca

I was able to pick up a 12 pack of silicone baking cups in pink, yellow, blue and green! For $8! I always see these in garish colors and was happy to find some cute ones.

Then I picked up 2 new non-pariels in blue and green. I was so impressed by their selection. I'm just waiting for an occasion to buy their black crystal sugar and black birthday candles... How fun would that be??

Did you know they have WALL of cookie cutters? I had to have the cute little tulip for future baking. Hey, at less than $2..how can you not?

Lastly I had a long conversation with one of their workers about the scoop pictured and what the RIGHT size is for cupcakes vs muffins vs ice cream. I walked away with the #20, 2oz scoop in yellow :)

They also do an array of classes at this place. Decorating, icing, fondant for all ages. I suggest you give them a visit when you are next in the west end.

McCall's School and Supply Store is located at:
3810 Bloor Street West
Etobicoke, Ontario, M9B 6C2, Canada

Lauren Cheong

Another inspiration post! It's spring and it's time to un-thaw those creative ideas that have been building up all winter.

Lauren Cheong, food photographer, who I found in a maze of research for a local event I'm planning with TPMG. I not only love the simple style of the website but the images as well. Nice clean crisp colors and textures. So well lit.

I've been trying to find a place to host a food photography event in Toronto and am coming up empty. As a local hobbyist group we certainly don't have the funds to rent out a big space with a full kitchen. My best hope, Loblaws, who have these great teaching kitchens - nope. So disappointing. Next stop is the local rec centers around the city that we may be able to rent out. This is proving more work that I wanted as I honestly thought Loblaws would pull through. Once we get a good space the works the follow up events will be easy easy!

It's also been a rough baking week. My attempts to make my Grandma's tomato soup cake ended in a mess on Sunday. I guess when I copied the recipe over I missed a cup of flour.... oops! So after 50 minutes of baking a loaf cake and it was still wet... I knew something was up. I'll have to try this again and make sure I have the right recipe in front of me. It's really a great cake!

Etsy Wants

At home feeling sick and trolling my way through Etsy on the couch. While other sites have come and go, Etsy, which I`ve been on for years now, is still a fav or mine.

One of my recent fav shops is The Bakers Confections I love all the bright colors and different candies and cupcake liners. I could easily spend a fortune here! And gain 10 lbs using it all ;)

Also Dime Store Buddy LOVE these straws and can see all the summer drink ideas come to life. But 100 straws, do I really need that many? (YES)

My plan is also to go to Michaels this weekend to pick up some larger sequins. I have this neat bokeh shot in my head and need to craft up something this weekend.


BAKE ON
Ashley

Yvonne Duivenvoorden

Another inspiration post. I really like to keep up with what's going on in the food photo world, especially in Toronto. Stumbled onto this photographers site by accident and was really impressed and amazed at the talent here. Such wonderful images and I love the bright look, but yet it's not overly high key as we see a lot of today.

Such great work... WOW! Take a look: Yvonne Duivenvoorden

PS, Yvonne if you are ever to read this.. I'm a really good assistant!! Will work for noms :D

A Rookie Error

I decided that I would make a little test day for some sandwich shots. I got all my food prepared - set up ready to go - lighting was great. Started shooting and playing around with shooting and was pretty happy with the results. Load things up on Light Room and started to edit...when I noticed how grainy my shots were. Hmmm...odd.

The I checked my settings to see why and then it hit me... ISO 800..... !!! DUH. I forgot to change my settings back from the night before when I was out shooting night images of the beach.

*FACEPALM*

Lesson of the day ...CHECK YOUR SETTINGS BEFORE YOU START SHOOTING! :D

Lucky Valentines

Lucky Valentines , a photo by (Ashley) on Flickr.

Starting to roll out the Valentines Day images for 2012!

I've been obsessing over Korea lately by addicting myself to www.eatyourkimchi.com So I picked up some Pocky or Lucky Sticks from the grocery store. Haven't had a chance to visit Little Korea but hopefully soon!

Holy Crap....

So I was catching up on all my Google Reader items (I forget this exists for at least a week at a time and then have 100 things to read) and came across this blog from another blog hidden in a post and OH EM G...this guy is my new fav food photographer.

http://mattbites.com/

His stuff is jaw dropping good. I'm so jealous.

Last night I spent over an hour trying to put together my kitchen island from IKEA. I totally broke down and bought and am now trying to figure out where the heck I'm going to put it. But this site makes me want to hurry up and get shooting again.

Thanks Matt for all the inspirational images. *drool*

Chocolate cupcakes with Blue icing

For some reason on Saturday I woke up at 8am and could NOT go back to sleep. So I got up and saw that it was snowing nicely (some of the only snow we've had this year in Toronto) and thought it felt like a good time to bake up something warm. I pulled out my mom's favourite chocolate cake recipe and thought cupcakes sounded like a good idea. My mom has been making this recipe for ages and knows it by heart I think.

1 Cup Flour
1 Cup Sugar
1 tsp Baking Soda

You mix the dry ingredients in a bowl. Then take the 1 cup measure and beat 1 egg in the measuring cup. Then fill the cup with milk. Mix with the dry ingredients. Add in a pinch of salt and 1/4 tsp of vanilla.

Melt 1 1/2 squares of bakers chocolate (I like to do 2 squares) and 1 tbsp butter over low heat in a sauce pan. Once melted, add to the mix slowly.

Once mixed bake at 375 for 15-18 minutes. All I did for the icing was use a few drops of blue food colouring and some coarse sugar to decorate :)

Creating the space you need

I have a smallish apartment. 1 bedroom with a killer view. I really struggled in 2011 with SPACE and creating the right space to feel creative in and shoot my images. Sometimes you need that catylist to puch you back into the groove and give you lots and lots of ideas and get those creative juices flowing. Well I think I might have found that catylist.... an IKEA kitchen island. :)




This puppy would be perfect for food photography... problem is space in my apartment for it. When I already have a ton of crap (and my boyfriends crap) in this place. We're both photographers on different systems (Canon vs Nikon) which means double the gear. Something has to give and I'm not sure what!! Do I move? Do I become kitchen table less? Couch less? This might take some thought... or an impulse buy!! :D I miss the days of my big old house(Ok just my office) where I had a room just for ME! One day I'll get it back with a vengeance... but for now.. something has to be axed! Any ideas on saving space? I'm stumped on this one.

French Macaron's

Last week was my co-worker Jackie's birthday and as a treat my boss brought in a selection of macaron's from Pusateri's down the street. I love these little pieces of heaven. I'm partial to the vanilla ones but can't help but love the sight of the more vibrant raspberry and caramel ones we had as well. So January's mission....MAKE FRENCH MACARON'S! The recipe looks easy, I've got the chopper and mixer ready to go...but I know these can be tricky. Here is a little inspiration to get going.

Warning...Do not watch if you are hungry...