After a short intermission, I have new work to show! First, I have cinnamon buns that I made with a recipe by Linda Lomelino, a baker and photographer that I greatly admire. These are not gluten free, so I wasn’t able to eat them, but my husband was very happy they were in the house.

The dough and filling both have cardamom, a spice I have (not sure why) but never use. I tried a bit of the filling before it went in the dough, and shortly after my mouth went completely numb. So, I think I found out that I’m allergic to cardamom! But, I’m glad it was just numbness and not something worse.

In any case, I had a lot of fun making the buns. It’s so satisfying to work with dough that springs back and stretches the way you expect it to. My husband and I worked together to make the knots and in the end I think we got it down! I’m sure these buns will be happening again soon.

I shot these over two days. The first day went well, but I felt like there was something missing. The shots were alright, but I wasn’t too excited. So, I picked up some flowers and shot the next day and played with them a bit, and they really added the spark I was looking for. It was inspiring to have something new and bright to get the creative juices flowing.

Then recently, we celebrated my birthday, and to add something a little cute and sweet (and maybe slightly strange – like me!) I made a neapolitan, gluten free cake.

We ate. This entire. Cake. It was so delicious. Perfectly soft vanilla and chocolate layers, and smooth, light, and bright strawberry swiss meringue icing. Which, by the way, stressed me out to no end. I have made italian meringue in the past, but this swiss meringue went through so many terrifying stages, I was convinced it was going to flop. But somehow, it came out to be the smoothest, softest, lightest icing I’ve ever worked with. Somehow, this cake came out beautifully.

The topper is what I was really focused on when I began this cake-venture. Recently, I have started following cordy89 on instagram. Her cakes are so beautiful. The topping is always some kind of explosion of flowers and fruit. I knew after seeing these that I needed to try it. I did a lot of planning and even had to go on a bit of a hunt for hydrangea (found some beautiful blue stems at Flowers in the Attic). When it came to the floral arrangement, I just kind of threw everything together. I don’t know the first thing about flower arranging, but recently in my work I’ve been trying to remind myself to just create something that makes me happy, so I did. I was very happy to have this cake on my birthday, even with all of the anguish the icing gave me.

Lastly, I am working on a collaboration with the talented Jessica Steffan. I just finished shooting today, so we’ll have some treats to share soon!

See you next time!