This post is not actually going to be about the cake. OK, here are a few lines about it. I wanted this 50th birthday cake to come out understated but still beautiful, and nothing achieves that like a white on white design. Combining lots of different flower shapes to form blooms never seen in nature, it was a challenge to make each one slightly different yet still interesting.
This post really is going to be about photography. To say that I spent as much time trying to photograph the cake as I did decorating it would be a gross exaggeration. It just felt that way.
Food photography is an art unto itself and one I have certainly not mastered. I mostly try to get a decent photo of each cake and then move on. But this one eluded me, probably because of the profusion of white.
Experts will tell you that getting the lighting right is crucial to a professional looking photo. So with that in mind my father and I set about building a photo light box. The guys in this video assure you that it’s as simple as a kindergarten project. And since my father is spending the vast majority of his retirement building furniture for every member of the family, I figured we could probably handle a kindergarten project. Somehow this simple project turned into a day-long father-daughter affair that ended with mixed results. The box is too small for most of the cakes and it refuses to hold together without tilting to one side or the other. We tried Velcro, glue, tape. And because the box is too small you end up seeing the seams in all the photos.
I know when to concede defeat. As it happens Amazon has light boxes in every size! Turns out, sometimes homemade is just not better.
