I have had my camera for four years this year. In 2010 I bought a new lens for it that has changed the way I use my camera, before that I was pining for a newer model. After being told it’s mainly the lenses that make the camera, I splurged on a new one and have not looked back.

The way you photograph your creations makes a very big difference to how they’re perceived.  Mobile phone shots are just likely to make them look very regular, when you should give yourself some credit and make them look as spectacular as they are!

What camera do you use?

I use a DSLR. If you don’t know what that is, a DSLR is a higher end professional quality camera that allows you to change the lenses. Digital cameras basically have a lens built into them you can’t change. Lenses affect the zoom and the amount of light that can enter the camera, which helps with low light shooting.

I use a Nikon D70, and my primary lens is a 50mm f/1.8. My backup handbag camera is a Canon IXUS 80IS which has great close up capability and produces a very clear shot.

How do you get these kinds of photos?

I must admit that it is after the purchase of the 50mm that things changed. The difference with this compared to other lenses is that the smaller the f number, the more light that can go into the camera, and the price goes higher. A 50mm lens is a fixed lens, so you can’t adjust the zoom at all, but is considered one of the most important lenses you can have. It helps to give this incredible depth of field effect that you see in a lot of my photos, the style of one thing being in focus while the rest gradually falling into the background.

What do you use for lighting and background setup?

I work on a budget, so I use a big white canvas as a backdrop for most shots, and my kitchen bench. It is a neutral gray colour so it helps with bringing out the colour in whatever my shots are. I do primarily dessert and macro photography anyway.

With lighting, I try and work in the middle of the day. Nothing is better than diffused natural light coming in from a window. It’s important to get enough light for your camera to take clear photos but not too much light and definitely avoid fluros or harsh yellow light.

What do you use to edit your photos?

Adobe Photoshop CS4. I make some changes to colour and contrast, and sometimes put some crazy action on top to make the colours different, but I like a natural look these days.

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The cupcakes in the photos are part of a mixed dozen. I had an order from someone in the UK who wanted to send a box of cupcakes to her friend here in Adelaide, so I put together a mixed dozen of chocolate, vanilla, caramel and raspberry.

There’s still time to enter the competition to win the Cupcake book – you have until Monday!

Happy 14th of February!

The last four days have been my busiest cake days on record. I baked 250 mini cupcakes, two dozen regular cupcakes, one giant cupcake, one 6″ cake and ~60 macarons… And only about a quarter of those were related to Valentine’s Day! Phew.

Since my last post I also went to teach a cupcake decorating party as part of a hen’s afternoon..

It was HOT and a very long drive to get there, but I had a great time and they made some spectacular cupcakes.

Now for more fun things! I have booked in a time to teach my own cake decorating classes in the city. They are held at the Box Factory Community Centre and the first one is Cupcakes 101 on April 11th (how original is that title? But it explains it well)!

If you’re in Adelaide and you’re interested, all the information is over at Cupcake Treats, and I am really really looking forward to it! The space at the Box Factory is wonderful and the staff are lovely. I love teaching others! I designed the certificates today.. I can’t wait to show the students.

Over the next three weekends I am teaching three cupcake decorating parties and a class, I’m busy but it’s great!

And finally something we quickly whipped up for a friends birthday last week… an iPod cake!

P.S – If you haven’t seen my jelly slice recipe before, I made a batch on Sunday for an order and I had leftovers to eat… Oh my goodness, it has been too long since I had jelly slice! You should go and make some, I won’t tell anyone

Busy weekend this one!

I went to a wedding of a family friend on Saturday, and as well as the seven tier surprise tower (above) we made for the bride and groom, I was also the photographer. A very very long, hot and tiring day, but I had one of the most wonderful and fun days I’ve had in quite a long time, with a lot of good laughs at the reception, so thank you to the bride and groom for letting me be part of it! The tower was 75 chocolate mud cupcakes with teal/blue frosting and silver cachous to match the theme of the wedding.

Before the wedding I went on a journey across the city to deliver these. Simple cupcake tower with purple liner, pale purple frosting and purple lettering/numbers. I got great feedback from these, was a pleasure making them!

To top off the weekend, I took some of the left over wedding cupcakes to a Twitter Meetup in the city on Sunday, so it was a weekend full of cupcakes and great feedback

This Saturday I have one of my biggest cupcake challenges so far, Cupcake Decorating for a Hen’s Party! There’ll be 20 guests so I’m looking forward to how busy I will be running between guests. I’m bringing an assistant though to lighten the load.

And finally, if you’re reading this from Adelaide, I strongly urge you to get involved in my other major cupcake project, Cupcake Camp! Head on over to http://www.facebook.com/cupcakecamp for all the details and come along to the free bakers training session (once you sign up as a volunteer of any kind) and meet me!

NEVER making this mistake again.

This weekend I had two orders, a big square cake for four people having their 30th together, and a steak cake. Steak cake is probably my signature cake now, as after this weekend I’ve made three of them and they are all perfect.

Except I was only meant to make two.

This is steak cake number one, the vanilla steak cake. Except for the customer order, I was meant to bake a chocolate one. Hours after it had cooled I went back to the customer order and gasped loudly. It was nearly 10pm and the cake was due for delivery the next day, at lunch time. Never mind. I came up with the best possible solution which was to offer the second one for sale (as of course, there was nothing wrong with it) and luckily managed to sell it pretty quickly

Two steak cakes in one weekend! I think I’m over steak cake and would like a real steak now please

I was having a bit of a “moment” last week when I was baking some test work. When things don’t work out like I plan, or if things turn out not how they always should, I am a little discouraged. When it happens every single time (known as a bad run) I start to feel really down about my baking skills.

As they say, I think I have my mojo back. Today I finished up an order for collection first thing in the morning for a birthday for a little girl who I hope will love her cupcakes. This is one of my favourite cupcake orders of all time, and I just wanted to share this with you!

And to keep you on your toes.. I’m running a cupcake cook book giveaway starting Monday! Come back and check it out to enter and hopefully you’re the winner

I’m not sure if I prefer the mushrooms to be bigger but making them was fun!

I’ve never really been the most artistic person in the world so I actually had to look up a tip on how to make the mushrooms in the first place. I guess not everyone knows right from the start, right? Anyway, things are easier than they seem. I thought these were pretty cute and just wanted to show you all the final result.

Also I have started preparing for the next Cupcake Camp Adelaide this week and I am extremely excited to have so many more keen people on board to volunteer this year! It will be held at the end of March / early April and I should have a venue for you by this time next week