I often take a few minutes to scan through flickr just to see what other people capture with their cameras. I ran across Melina Hammer’s flickr portfolio two years ago, and it’s one I always enjoy seeing updated in my contact list. What I really like about Melina’s work is her ability to move in between very strong visual compositions with primary ingredients, and prepared foods. When we invited her to participate in the column, she came right back with a choice of three recipes. We were very happy to see a creative recipe for Haloumi, Melon, and Avocado salad with lime-mint dressing that we are sure you will love to try out at your 4th of July barbecue! Haloumi isn’t available in Rome, that I’ve found, so if it is also unavailable where you are, you might try a cheese of similar consistency, which Melina describes below. Happy 4th– Shoot some Roman candles for me! I’ll miss the celebration! -Kristina
About Melina: As a photographer, Melina has devoted her lens for over ten years to award-winning documentation of abandoned US historical structures. Although her forays into food photography are recent, her work already appeared in print and on the web for large and small clients. Her lens and composition capture the vibrant qualities inherent in fresh and natural foods. Her work can be found at online at Getty Images, Flickr, and her own website, Melina Photos.
today i am thrilled to share a special in the kitchen with: sarah magid. i’ve been a fan of sarah’s work for a while now and have been dying to work with her on a cooking project. and thankfully, she agreed! so yesterday i visited sarah’s beautiful home in greenpoint, brooklyn (stay tuned for a sneak peek of sarah’s home in the coming weeks) and watched as she baked delicious dark chocolate cupcakes with espresso whipped buttercream and hand-sculpted sugar flowers (the cupcake is vegan-friendly!). normally i’m more of a cook than a baker, but sarah’s work really inspires me to get in the kitchen and try out a simple recipe like this. the steps take hardly any time at all, and produce incredibly tasty results (so tasty i ate them in the car on the way home) so i hope you’ll enjoy sarah’s recipe as much as i did. and if you’re looking for a bit more a baking challenge, sarah also teaches you how to make hand-sculpted sugar flowers in the video- so you can decorate your treats like a pro.
thank you to sarah and her adorable daughter ruby (you can meet ruby at the end of the video) for welcoming d*s into their home on such a dark and rainy day.
also, many congratulations are in order for sarah on the release of her new book: organic and chic: cakes, cookies, and other sweets that taste as good as they look- a wonderful, approachable guide to organic baking. i spent the last hour drooling over her recipes for cakes, cookies and updated junk food, so if you’re looking for more sarah magid in your life, or just a visual and baking treat (the book photos were shot at saipua, with flowers styled by weeder’s digest’s sarah ryhanen!) click here to pick up a copy- i guarantee you’ll find at least a recipe or two that make you want to drop what you’re doing and start baking (or at least eating).
CLICK HERE for the full cupcake and frosting recipe, and links for buying gumpaste and decorative baking powders online!
we’ve been lucky to have photographer sabra krock share two beautifully shot recipes with us so far (maple sour cream walnut muffins and artichoke casserole) and today we’re thrilled to have her back for a delicious seasonal recipe that’s perfect for weekend guests. i’ll let sabra take it from here, but i wanted to congratulate sabra on her new kids website and line of limited edition greeting cards (below). she’s offering a beautiful series of feather/egg photography cards and summer fruit photography. if you’re interested in picking up one of her sets just shoot sabra an email right here.
from sabra: i had originally thought about doing this recipe for the first post, but apricots have only just now hit the stores on the east coast. the recipe is (heavily) adapted from marcel desaulniers’ “oven-roasted plum cakes” in julia child’s baking cookbook, baking with julia (written by dorie greenspan). i must confess to being a bit of a cookbook junkie. i buy them now as much for the beautiful photography as for the recipes. i describe some of my current favorites in a recent post on my blog.
baking with julia is already more than ten years old but the recipes are as fresh and informative as ever. it is a great general baking reference book as well as a nice compilation of recipes from wonderful bakers such as nancy silverton and nick malgieri. one of my favorite food photographer teams, gentl and hyers, did the photos.
my recipe calls for baking the cakes in disposable tartlet cups (approximately 4 inches in diameter and ¾ inch high). The cups are just the right size to ensure that the pretty fruit pokes out of the top at the end.
this delicious recipe for rhubarb and strawberry compote (with aged balsamic and ricotta) comes from brooklyn-based photographer tara donne. tara has spent years honing her eye as a photography editor at domino, real simple, and martha stewart so today i’m thrilled to share her delicious recipe, and photos, for a tasty summer treat. want to see more of tara’s work? click here to check out her beautiful photos of people, places and, of course, food. [prop styling on photos above and below by stephanie hanes]
Last week we enjoyed Eunice Moyle’s recipe for Eton Mess. This week, her sister, Sabrina (together they form Hello!Lucky) gives us an entertaining “vintage” red velvet cake recipe with wonderfully styled photos to fit the vintage grandmother imagery. No, you’re not going crazy, we featured Amy Butler’s favorite red velvet cake recipe, too! They differ slightly, especially the icing, but both deliver a delicious cake.
You’ve seen a sneak peek of the Hello!Lucky sisters, Eunice and Sabrina Moyle, now comes time to peek into their recipe album for their favorite recipes. We’ve seen meringues here before, like the meringue berry cake that Ditte Isager made, also known as a pavlova in certain parts of the world. Now read Eunice’s favorite recipe, the Eton Mess. Next week, Sabrina’s recipe… -Kristina
I have admitted some of my obsessions here before, and here’s another: Carrot Cake. Like the perfect chocolate cake, I am always in pursuit of the perfect carrot cake. Equally as important as the crumb, though, is the frosting. I often use one recipe for the cake and another for the frosting, mixing and matching for maximum enjoyment. Until recently, the recipe for carrot cake from the Tate Modern Café was the best one I had, published in the British food publication Waitrose Food Illustrated. Will the recipe submitted by Julie Dutton from Studio Olivine for carrot cake cupcakes with maple cream cheese frosting dethrone the Tate Modern? I’ll report back at another date. In the meantime, try it and let us know if it hits the spot in your home! -Kristina
About Julie: Julie Dutton is the owner of Studio Olivine. A letterpress printer + illustrator by day and cat wrangler by night, she enjoys vocabulary, boggle and finding out where trite phrases originated. Her four cats are proof that she thinks animals are far better companions than people. She loves her play job where filling her every creative whim is a daily affair. Julie counts her lucky stars that she gets paid to create and do what she loves. Julie lives with her husband and aforementioned felines in SE Portland. [Click HERE and HERE for sneak peeks into Julie's home and studio!]
