Favourite Food Photos

I love taking photos, but invariably find myself disappointed with the pictures that I take of food. It's often because I have cooked in the evening, and it's harder to get good photos in artificial light. It's also that, once it's cooked, I just want to get on and EAT the food, not faff about with the camera. But even so, it's frustrating.

However, having just attempted to sort some of my thousands of digital photographs into some kind of order, I have discovered a few food photos that I really like, so thought I'd share:

Beef Wellington. This has become my culinary piece de resistance. I have only ever made it once, and will quite possibly never make it again, a) because buying such a large chunk of fillet steak would be so outrageously expensive in the UK that Rob would have a coronary before he even ate this, and b) this one was so good I'd be terrified that further attempts couldn't live up to it.


Cinnamon and Cardamon Rolls. From 'Falling Cloudberries' by Tessa Kiros. These were delicious - not my usual style of cinnamon buns (I would tend towards the more traditional syrupy sticky style) but they did look particularly beautiful lined up on the baking sheet. Like little snails... but in a nice way!

I have already blogged about my new-found love of making no-knead bread, and this is this weekend's effort - a sun-dried tomato and black olive version. Aside from the wonderful taste of this no-knead loaf, I just adore the cornmeal-flecked brown crackly top. I am always egotistically aglow with pride when I take one of these out of the oven - I feel like a professional baker!


The infamous Funfetti Cake! Yes, it's made from a Pillsbury cake mix; yes, it's chock-full of artificial colourings and flavourings, and is quite honestly way too sweet to eat more than a thin slice... but I still love it, especially the way it looks, fresh from the oven. This was the first time I had used my silicon bundt ring, and was delighted with the shape of this cake too.

From the ridiculous to the sublime - Elisabeth's Great-Aunt's Molasses Crinkle Cookies. This recipe was eagerly passed around the cooking forum - the cookies are wonderful, but with the added glow of knowing that it is a recipe that has been passed down through a friend's family. When I visited Elisabeth I was delighted to see the original recipe card, carefully handwritten by her great-aunt. Truly a little piece of food-history!

Apple and Mint Jelly. This is one of my favourite things to make, jar, and use throughout the year. It is especially tasty with roast lamb. The apples came from Sarah's apple tree, and the mint from her garden - so it was delightfully frugal, as well as being stunningly beautiful!

A campsite supper, eaten in California on our recent trip, and a fine example of how anything can taste amazing when eaten under the stars. Both the mac 'n' cheese and the wine were purchased at our favourite supermarket of all time, Trader Joe's, and cooked and eaten over the campfire, this truly felt like food of the Gods.


And finally, a shot from yesterday - this is Rob's birthday cake. It is a coffee sponge cake, topped with walnuts, made using a Nigel Slater recipe. We cut into it yesterday afternoon, sitting in the sun in the garden, drinking mugs of tea (strange how coffee cake goes so well with tea).