Ocala photographer specializing in family, children and seniors.

Yum!!!

So yesterday, I mentioned having a mountain of laundry to conquer. Well, I am awesome. I conquered Mount Saint Laundry and I made this!!!!!

This, my friends, is Meyer Lemon Cake! Doesn’t it look scrumptious? It is!

I have been wanting to do something with Meyer Lemons since I saw/ read about Martha praising their glory and using them in a lot of her recipes. She always mentioned how unique they were and how perfect they were for sweet & savory dishes. Meyer Lemons are said to be a cross between a true lemon and a Mandarin orange or a common orange. They’re less acidic and have a sweeter taste than true lemons. Their skin is thin and smooth unlike a true lemon. And it’s the most wonderful shade of yellow-orange. Like Martha says, “It’s a good thing.”

After the sweet-filled holiday season heavy with chocolate this and chocolate that, I was craving a sweet that was more refreshing. Enter the Meyer Lemon Cake.

I googled around and came upon this recipe. What drew me to this recipe was the simplicity of it all. No frostings…just a lemon syrup and a lemon glaze. And the pictures on the blog helped, too. This particular blogger also listed a few other recipes utilizing the Meyer Lemon. I’m guessing this gal knows her way around citrus.

I set out to make this in the late afternoon and finally had my first taste after the kids went to bed. Is it awful to wait until the kiddos are out of sight? Come on, you do it, too! Just before bed, Nicholas requested a piece at breakfast. With the little bit of guilt that I’m feeling, I may indulge him.

I knew going into this recipe that the cake would be my photo of the day. However, I didn’t know that I would be so challenged by it. I understand that food photography is a very hard niche to master. There are so many tricks and lighting techniques. Knowing which angle for this & that and where to bounce light from or what to subtract light from. It’s an art form in my book. Here are some pretty pictures!

What did I take away from this? A delicious piece of cake! Kidding. Mixing up the shoot with various angles is very important. I’m so glad that I took as many photos and experimented with different angles. What I thought that I enjoyed through the viewfinder, I was not having on my computer screen. Another lesson was about testing various apertures. This shot was very shallow at f/ 1.4. I wish that I had this particular frame with an increase of one or two stops. I would like to have had more in focus in the foreground. Also, I would like to have taken this in natural light, but at 7:45pm, the sun was long gone. I did what I could by setting a custom white balance on the camera and adjusting a little more in post. Not bad, but not perfect.

So the cake is tasty! I promise to share. Share a picture of an empty plate! Ha ha! (Click the yellow button on the link)

jenny e photography