Bakexcuse.me

Happy World Chocolate Day 🍫

Yes, I know it was yesterday but I was too busy eating chocolate 🙃

I admit, I baked brownies countless times during the past several months 🤎 and I don’t plan to stop anytime soon 🤣

What’s your latest baking obsession?

Lately, I’ve been thinking a lot about travelling. Maybe because I constantly see beautiful photos from Italy. It seems nowadays everyone goes there to eat gelato and pasta 🤣 I know I would go in a heartbeat but that’s not in the books for me this summer 🥺

However, I’m wondering if we enjoy travelling so much because we nourish our childlike approach to life while visiting new places? If you think about it for a second, aren’t curiosity and admiration common emotions we felt then 🤔 And just like kids, don’t we create valuable memories out of ordinary things?

One of those adventures was my trip to Malaga earlier this year 💜 I was blessed enough to meet some new friends and reconnect with my old ones. It didn’t take us more than one meal to create long lasting connections 🥰

In my opinion, that’s the point of trips (besides admiring nature, architecture, fashion, local food and culture) 😁

Thanks to my dear friend Seema who organised this new community photography project Color & Emotion, I’m sharing a few images from that trip with you.

Any plans for summer? Are you going to Italy? 🍝🍦

.dallalba

Nurturing simplicity in cake creation 🙃

Life in layers 🫠

In some areas you could be an expert while in others you are just a beginner. How beautiful (and frustrating) that is! 🙃

I got to the point where I can pretty much easily develop a new cake recipe 🤓 The same person (me) spent the last 6 hours to figure out just one basic function in InDesign. I still didn’t get it right 😂🤦🏻‍♀️

But tomorrow is a new day and a new opportunity to sit in front of the computer for hours in hope that I’ll finally find a solution. 🫣

Until then, I have this beautiful Cacao Rum Orange GF DF cake to enjoy 🙃

When I teach chefs food photography I explain to them how to take pretty photos easily. There’s no need for adding more stress on an already stressful job. Good light makes all the difference 😉 If possible do all the prep close to the window or at least bring the plate or baking pan close to a window when taking photos.

Here are a few iPhone shots from today. I baked gf df brownies and made two batches of chocolate chip cookies. I’m ready for the weekend 🥳 Are you?

🍒 Backgrounds 🍒

Despite having multiple vinyl backgrounds I found myself using kitchen/bathroom tiles the most over the last 2 years 😎

It all started with me curiously strolling through the tile store next to the place where I bought some Portuguese plates for the project I worked on at the time. I accidentally found 2 tiles that I instantly fell in love with 🥰 But when I decided to buy them I was told that I can’t buy individual pieces 🥺 After I simply explained why I needed just one of each tile, the seller gifted them to me. I was in shock 😳 I wish I had some cookies on hand to share with him but I didn’t 🤷🏻‍♀️ (even though I often bring food wherever I go).

Back to the point - here are some things that you should consider before heading to the tile store:
🔸Ceramic tiles are heavy
🔸For me 60x60cm tiles work the best - not too heavy but not too small
🔸Put a cloth under the tile so you don’t scratch your surface (like I did with my new desk) 🤦🏻‍♀️
🔸Plan storage space - I simply lean them on the wall and put a cardboard between them
🔸Pick some matte tiles if you don’t want to deal with reflections
🔸Handle them carefully as they can break and chip
💸 Here in Spain one set of 4 tiles 60x60cm cost between €20-40

⁉️Oh, it’s been a minute since I posted something here, do we still use # 🤨

New day new challenge 3/3 😄

Here's my take on brownie:
- I used brownie as a base
- added one layer of sour cherry compote with sour cherry liqueur
- added one layer of chocolate ganache
- and placed chocolate cremeux covered with red velvet spray on top of this mini cake

This is not a summer dessert but I wouldn't mind having it now anyway 😂

A few words about the and challenge:
What I love the most about this challenge is that it made me realize the gaps in my portfolio. For example, I barely have any photos with more than two colors 😳 so for this 3rd day let's count white as a color. Ok? Ok 😊
Reason is obvious 😂 I loooove simplicity (in baking, in photography, and in life in general). I'm taking this insight as a blessing and I'm going to explore how to add more color and interest to my photos in the future.

Thank you Bea and Anja for creating this challenge and for gently nudging us to push our boundaries 💕

.es

Continuing on yesterday's post - inspiration for this mini cake came from sandwich cookies.

- I used pate sucree (sweet tart dough) and raspberry ganache.
- To make it more airy I added few layers of my favorite chocolate cremeux.
- Chocolate glaze is on top to make this cake even more irresistible 🤤

Unexpected way to serve sandwich cookies, don't you think? 😂

.es

3 ways to add a modern touch to traditional desserts:
- explore different flavor combinations while keeping the main (recognizable) flavor
- use unexpected shape
- change decoration

Here is how I added a twist to carrot cake:
- instead of cream cheese frosting I used caramelized white chocolate ganache
- smaller portion size and cube shape
- candied carrot curl instead of pecan nuts (I didn't use them at all)
- it's also gluten free & dairy free

_____
Didn't post for a while and I just noticed that it reminds me of having a baby - you blink twice and time flew by 😂 it's been two months already and it seems like two weeks 🙈

Anyway, the reason for this post is to join my friend Bea's and lovely Anja's challenge. Using just one color in a photo is such a powerful concept and I must admit that I love it. All the magic lays in editing 😉

Here is some work from my students from the past week. 🥹 They learned a lot about food plating and even though most of them weren't interested in fine dining and "smaller amount of food on the plate"🫣 🤣 they did an awesome job. 👌
You can see how their plating and photography skills improved in just three days while I was teaching them. 🥰
As I always say: Staying open minded and seeking for solutions rather than discussing problems is way to go.

This was 4th group of students that I taught at and I can't wait to go back ✨

Today at students had a praline workshop with chef from . They learned about tempering chocolate and praline making. Some tempering techniques are messier than others but they often give more desirable results, so that's forgivable. 🤣 It's true, students made some chocolate mess (see my Stories) but it resulted with beautiful treats 😍

Also, seeing them so focused in the kitchen today inspired me to take some photos of their work and use them to explain color theory and composition more clearly. 🤓 That's something we'll be working on tomorrow.

For me, creating beautiful photos start in the kitchen, with recipe development and not by adding unnecessary things to the scene. When food is prepared perfectly you don't need to hide any imperfections, just capture the details - colors, textures, shapes. It's that simple.

Then you focus on color theory, composition and light et voilà - you're making people hungry with every photo you take.

Today at students had a praline workshop with chef Robert Bašić from . They learned about tempering chocolate and praline making. Some tempering techniques are messier than others but they often give more desirable results, so that's forgivable. 🤣 It's true, students made some chocolate mess (see my Stories) but it resulted with beautiful treats 😍

Also, seeing them so focused in the kitchen today inspired me to take some photos of their work and use them to explain color theory and composition more clearly. 🤓 That's something we'll be working on tomorrow.

For me, creating beautiful photos start in the kitchen, with recipe development and not by adding unnecessary things to the scene. When food is prepared perfectly you don't need to hide any imperfections, just capture the details - colors, textures, shapes. It's that simple.

Then you focus on color theory, composition and light et voilà - you're making people hungry with every photo you take.