Hello Cupcakes!!

My previous blogs had everything you can imagine about doing cupcakes. I taught you guys how to frost, and how to properly fill the cupcake pan with batter in order to get the best cupcakes. However, this time, I wanted this blog to be more creative. 

Today, I am going to frost designs on my cupcakes to make them more appealing. I don't know about you, but when I'm at a party and I see cupcakes, I always choose the ones that are very creative because they look more appetizing.  

First off, I started by baking some fresh and delicious cupcakes. I made a regular vanilla recipe cupcake batter but I added two handfuls of sprinkles and they looked so pretty after they baked. 

Inspired by the book Hello Cupcakes by Karen Tack and Alan Richardson, I decided to create petal like designs from frosting on my cupcakes. Trying to recreate light pink flower petals, I put strawberry syrup in the frosting before adding it to a Ziploc bag. I had to cut out a specific shape in the corner of the bag in order to achieve a petal like design. As you can tell by the picture below, you have to cut the corner into a v-shape in order to achieve that design. 

On page 14 of Hello Cupcakes it said, "Starting off the perimeter of the cupcake, place the tip flat on the surface of the cupcakes. Squeeze the bag, pulling away from the center of the cupcake. Use small side-to-side pushes or wiggles to make the leaf or petal shape. Work toward the center in concentric circles, overlapping the patter slightly." Now, honestly, this took me a couple of tries because the pattern isn't that easy to achieve. What helped me was putting the bag with the frosting in the freezer for 30 minutes so that it's firm. Then I piped the frosting on carefully and patiently, it'll take precision. 

Here is my finished product. Light pink petals piped on the cupcake. It isn't that good but hey I'm not a professional, and I hope you guys are learning along with me. It was fun to make, but it also came with patience. 

What is the most creative design you've seen on a cupcake? 

Richardson, Alan, and Karen Tack. Hello, Cupcake! Houghton Mifflin, 2009.

Photography - close ups on flowers

Photography was always something that fascinated me; with all the different aspects, like lighting, angles, exposure, and background, just to create the perfect picture. In this first blog post, I will focus on some techniques with taking close up pictures on flowers.

This picture was taken on my trip to Spain over the summer, when I was at La Alhambra in Granada. I took a close up picture on this pink rose with the landscape of part of La Alhambra in the background. The background is blurred, which enhances the flower and shows that the flower is the central focus of the picture. However, according to Robert Sheppard in The Magic of Digital Nature Photography, "Where a flower lives can be an important thing to include in a photograph. A close-up of a delphinium flower, for example, could be done in a garden or at its native sight in the mountains. While both shots could be great, the close-up won't define the location." From this, I can learn to not use the close-up setting so that I can show the location of the flower. However, this will take away the focus on the flower in the photograph. When wanting to isolate a flower, doing a sharpness contrast can help, which is making the subject sharp and the background unsharp (blurred). Using the close-up or program feature may make the camera choose an f/stop that "creates too much depth of field, resulting in a lack of sharpness contrast." (Sheppard, 124). The best way to use a sharpness contrast is using the widest aperture to create a fast shutter speed that then maintains proper exposure.

The picture was taken at eye level, which helps elevate images. According to Sheppard, "An effective way of photographing a person is to put your camera right at their eye level. The same thing is true about flowers. The most common angle of flower photography is from above looking down, which can make it dull. While that is the way we see flowers, it is not the most effective view of them. Getting down low to blossom level will often elevate your images." (Sheppard, 121). This tells us that flower photographing flowers is somewhat similar to photographing people because of some of the angles at which you photograph the subject.

Lastly, the background setting is important for the photograph. As I said before, this picture was taken at La Alhambra in Granada, Spain. The flower was located on a ledge in the garden in La Alhambra. Having a part of the tourist attraction helps give context of where it is located. From the photograph, you may infer that the flower is on a ledge because of the landscape behind it and its relation to the flower. Some other plants are seen in the landscape, as well as the other parts of this famous historical tourist attraction. In addition, the photograph tells us that it is outdoors and that the flower could be near some buildings.

To finish this off, did blurring the background affect what you think the location was? Was blurring the background through the close-up feature a good artistic decision or should I have not used the close-up feature at all? What suggestions may you have for showing the location and using sharpness contrast?

Citation: Sheppard, Rob. The Magic of Digital Nature Photography. Second ed. New York: Lark, 2007. Print.