Before.

My good friend Mary of n00bcakes recently came into possession of a large quantity of fresh Florida oranges and generously decided to take recipe idea requests.

Mary not only selected the retro-oriented* recipe I suggested but also surprised me with the gorgeous and tasty finished product for my birthday. OM NOM NOM. It’s called an Orange Chiffon Cake and you should read all about Mary’s experiences with it over at n00bcakes.

Mary also asked me to take photos of the cake, thereby providing a change of locale and the utilization of my DSLR. For those who are into the facts, the photos (and most photos I post) were shot with the Canon Rebel XT (c. 2007) with the Canon EF-S 60mm f/2.8 Macro USM Lens (a gift from the bf). Oh – and to have “better” pictures than she could take herself, which I found flattering but debatable. More on that in just a moment.

Attribution unknown. Click to view larger.

As I said recently, it’s time to take the photography off of the back burner. A while back, I reached one of those awkward points in any developing skill where people you know think you’re good, but you’ve been looking around and you know you could be so much better, so you’re embarrassed and awkward about it (See brilliant graph above; if seeking a comparison, I’d say I’m thinking I took that second, abrupt plunge). You have to push through those rough patches, get new skills and achieve a higher level of work that you are more pleased with. At least, that’s what it seems like you should do, and bears no resemblance at all to what I did. My reaction was to stop processing my photos and go back to a completely snapshot you-got-it-or-you-didn’t approach (with a DSLR, hilarious I know). And to stop organizing or generally even ever looking at my photos. Or thinking about them. Basically, I’ve checked out of the whole process. Le sigh. So I am making the commitment to alter this. I think the first step was going through the mire of the last year’s halfhearted results. Now I’ve got to start living it more. This probably means it’s time to commit to a 365 project, but ehhhhhhh… we’ll see. Maybe a 52/365 project. I’ll think about it. Anyway, here are the photos:

BEHOLD!

The cake was truly blissful to consume, and I think Mary said it best: “a light and springy texture… orangey without being overwhelming”. Can’t wait to have more tonight! No further comments from me about the photography, because I am grumpy about it.

* Chiffon cakes are soooooo mid-century retro-tastic! And they were first baked by a Baker, which is serendipitously cute. The Wikipedia nugget: “The chiffon cake was invented in 1927 by Harry Baker, a California insurance salesman turned caterer. Mr. Baker kept the recipe secret for 20 years until he sold it to General Mills. At this point the name was changed to chiffon cake and a set of 14 recipes and variations was released to the public in a Betty Crocker pamphlet published in 1948.”