SOWA food photography + styling Workshop overview plus a bunch of recipes

June 14th was a beautiful Sunday morning. It was kind of morning that made you want to take your dog out for a long walk- crisp, clear, sunny, with no humidity but a light breeze. It was the kind of morning that invited you to spread a picnic blanket out on a field and sip on wine and gaze at the clouds. At 8am, our attendees began to trickle in, clutching cups of coffee, because who gets up at 8am on Sunday?? However, they arrived, smiling and enthusiastic, a group of wonderful foodies who wanted to learn about food photography. I’m not going to lie – Meg and I were nervous. At least, I was definitely a bundle of nerves. My hands were still stained a bit pink from handling beets, and I tried to hide that as I smiled at the attendees. It turned out we didn’t have to be nervous at all – this group was GREAT. How did we get so lucky that our first group turned out to be so perfect?? I’m really excited to share this day with you all. I was so happy and honored to teach photography and styling, but honestly? I feel like I learned so much from this experience as well. I absolutely loved meeting everyone – there’s something really special and heart warming about meeting other like-minded individuals (aka, people who would actually go into excited squeaks over good food, discussions about props, and enjoying a meal together).
I’ll also be sharing recipes for half the menu here – specifically, stone-fruit salad with hibiscus syrup, elderflower strawberry galette, citrus marinated beets with burrito and pistachios, and rosé sangria with cherries, strawberries, lemon, and basil. You can find the rest of the menu at Bread + Barrow. If you’re interested in future events, shoot me an email at bettysliu07 [at] gmail, and I’ll put you on the emailing list so you’ll be the first to know. We will be doing more events this fall. Also, feel free to follow me on instagram, as I always post updates there as well :). 

Rose Hokkaido Cupcakes with Pistachio-Infused Cream + potluck + event!

Hi everyone, I’m back in the States!! We arrived, exhausted from four plane rides, in Boston yesterday late afternoon (that’s what you get for traveling with miles, I suppose!). New Zealand was an incredible experience. Alex and I did a self-drive adventure, embarked on many trails and hikes, gingerly participated in adventures such as floating down a river in a pitch-black cave, illuminated only by the glow of 2 million glowworms suspended on the ceiling, and combatting sea-sickness to go 20km out into open sea to swim with 500 dusky dolphins. 500!! Before and during the trip, we heard this question constantly: why New Zealand for your honeymoon? The short and quick answer is just because. We’re young, we crave adventure, we’re photographers, we want to go somewhere new and different. The long answer, well, you can go do your own research on the amazing experiences New Zealand can offer.

That being said, I’m so excited to have a post ready for you the day I get back~!! Like a good girl, I’d prepared this way before I left so that I wouldn’t be scrambling to take photos and make cupcakes on Sunday night. Like a not-so-prepared blogger, I didn’t have anything written up except the recipe I’d developed. Oops. Because my mind is still fuzzy from travel fatigue and sorting through hundreds of emails + snail mail, I’m going to keep it short. I’d like to talk to you about three things:

1. I’m participating in a virtual edible flower potluck!! See list of links at the end of the post. So delighted to be joining all these talented bloggers. Please go check out their posts – there are some amazing things being done with flowers!
2. My contribution: rose hokkaido cupcakes with pistachio infused whipped cream. Pistachio and rose are a match made of dreams, and I couldn’t resist yet another infusion. I couldn’t really find any previous recipe about infusing whipped cream with pistachio, but I did find quite a few for hazelnuts. I applied the same principle and – it totally worked! I wanted to eat the rest of my pistachio-whipped-cream by the spoonful. I’m never going back to regular whipped cream again! As for the cupcakes, they are a super soft cupcake, made in a similar style to a chiffon cake, that is supposed to collapse. They’re supposed to get wrinkly and then puffed up again later by filling it with a custard or cream. Isn’t that amazing? I found this recipe and this to be very helpful in developing the resulting cupcake recipe. I made a few tweaks and ditched the custard cream completely, instead choosing to fill it with a soft whipped cream infused with pistachio. Yum. See recipe below.
3. I’m hosting an event with Meg of Bread+Barrow!!!!!! and YES it is about edible flowers!! If you’re in the Boston area, I’d love if you would stop by and hang out with us. We’re going to talk about edible flowers, how they can be incorporated as a flavor, decoration, and styling element, and you will have the opportunity to play around with the props and do some photographing yourself. Also, we’re so honored to have Scoopsies ice cream at this event!!! It’s free of charge and you can RSVP here.