I finally snagged a weekend to myself and made it a priority to complete a much-needed food shoot! I love getting my Taste of Home magazines, especially during the holiday season. There are always so many delicious recipes to try out. This weekend was perfect for an elaborate food shoot due to the fact that it rained constantly. The wind was howling so hard I was afraid I would be swept away if I put one foot outside. Unfortunately, it seems that scenario was not far from reality for several families across the nation this weekend, as some 77 reported tornadoes emerged from the severe thunderstorms. My heart goes out to anyone who was affected by the storms.
I had been drooling over a particular recipe found in the September/October edition of Taste of home, a cranberry swirl loaf with a cranberry caramel drizzle. View recipe here. I’ll start off by saying that this loaf was delicious, a wonderful balance of sweet vs. tart and plenty moist throughout. However, it was particularly putzy. There were several 45 minute intervals where the dough had to rise and whatnot. In all, I think I ended up spending about 7 hours from start to finish on this project. Keep in mind I was also photographing, which adds time of course. Overall, well worth the time put in, but don’t expect to get the same results if you feel like rushing it. The other thing I noticed was that the cranberry filling seemed a little skimpy. Should I make this recipe again (which I was hoping to for my family’s thanksgiving meal) I think I would maybe double the ingredients for the filling to make sure I had plenty of cranberry swirl! The cranberry caramel drizzle was wonderful!! I have never had a flavored caramel before, at least not cranberry. I had plenty of caramel left over so I put some in a mason jar so I can enjoy it on some vanilla bean ice cream!
I wanted to focus on texture in these images since the loaf had so many textural elements that made it quite beautiful. I also tried a new idea of photographing ingredients with a macro lens, then cropping a small strip of ingredients and organizing them by color, a visual ingredient list if you will. I didn’t photograph all of the ingredients, but if I revisit this technique I will try to capture them all. Enjoy the images, give the recipe a try!
Charlene Champion Photography 
This sounds and looks absolutely wonderful Charlene! 🙂 BEAUTIFUL photos.
Thanks Heidi!! I brought it into work today to share!
Wow, beautiful images, Charlene! That looks delicious!