Tag: contest

Blog Event | DMBLGiT Apr 2015 … ‘Does My Blog Look Good in This’. It’s back! #foodphotography #contest

“Food photos are never just about food. They’re equally about people, landscapes, capturing moments, and a sense of place.”
Penny De Los Santos

Dulce de leche bundt cake There’s something about food photography that makes the heart skip a beat. It’s a truly rewarding experience, a visual delight, an instant connect. The immense sea of talent that food blogs now offer hits the ball out of the park. It fills me with pleasure to have the privilege of hosting this months DMBLGiT, a food photography contest, on PAB.

DMBLGiT – short for Does My Blog Look Good in This, is a community run food photography contest that was established in 2005, 10 years ago. It’s a one of its kind contest that is hosted by different food bloggers every month and is judged by outstanding food photographers who love DMBLGiT. I still remember the shock at picking up a badge many years ago while timidly blogging in my little corner of the world. That was a post in November 2008. It’s really been a while…

In 2014, Neel @ LFP “acquired” this food photography contest from Andrew who was running this contest for several years. I’ve known Neel for several years, and was thrilled to catch up with him in Bangalore last year at the IFBM. He has done more for food photography than anyone can imagine to ‘capture’ food in frame! DMBLGiT was relaunched last month … and the announcement filled me with nostalgia. It was but natural that he would revive DMBLGiT some day! It’s a simple contest. Photographs are reviewed by a panel of judges, who score them in three categories: edibility, aesthetics, and originality. The host {me in this case} then compiles the scores to determine the winners. I have invited 3 food photographers I admire to be part of the panel this month.There is the very talented Bulgarian born Sophia Terra-Ziva from Sydney whos work I hugely admire. She has a very clear perspective, plays with colours beautifully and has won several food photography awards. Her frames tell a compelling tale, her energy amazes!

Our second judge is the sweet and uber talented Ludmila Slokoski, coincidentally again from Bulgaria and based in Sophia. She is the author of one of Bulgaria’s most popular food blogs Salted Lemons which reflects her love for the tastes and colors of great food. The last two years Ludmila has been working as the editor-in-chief and photographer of BBC GoodFood Bulgaria magazine.

… and last but not the least, our third judge is Neel who really needs no introduction as he is the force behind resurrecting this beautiful DMBLGiT concept! Neel is also the star {with his better half G} who has successfully run Learn Food Photography for the past so many years. From an old Russian 35 mm film camera, Zenit, to plugging in his memory card, Neel, the hobbyist photographer and professional engineer, is living a dream life!

 The specific things the judges will be looking for are as follows:

– Aesthetics: composition, food styling, lighting, focus, etc.
– Edibility: “does the photo make us want to dive in and eat the food?”
– Originality: the photograph that catches our attention and makes us want to say “wow!”, displaying something we might not have seen before.
– Overall Winner: top overall scores in all three categories combined.

There are three overall winners for photographs with the highest point totals in all three categories combined, and one winner in each of the three individual categories. So… ready to participate? To participate simply email me your best photograph you took in Mar ’15 using the submission instructions below.

How to Participate – Photo Submission Requirements

  1. Send your photos at an attachment to dmblgit[at]learnfoodphotography[dot]com with Subject “DMBLGiT April 2015″
  2. Include this information in your photo submission
    1. Your full name
    2. Your blog name and URL
    3. Title of your photograph
    4. URL to blogpost where submitted photo is posted
    5. Agreement from you agreeing to let us display your photo on host website, learnfoodphotography.com and DMBLGiT contest gallery. We won’t use your photo for any other purpose outside DMBLGiT.
  3. Important: File format needs to be jpeg format and longest size should be no longer than 500 pixels. This means for horizontal or landscape format max 500 px width and for vertical or portrait format max 500 px height.
  4. Photo must not have any text.

General DMBLGiT Contest Rules

  1. Only one entry per person. One photograph. No diptychs.

  2. This photo should be taken and posted in the month of Mar 2015.

  3. This goes without saying but well … you must have taken this photograph and should have copyrights to this photo.

  4. Entries must be received by Apr 20th at midnight I.S.T (Indian Standard Time) using all requirements described in the photo requirements section.

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Also find me on The Rabid Baker, The Times of India

Petite Iced Cakes … Coffee Cream, Raspberry Cream & Chocolate Cream

“I loved their home. Everything smelled older, worn but safe; the food aroma had baked itself into the furniture.”
Susan Strasberg

Petite Iced Cakes for an event I enjoyed creating for. I had a blast making these, experimenting with different flavours and layering mini cakes.  Had I the time, I would have made a second batch because the first one turned out to be such fun! The event? An Interflora challenge for the baking blogger community to create a delicious treat for ‘Grandparents’ Day Baking Challenge’ on Sunday 7th October.It’s got a nice feel to it . All you need to do is bake a recipe that’s been handed down to you from generation to generation, or something you have fond memories of baking with your grandma in the kitchen or simply a delicious sweet treat to celebrate the occasion. Bake it, blog about it and mail a link to these good florists in London who are hosting the challenge. A public vote will decide the winner!I have a confession to make. My Grandma never baked, an oven in a remote Indian house unheard of at the time. She cooked a LOT, my paternal grandma that is. I still remember her sitting all hunched up in a brick and stone kitchen, cooking over a low wood fire, blowing air through an iron pipe when the flame needed some help! The aromas from that almost extinct Indian kitchen still dance in my head, and come alive each time I smell a wood fire oven!So much for connect and food memories. She even had a dark room where she stored HUGE jars of Indian pickles and preserves, the room kept locked to keep pesky kids from sticking their fingers in. We visited once every year as my father was in the Air Force and we were always posted far away. The little dark room was always open for us, much to the other kids chagrin!Thankfully my mother did bake ‘some’, in the sense that she baked an annual Christmas Fruit Cake {with garam masala} that we waited for eagerly every December, the high point of our curious little lives. The funny thing is that it always got so late that in many ways it became a New Years Fruit Cake! I’ve blogged about her Garam Masala Chritmas Cake  and am thankful the kids can remember her as baking something, anything! She used to bake a mean roast once upon a time … about 30 years ago!

So here we go … I have created little somethings to help spread the awareness about Grandparents day, a day to recognise the contribution that the older generation gave to their families and wider society. These little iced cakes may not look perfect but they hold something for everyone! There’s Coffee Cream {my personal favourite}, there’s Chocolate Cream that everyone loves, and there’s Raspberry Cream, reminiscent of the favourite British Victoria sandwich cake.Once again ingredients laid out, the mind began experimenting. I had a genoise sponge in mind, using melted butter in the batter. Thoughts of the Del Monte contest on IndiBlogger made me reach out for Del Monte Olive Oil instead! The sponge came out moist and pillowy soft! The petite iced cakes are on their way to WorldFoody as there is some raspberry fruit filling from Del Monte in one of them too.

When I started off I had just  a layered coffee cream cake in mind. As I mixed the batter, my mind went towards many little cakes, and then the possibilities exploded in my mind. I was a baker in a hurry! I narrowed down to Coffee Cream, Raspberry Cream and Peaches ‘n’ Cream.  Then ‘normal life happened’. While one terrible teen demanded to be dropped to a friends place, the other had to be picked up, some more deadlines had to be met … blah blah blah! The peaches lived happily ever after in their tin, and I made a Chocolate Cream cake instead as I had a small portion of chocolate pastry cream in the fridge. So come, put your best baking skills forward and bake something sweet to celebrate Grandparents Day … a desert that might be a family speciality, a dessert that might be just the thing to bring a smile to their face, or one that you can surprise them with. When I looked at these little almost crooked cakes,  I heard the junior teens voice deep in my head, ” Why does Nana always keep laughing so loudly at everything, I mean EVERYTHING?”

To enter the competition simply email your photos, recipe and a link to your blog article to blog@interflora.co.uk by Friday 21st September.The winner will receive a luxury arrangement of flowers of their choice plus a Grandparents’ Day Gift Basket which will be delivered to your chosen recipient in time for Grandparents’ Day. 5 runners up will also receive a Grandparents’ Day Gift Basket for their nominated grandparent.

[print_this]Recipe: Petite Iced Cakes

Summary: Dainty little iced cakes lavished with a vanilla buttercream. Each good to serve four, they are made with different flavours – coffee, chocolate & raspberry. The flavour possibilities are endless … and the fun, infinite!

Prep Time: 1 hour
Total Time: 1hour 30 minutes
Ingredients:

  • Sponge
  • 3 eggs, room temperature
  • 60g {1/2 cup} all purpose flour
  • 110g {1/2 cup} raw sugar {or Castor}
  • 20g {1/4 cup} almond meal
  • 1tsp baking powder
  • pinch of salt
  • 10gm / 2 tsp Del Monte Extra Virgin Olive Oil
  • 1.5tsp 2% fat mil
  • 1/2 tsp vanilla bean powder {or 1 tsp pure vanilla extract}
  • Classic Vanilla Buttercream
  • 100gm unsalted butter, not too soft
  • 40ml low fat cream {Amul}, chilled
  • 150gm icing sugar {it was a little oversweet for me, but fine with the kids}
  • pinch salt
  • 1/2 vanilla bean scraped
  • Flavourings
  • 1 tsp coffee for the coffee cake
  • Dark chocolate ganache, chocolate chips
  • Del Monte Raspberry Fruit Filling

Method:

  1. Sponge
  2. Line the bottoms and sides of three small 4″ baking tins. Preheat oven to 180C.
  3. Sift the flour, almond meal, baking powder and salt together. Reserve.
  4. Mix the olive oil and milk in a small bowl Reserve.
  5. Beat the eggs and sugar over simmering water on high speed for about 10 minutes until the mixtures becomes thick and mousse like, tripling in quantity {Thermomix, Speed 4, Butterfly insert, 37C, 10 minutes or more}
  6. Take off water and continue beating for 3-4 minutes until it cools down a bit. {Thermomix, Speed 4, Butterfly insert, 3-4 minutes}
  7. Gently fold in the flour mixture in 3-4 goes. {Thermomix, Reverse Speed 2}, followed by the olive oil and milk mixture. Blend in gently but uniformly, divide batter between tins and bake for 20-25 minutes until the sponge springs back when touched lightly, ora tester comes out clean.
  8. Cool on racks for 5 minutes, remove from tins and cool completely.
  9. Classic Vanilla Buttercream
  10. Beat the ingredients together until smooth and light. Taste and adjust sugar if required.
  11. Assembling
  12. Reserve a little buttercream for piping on top if desired.
  13. Cut the little cakes horizontally into 2-3 layers each. Sandwich one with the buttercream, add a few chocolate chips within if desired, and top with a chocolate ganache. Pipe some plain buttercream if desired.
  14. Sandwich the second with some buttercream and raspberry fruit filling, topping that cake with some buttercream and a dollop of filling.
  15. Whi the remaining buttercream with 1 tsp of coffee and sandwich and frost the little cake with it. Pipe some plain vanilla rosettes if desired and add a chocolate lace border if you have the time and/or inclination!
  16. Chill until ready to serve.
  17. ENJOY

[/print_this]

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Also find me on The Rabid Baker, The Times of India

Contest| ADF Soul … win a gift hamper

“There is no love sincerer than the love of food”
George Bernard Shaw

Think India and think colour. Think India, and but naturally think food, tradition and culture!

To win an attractive gift hamper of ADFs Ethnic Indian products, click HERE for a simple yet fun contest. 

I am honoured to be hosting a fun contest for readers of Passionate About Baking on behalf of ADF Soul Food, a company which started as a humble venture back in 1932 of a small retail store selling dry fruits & nuts, soon diversified into a major food processing company manufacturing ethnic Indian pickles, chutneys, canned foods frozen foods and spices under various brand names which are today leaders in their segments and categories.Indian food has its own character. It’s not about clinical recipes or perfect measurements. It is all about impulse and feeling. With rich dollops of culture and tradition thrown in, each region has its own style, its own spice and its own distinct taste.At ADF Foods, they have captured all that magical taste in a packet with countless hours of research and our very own special ingredients. When they first got in touch with me, I was amazed to find they manufactured my favourite and possibly the only brand of green chili pickle I have ever eaten.If this particular product is anything to go by, then they have managed to capture the magic and true essence of Indian ethnic food. World over, the Ethnic Foods market, especially, the Indian Ethnic Foods market, is growing very rapidly. ADF’s international brands like Ashoka, Camel, Aeroplane, Khansaama and Truly Indian have reached many parts of the world international food markets.

Food satisfies more than our hunger. It has the power to make you smile on a sad day. It has the power to make a good day feel even better. Food reaches beyond your stomach. It reaches your Soul.

With this insight in mind, the name, Soul, seems like it’s made for a food brand. Add to that the fact that all our food products will have a touch of health. When our products beautifully marry flavour and goodness, so should the name.

Soul, while subtly cueing soul food, also seems like it would belong to a brand of substance.

Soul has the potential to be more than a brand name.

It is a brand philosophy.

To win an attractive gift hamper of ADFs Ethnic Indian products, click HERE for a simple yet fun contest.


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Also find me on The Rabid Baker, The Times of India




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