Whipped coffee with a dash of humility

What did I get myself into and why food photography is lie…

I had no idea at the beginning of quarantine I’d jump into a new project that requires me to learn some of those weird function buttons on the camera. But one of the best parts of almost never-ending alone time is that I started making a list of all the things I enjoy doing and another list of things I think I’m fairly good at doing and ended up with a blog!

But who am I to do a blog and expect/hope people will care enough to skim the posts? I’m an avid reader (13 books to date during coronacation) and an amateur baker who loves to try new things: Poptarts, chocolate croissants, pizza dough, etc.  Often I read something in a book and decide I have to try it, “Beautiful Creatures” by Kami Garcia and Margaret Stohl introduced me to buttermilk pie, and I had to find it. It’s now a regular in my baking repertoire. The Harry Potter series lead me to Treacle Tart, and I can hardly read an Agatha Christie without a strong desire to make tea and scones. And I know there are others out there who do this too. . you maybe?

That leads me to today, when I decided to put it all together and see what happens. My goal is to share some great reads, and inspire you to bake whatever comes to mind. I’ll share the recipes I use and any helpful hints I learned along the way.

Which brings me to my constant annoyance of food photography. Don’t get me wrong, I LOVE food photography and how amazing people can make food look. I’ve also watched several Facebook videos that show me a lot of food photography isn’t really food: using mashed potatoes for ice cream, or glue as milk, even using motor oil as syrup; so gross!  Yet when I’m trying a new recipe, I’m always trying to make it look as close to the example as possible, and generally it’s okay, but sometimes it’s the precursor to disaster. Enter Whipped Coffee. It was one of the first super trendy things to do while everyone was quarantining at home. Super easy, whisk equal parts instant coffee, sugar, and hot water until light and fluffy. It comes out looking like a caramel colored stiff whipped cream. You simply top a glass of iced milk with the whipped coffee and enjoy. 

But that’s not what happened otherwise I probably wouldn’t be writing about it now. Every picture shows a small glass with the whipped coffee overflowing the top of the glass. It’s stiff enough to defy gravity, so that’s what I did. But then it came time to drink it and I tried to mix it into the milk just a little and DISASTER! Milk sloshed out on all sides no matter how gently I stirred, the whipped coffee began sliding down the outside of the glass, I made a HUGE mess and everything got sticky. In the end I just dumped it all into a larger glass.

I guess the moral of the story is if you try whipped coffee, maybe don’t overflow it to match the picture you saw online.  And in case you’re wondering, I’m currently reading “Chase Darkness with Me” by Billy Jensen and he was having coffee with Michelle McNamara and I had to have it. 10 of 10 would do again… in a larger glass.