You’re ravenous. A most delectable grilled cheese sits before you, melty sides catching your eye.

It’s too beautiful to eat without photographing first!

On February 24th at 12pm EST, you’ll discover you’re not the only one. It’s a global day of photographing your food!

The Meal is calling all foodie photographers to participate in a global food photo exhibit. Your simultaneously shot photos will be collected and shown at The Brooklyn Art Library on March 31st.

It’s for a good cause, too! The Meal has partnered with Action Against Hunger, a non-profit who battles hunger around the world.

It all comes full-circle: your hunger-induced photo helps end hunger for others. Not even scarfing down a grilled cheese sandwich could beat that satisfaction.

The Meal: Documenting a Global Snack

Heads up! If you do submit, that means they can use your photo for promotional reasons. However, they’ll never sell your photo for profit. Read the deets on the Project Agreement!

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Ansel Adams once said, “You don’t take a photograph, you make it”. Well this year, we’re making the cameras.

Forget about gingerbread men, women, and houses. Our pals Doug and Jenny got into the holiday spirit by making gingerbread cameras!

They showed us just how they did it, so you can make one at home, too.

Make a TLR, rangefinder or a Hasselblad. You can have any camera on your wish list!

Make Gingerbread Cameras

Why it’s cool:

There’s no question that we love our cameras. But a camera that tastes as good as it looks? What could be better?

Gingerbread cameras are not only delicious and super fun to construct, but they also make the perfect, mouth-watering centerpiece for your holiday meal.

These cameras will make your guests f/stop in their tracks.

What you’ll need:

• Gingerbread Dough and Icing (see below)
• Cookie Sheets
• Oven
• Rolling Pin
• Parchment/ Wax Paper
• Measuring Cups and Spoons
• Electric Mixer (optional)
• Toothpicks



Dough:

• 2 large eggs
• 3¾ cups flour
• ¾ cup brown sugar
• 1 stick of butter, softened
• ¼ cup molasses
• 2 teaspoons ground ginger
• 1½ teaspoons baking soda
• ½ teaspoon ground cinnamon
• ½ teaspoon freshly grated nutmeg
• ½ teaspoon salt

Icing:

• 3½ cups powdered sugar
• 2 large egg whites

Step 1 – Make the Gingerbread Dough:

Using an electric mixer at low speed, cream the sugar and butter until thoroughly combined. Add the eggs and molasses and mix until combined. In a separate bowl, sift together the flour, ginger, baking soda, cinnamon, nutmeg, and salt. Add the dry ingredients to the butter mixture and combine with a spoon or spatula.

Separate the dough into two even pieces and wrap each ball in plastic wrap. Refrigerate until firm, about 1 hour.

(Great gingerbread recipe found here)

Step 2 – Roll out the dough:

Preheat the oven to 350°F and line the cookie sheets with wax paper.

On a floured surface, roll out half the dough to about ¼” thick. This part will be used for the sides and body of the camera. Roll the other half of the dough a bit thinner for the detail pieces, about 1/8 of an inch.

TIP: Roll your dough in between sheets of wax paper to keep it from sticking to your surface and rolling pin.

Step 3 – Cut out the shapes:

Use a knife, or circle and rectangle cookie cutters, to cut out the shapes you need. Use a spatula to transfer your shapes to the prepared cookie sheets. You can re-roll the scraps.

Use the printable template (above) for a twin lens reflex camera.

TIP: Before buying cookie cutters, see what shapes you have laying around your kitchen. We pressed the tops of drinking glasses into the dough for a nice circle outline.

Step 4 – Bake and cool:

Pop your shapes into the oven at 350 degrees for around 10 minutes, or until the edges start to brown.

Let them cool completely before building your camera.

Step 5 – Make the icing:

While the gingerbread is baking and cooling, make some hard-core icing that is sure to glue your gingerbread pieces together. You don’t want that camera collapsing after all your hard work! Here’s how:

Using electric mixer, beat egg whites in medium bowl until very foamy, about 1 minute. Add 1/2 cup powdered sugar. Beat until well blended. Add remaining cups sugar, 1/2 cup at a time, beating until well blended after each addition and scraping down sides of bowl occasionally. Beat icing at high speed until very thick and stiff, about 5 minutes.

Step 6 – Trim the edges:

While your pieces are still a bit warm, trim the sides with a sharp knife for nice straight edges that are easy to line up.

Step 7 – Assemble:

Start with the body of the camera. Construct the sides together using plenty of that thick icing. Once you have the body, go ahead and add the top shapes.

Step 8 – Details:

Glue on the lenses and film advance wheels.

TIP: Plenty of icing on the back of the piece holds it on tight. It also creates a nice white circle of icing when pressed onto the main body.

Step 9 – Fine Print:

Decorate your gingerbread camera with all the little details that make it awesome. Give it a brand name and a border, or polka dots if you want!

TIP: Spoon the icing into a re-sealable sandwich baggie. Cut a tiny corner off and squeeze the icing through for a more refined look. Use toothpicks to fine-tune the smallest areas.

Step 10 – Enjoy!

You did it! Now put that bad boy on display for everyone to see!

Take it further:

• Want more cameras you can eat? Check out these cookie cutters (above) and make ice-cream sandwich cameras!
• Make a collection of rad gingerbread cameras. Study your favorite camera and break it down to its most essential geometric shapes. Make a template for the shapes you need to cut out and bake. Photograph your camera and its sweeter counterpart together.
• Feeling extra festive? Make a gingerbread polaroid camera and prints. Draw your favorite photos with colored icing.

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And now, armed with your photos, you can make it truly yours.

If you already know about Jones Soda, you probably know that they’re a tiny soda company that’s made unique flavors (like Bubble Gum, Green Apple, and Strawberry) since 1995; and you probably know that their bottles feature beautiful photography.

What most people don’t know is that you can upload a photo of your choice to the Jones website and they’ll ship you a custom 12-pack with your pic on the bottle.

Customization doesn’t come cheap; a dozen bottles will set you back $35 + shipping. But it is easy: Upload a photo, choose your soda flavor, tap in your credit card, then sit back and wait for bubbly refreshment to arrive at your doorstep.

myJones, Custom Photo Soda Bottles
www.myjones.com

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Simply send them your digital photograph and they send you back edible icing! Lickety split!

Your tasty photo icing arrives as sheets of sugar on paper backing, sealed in a plastic bag. You can slide it onto cakes, cookies, or cupcakes right away; or store it for up to 6 months. Instructions are included, and sizes range from 11×17 to 2.5” round so you have plenty of options.

Photo cupcakes are our new favorite thing. Read on to see how we made ours…

How to make your own photo cupcakes
www.photojojo.com

1: Upload your Photo

Find a picture to put on your cupcakes. We used one of our friend Ella.

Upload your picture using this form at Icing Images. (You’ll need to sign in first.) We picked 12 2.5″ circles for $15.

If your picture doesn’t have a white background, trace out the subject in your favorite image editor before uploading it, or choose to have Icing Images cut it out for you for $4. Any white in your photograph will blend in nicely with the icing on your cupcakes.

2: Make Cupcakes

Your photo icing will take a few days to arrive, so this is a good time to research some cupcake recipes. Here’s Martha’s One-bowl Chocolate Cupcakes Recipe.

If you’re feeling a little more adventurous (and we hope you are), try your hand at a Thai Iced Tea Cupcake or a Cherry Chocolate Cupcake with Fennel Cream Cheese Frosting.

In general, you want to use white (or off-white) buttercream frosting. Store-bought works, too.

3: Frost Your Cupcakes

Your photo icing will arrive flat-packed in a cardboard mailer, complete with instructions. Let the frosting chill out at room temperature for half an hour while you prepare the cupcakes.

Apply a good dollop of frosting to each cupcake, and spread it as flat as possible on top so the photo icing will bond well.

4: Apply your Photo Icing

You need to apply your photo icing while your frosting is still moist. It’s easy: just remove a circle from the ziplock bag it came in and lay it down on a cupcake, making sure it makes contact with the frosting throughout.

Let your cupcakes sit for a while and the photo and the frosting will meld into each other.

5: Enjoy!

Ta da! Eat, give them to a friend, or just look at ‘em. We took ours out for a walk.

Resources

The Cupcake Bakeshop Blog by Chockylit – Beautiful cupcakes, delicious and creative recipes.

52 Cupcakes Blog – A journey through 52 inventive cupcake recipes, in progress. Check out Week 46: Cookie Dough-filled Cupcakes.

Cup-A-Cake – There’s only one way to carry an individual cupcake safely, and that’s using a Cup-A-Cake. $2.99 buys sweet, sweet piece of mind.

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