I've been MIA on the blog over the past few weeks as I've been nose to the grind photographing another cookbook for Lose Baby Weight. This one is all things winter and autumn with lots of soups and comfort food and LOTS of chocolate recipes. Not the best things to be trying to cook in humid weather! Oh well that's the food photographers life I guess. Oh my oh my have I got a freezer full of chocolate baked goods though. It's flowing out of my ears like this decadent chocolate cake with chocolate sauce pictured above! It's amazing and healthy. However I can't share the recipe with you as it is not mine to share. What I wanted to tell you about though is how to make a DIY cake stand like the one pictured above

I try to keep each photo shoot I do fresh with different props and backgrounds. However this can start to add up if you don't use your thrifty brain to think of ways to do things on the cheap. I try to look ahead at the recipes I have to photograph and have a think of ways I want to photograph them. This then helps me keep in mind of what props I might need to be on the look out for. Pinterest has been my BFF in food styling and photography inspiration and I am just loving the dark and moody looks at the moment that has come into style with a lot of food photographers. I wanted to create my own dark and moody look for this chocolate cake. I had ear marked this recipe particularly for a stunning show stopper. However dark props were a must to make this possible and I didn't own anything black or even dark brown. I had a quick search on eBay but couldn't find anything that I liked or wanted plus I am a stingy and didn't want to have to pay for postage as well. So I turned to my trusty OP shop to save the day. I was hoping I could find a cake stand at the OP shop that I could just spray paint but I knew my chances were slim.

I held my breath as I entered the shop and it fell flat when I scoured the shelves with no cake stand in sight. Okay Plan B I had to make one myself. So I went about looking for a flat round plate and a ornamental base of some sort to pair together to make a cake stand. There were a few possibilities but I came up with this round glass platter and faux crystal bowl on a stand. I showed you all on Instagram what I had picked up. I'm not sure a lot of you understood what I was doing! Crazy lady with glass bowls and plates! Guess how much this set me back?? It was a whopping $1.50. Yup small change for what I was about to create. A masterpiece... well kinda.

I had some leftover Rust-Oleum Flat Black Universal Spray paint that I had used to spray paint knobs on this Hall Table I did up some time ago. This stuff sprays on a heap of different finishes.... metal, plastic, glass, wood etc. So I knew I would be using it to spray these glass plates and bowl. I washed and dried the plate and bowl really well before painting to remove and dirt or residue that may have been on them. I placed them in my trusty spray booth setup in our back shed and painted them with a flourish. It took two coats to cover the glass and left it to dry overnight. I was ecstatic with the result when I came down the next morning. The smooth flat black finished left the bowl and plate looking a little sexier than when I first bought them. Let's just say I gave them their own permanent little black dress. I sat the round platter on top of the bowl to photograph the cake. I decided not do stick them together in case I wanted to use them separately in further photographs.

*For the interest of saftey: I place a piece of baking paper, fancy paper or foil between the food the painted stand. I don't think the paint is food safe so for the insterest of safety it is better to do this.

The backgrounds I used for these photographs was pine board painted with the the same black spray paint and a vinyl tile. All picked up from my local Bunnings.

I think the result speak for themselves! It turned out pretty good if I don't say so myself! See it doesn't take a lot of money to create one of kind props! You just need some thrifty brains!

I have also just signed up to be a "twit" head and finally got a Twitter account. Pop over and follow me if you so desire!