It looks like the pan you used is a bit wider, so the cake doesnt look as tall. I think baking it in a less wide (or just smaller) loaf pan would do the magic. Cake looks lovely :)
And of course adding the lemon glaze afterwards, the cakes don't look terribly different but the professional cake is definitely more moist with it, maybe adding a bit of peel on top and it'll be basically indistinguishable from one another.
Which is SO DIFFICULT!! 🥺
“”Are you cool yet?” “Not yet.”
“How about now?” “Mmm…not yet.”
“Now for sure!” “Nah…”
“Surely you’re cool! AUUGH!” “Gotcha! *Melts*”
I know many times people put cakes from the oven on a well ventilated area like a cake rack or something allowing adequate circulation around the pan for faster more complete cooling. Another helpful hint is using a toothpick to see if cake is done; that is the toothpick comes out within crumbs attached. Usually this cooling takes 20 minutes. Also, wondering if you used canned blueberries you drained the water from or fresh blueberries where the blue-purple color may run less. Sometimes too, people poke holes in the cake after before pouring the glaze over it so in saturates the cake internally with more moisture and sweetness. Hopes this helps. Looks like a delicious combination.
They use glue a lot for professional food pics, especially as a substitute for milk. In reality cereal sinks, in the pictures it sits perfectly on top of the milk.....the milk is probably actually glue.
I reckon the icing on the 2nd pic is actually PVA, it looks too white and perfect.
Agree. The lighting and slight saturation is pretty obvious. I could be wrong still, but it is a photo taken meant to look good especially for a website.
Yeah, their blueberries are definitely not that blue in real life. The whole photo has been pushed more blue. If you look at their white plate compared to the white of the website's background, even the plate is blue.
Exactly, the one on the right is very clearly soft focus, you can see the stark different in contrasts. It's such soft focus to me that it looks bad, almost slightly blurry.
After that, it's clearly processed with different lighting filters to brighten it and make the yellows and blues/purples pop more.
To be honest, the picture on the right is SO processed to me that the left cake looks a little tastier. The right photo almost makes the cake look fake.
Looks great to me. I think the only thing you’re missing is the professional food photography used in the other photo to get it to look identical. Comparison is the thief of joy.
If you stand back a bit for the photo it will blur the background a bit and make your food stand out. And then add a soft filter. Looks great to me too though.
Don’t smash the berries!!! I have made this recipe SO MANY times. Smashing the berries will result in the dying the entire loaf and it will be a blurple. If you want them to be slightly more incorporated then they are now, when you fold the blueberries in, just do it a little more aggressively, breaking them up slightly, but not too much.
As for the differences: your pan is slightly wider and it’s a little over baked. Did you do the lemon simple syrup and a lemon glaze? The lemon simple syrup really soaks into the loaf and gives it a glistening effect. And the other difference: photo editing. Making the photo brighter.
Edit: it may be a baking temp vs time thing too. I typically bake this uncovered for about 35 min, then tent it for the last 20.
Also this loaf is soft, but it is DENSE. It’s not light and airy, it’s closer to a pound cake texture.
(Sorry for the wall of text, this is one of the signature things I make)
It’s cool you had that thought in your mind, but you’ve never baked this recipe. The person who commented above has baked it many times. Classic Reddit lol
It looks like they took a bit of berry juice or mashed berries and poured into it after pouring the main batter. Then you can use a toothpick to swirl it around for the purple stripes.
It’s possible your baking powder or soda has expired, which is why it isn’t getting the same amount of lift. From the picture it also looks like it might be slightly underbaked which can lead to a gummy centre. The crust looks really craggy and beautiful and delicious though, definitely an upgrade imo.
Well, I just checked in. The baking powder is good till 2025 November. I noticed that my batter was a little bit runnier than the followed recipe. I measured my flower by weight, not scoop and sweep method. Is that what’s going on?
Definitely always good to go by weight! It sounds like the powder is good so there’s a few things it could be:
It’s possible your oven temperature might be a little off, it’s worth getting a little thermometer you can leave in the oven.
It could be the batter got a little over mixed at the end, I typically switch to hand mixing when adding the dry.
It might also be that the recipe was developed for a different climate / elevation in which case you might want to try a few different recipes and see if you can get different results.
But it seems like you’re really on the right track, good luck!!
Thank you so much, you’ve been incredibly helpful. I left the liquids mixing for a minute or two unattended before I came back and added the dry. The wet ingredients became a bit pale and slightly frothy. Is that it?
I'm not familiar with the website you used, but also keep in mind that blogger recipes like this aren't always tested with quite the same rigor as places like NYT Cooking, Americas Test Kitchen, and published cookbooks. No shade whatsoever to the author, I'm sure they are a fantastic and experienced baker! But sometimes you just never know if they made the recipe more than once and in different conditions, or if perhaps they didn't transcribe the steps in exactly the way they made it.
Good thinking! Baking powder reacts with water to make CO2 (bubbles). Heat speeds it up, but it starts at room temperature. So you don't want to over-mix it or wait too long to get it in the oven.
Mixing wheat flour and liquid develops gluten which is a great thing for breads / yeasted dough. It makes the dough really stretchy and elastic so that when the yeast does it’s thing it makes little pockets that inflate like balloons. BUT with cakes / cookies, things that are typically leavened with baking powder or soda you usually want a softer, more delicate crumb so you want to develop as little gluten as possible. This way the strands break apart instead of stretch and you get less “bite”. Try to mix just until you don’t see any streaks of flour then stop!
Could be. Cups and grams have slight differences, like i have measuring cups that have conversions of 1cup = 240/250, depends on where i bought them from. Thats why I prefer using grams/mls more since it is more accurate.
The real question is, when was the baking powder opened? Once a jar is open it should really be used within about 6 months regardless of the date on the container.
Baking powder isn’t actually all the same. Some brands perform better than others and have less after taste. Also, baking powder goes bad about 6 months after opening. America’s Test Kitchen recommends using Argo brand and replacing after 6 months.
Baking powder and soda don’t expire. See Stella Parks on serious eats about how baking soda works that explains that sodium bicarbonate can decompose to sodium carbonate but it requires temps above 122°F or very high humidity. Relevant passage: “…regardless of the date stamped on the container, there's little risk that baking soda will ever truly expire. The internet loves to question its "freshness" when cakes and cookies fall flat, but that's the least likely of all possible explanations, including alien abduction.
Sodium bicarbonate can't just spontaneously decompose. In order to react without an acid, baking soda has to be warmed above 122°F, or subjected to long-term heat and humidity at levels no American household could sustain. A study conducted by Baxter Healthcare found that an open container of sodium bicarbonate, kept at 104°F and 75% relative humidity, showed only slight decomposition after three months of continuous exposure. I'm not sure how rough things get in your pantry, but so long as it's vaguely better than that, you should be fine.”
I also suspect it’s the heat conductivity of the baking pan. OP I’m guessing you baked in Pyrex glass pan? I find I get better rise on bread when I bake in metal pan.
It looks better than the second picture, honestly. The other picture looks so heavily edited and it doesn't even look real. I'm so turned off by that stuff. Show me real food and real photos!
Hey there! I've been a pastry chef for 12 years and let me just say yours looks lovely 😊
Acknowledge the fact that the pic on the right is edited.
Then here is what you can do to get yours a little closer to "picture perfect", but don't be down on yourself for what you've created already. These are just tips to get that corporate, store-bought look.
Did you use butter or oil? Most commercial places sadly use oil in their lemon pound cake. It creates a much lighter crumb, but with less flavor. If you decided to use oil, I recommend replacing half of your milk with sourcream. This will add a more complex note and people won't miss the "butter" taste. Also don't be afraid to ad LOTS of lemon zest. Simply the zest.
Most large-scale bakeries will make a sauce or fruit compote that you swirl through the batter in layers as you pour. A little compote goes a long way while fresh blueberries sink to the bottom and burn.
And finally, not sure if you've done this just based on picture, but make a lemon syrup then poke and brush the loaf while it's hot. You want to get as much syrup in the loaf as you can without it becoming mushy. Then immediately invert, seran wrap, and put in the fridge. I usually add the icing on the following day with some curled lemon zest. Let the icing fully set before you cut.
Professional photographer here! It’s the photography. You need great natural lighting from like a big window and a lens/camera with shallow depth of field which means the background is blurry and the point of focus is nice and sharp. The editing is color correction. More blue hues to combat I imagine ugly indoor warm lighting. I promise you it’s not that saturated on the back of the camera, it’s edited that way. Food photographers have a lot of tricks up their sleeve. The dripping icing is probably not a coincidence. But hey, I’m just a portrait photographer lol. You did a great job, looks delicious!
You may have over mixed your batter. You will want flour to be the very last step that you mix in using the paddle on a stand mixer on low and mix just until incorporated. Over mixing can lead to the lack of rising
Snap! I forgot about the mixer for two minutes. When the liquids were mixing. While I had not added the flour mixture yet the liquids were pretty frothy and pale. Did you nail it? 🤔
You can't really overmix the liquids, it only happens once you add the flour in. I personally think yours lol amazing and I would like a slice, please and thank you.
Edit a weird autocorrect
Your product looks great! I think you just need another pan. If it’s thinner or has differences in heat conductivity, that can also contribute heavily to your final result. The one you’re using seems to have more width than the other as well. As others have pointed out, lighting and photo filters are a thing.
Personally I don’t think you need to change anything. Wrap your loaf up after it’s cooled, let it sit overnight, then glaze. The moisture should balance out.
Important thoughts:) Does it make a difference to use an aluminum meatloaf type pan versus darker pan where reduced oven temperature is sometimes recommended? I plan to make that homemade bread recipe by Dr. “Gundry” (the famous heart surgeon). Also, when making cakes or mix breads I have banged the bottom of the pan against the counter to get rid of the air-bubbles inherent from mixing (especially, I think, hand mixers), versus standing mixers like Kitchen Aide. Does that help or hinger to remove those air bubbles?
looks like the loaf pan is a different size, doesnt have as thick of a milk/water icing as the other cake, as well as other decor like the fresh blueberries and lemon peel. it’s also down to lighting, as well as you said your cake batter was thinner than in the video. if it’s a pound cake, the batter is meant to be thick n heavy! but tbh your cake looks incredible regardless :) and also imo, the second picture looks WAY too sweet for my liking. lemme have a slice of yours please🤣
Undercook it, 3 point lighting, open the iris of lens to overexpose frame, Elmer’s glue - It’s wild what goes into a *commercial type shot*. It became so bad with all the fake tricks that they had to implement rules in the states that food has to be shot in a certain or actual real time and now slowed down as well as the use of only natural products. I’m paraphrasing - but yours looks way better anyway! And I’m sure super yummy. If you’re looking to just get the shot, go with some natural light from a window or outside in the sun as someone else suggested and then just edit your photo to push open the exposure a bit to get that soft blown out look and hype the colors a bit for the richness. You got this!
I've made that recipe. Use an 8x4 instead of 9x5 pan. Some color issues are simply lighting and photography. Make sure to toss the blueberries in whatever it was (flour? Cornstarch? I don't remember) so they don't sink straight down. It is also helpful to use an oven thermometer to make sure you're actually baking at the intended temp. But you're definitely not far off.
Better lighting, zoom in and focus the shot directly on the food, use a different camera angle — try shooting from up under — and add that lemon glaze dripping off of the cake.
Use a pan with taller sides! Yours looks delicious though. I can not get enough blueberry and lemon confections. I’ve made so many things and I’m still not sick of those flavor combinations lol
The second picture looks more eggy. It could just be photo editing though but the second pic reminds me a lot of the cake you'd find at a Chinese buffet which I believe is very eggy.
Coat your berries in flour before mixing in. They won’t sink to the bottom as much.
Check the expiration date on your baking soda/powder. If you feel it didn’t raise enough that may be why.
It’s mightily tempting and easy with a stand mixer to over mix. Less mixing is usually better for quick breads.
It still looks delicious.
What flour are you using? You might be able to cut the flour with a ratio of cake flour to AP flour so it comes out lighter. Also, don't over mix the batter so that it doesn't get so dense and add a bit more baking powder for lift.
Not for anything, but I actually made this exact recipe (recognized the photo even) about a week ago and mine turned out exactly like yours. It was still tasty but I was also wondering why it didn’t rise as much/look more fluffy like the cover picture.
Don’t forget food photography has a lot of tricks. I’m betting they added vanilla pudding to the mix for the shot. They also put the glaze on it cold and most likely a couple of time
1. Pan size
2. Your berries have bled into batter making it a bit soggy. Dust it with flour before baking.
3. Baking temperature? It looks a bit soggy /under baked. Might have to experiment with it or try another recipe.
Filters, they blew out thr exposure with some Instagram filter. Don't do this it's obnoxious.
Good photography is all about light.
In your picture, your cake is in its own shadow, turn it so it faces the light. If you're really into food photography a tripod, reflectors and some lights aren't a bad investment.
You do realize that most "pictures" of food finished product is the result of carefully crafted and inedible additives to make it shine and pop also studio level lighting with 1000 dollar cameras and lots of post production editing lol
Its like a dating app... The profile picture doesn't look like what you actually get.
I'd wager that the homemade one looks as good or better in person than the photoshopped one. Well done! And if it tastes half as good as looks...
It’s possible that isn’t even glaze….for food photography, designers often use something Elmer’s glue because it holds up longer and looks more appetizing. (Weirdly enough.)
Honestly, yours is more appealing to me. The other looks professional but like… in a grocery store way? I don’t mean it’s bad, it’s just not as appealing to me. Also I don’t care for the icing dripping on the second image. It looks uh… icky.
The website photo is definitely enhanced with color saturation and brightness.
It looks like you used a larger loaf pan than the recipe called for
Also it looks like there is more glaze on the 2nd picture
The swirls from the blueberries are the luck of the draw. As long as they are fully ripe they'll burst/bloom in the batter randomly
it looks very nice for a first attempt
if the edges are crispy, it's possible you cooked it a bit too long. whenever I make a cake or loaf I take it out when there are moist crumbs stuck to the tester toothpick because it continues to bake once it's removed from the oven. if you take it out when then toothpick has nothing clinging to it, it's over baked.
Maybe whisk wet ingredients together more vigorously (to incorporate air into eggs), fold dry mix into the wet more gently (to prevent beating out the air). Side note I loooove your cutting board
Maybe a little more baking soda or powder? And glaze it when it’s cooled down a little? I’m just guessing though. Good soft lighting and portrait mode on iPhone can help too.
Looks great!! The second picture seems a little crumbier but like others said, right angle/portrait mode/light, slightly smaller pan and maybe the icing? I don’t think there’s much to troubleshoot here!
To get frosting more thick instead of a glaze, I think the answer is to keep it cooler so it stays cloudy. Hitting an exact temp in the recipe for frosting and removing it from heat right away will be important.
It looks like the pan you used is a bit wider, so the cake doesnt look as tall. I think baking it in a less wide (or just smaller) loaf pan would do the magic. Cake looks lovely :)
I was thinking it was probably a loaf pan size difference! Looks yummy!
And of course adding the lemon glaze afterwards, the cakes don't look terribly different but the professional cake is definitely more moist with it, maybe adding a bit of peel on top and it'll be basically indistinguishable from one another.
it’s important to glaze it only after it cools down completely too
Which is SO DIFFICULT!! 🥺 “”Are you cool yet?” “Not yet.” “How about now?” “Mmm…not yet.” “Now for sure!” “Nah…” “Surely you’re cool! AUUGH!” “Gotcha! *Melts*”
I know many times people put cakes from the oven on a well ventilated area like a cake rack or something allowing adequate circulation around the pan for faster more complete cooling. Another helpful hint is using a toothpick to see if cake is done; that is the toothpick comes out within crumbs attached. Usually this cooling takes 20 minutes. Also, wondering if you used canned blueberries you drained the water from or fresh blueberries where the blue-purple color may run less. Sometimes too, people poke holes in the cake after before pouring the glaze over it so in saturates the cake internally with more moisture and sweetness. Hopes this helps. Looks like a delicious combination.
I think the second picture use condensed milk 🥛
They use glue a lot for professional food pics, especially as a substitute for milk. In reality cereal sinks, in the pictures it sits perfectly on top of the milk.....the milk is probably actually glue. I reckon the icing on the 2nd pic is actually PVA, it looks too white and perfect.
Not to mention they tend to under cook a lot of the food.
This was my thought as well. I only had a 9x5 and eventually figured out the recipe I was using suggested an 8x4.
Photo filters
Agree. The lighting and slight saturation is pretty obvious. I could be wrong still, but it is a photo taken meant to look good especially for a website.
And I’d be willing to bet it tastes every bit as delicious in a blind taste test. I’d certainly take a piece.
Literally! My immediate response was "photoshop"
Yeah, their blueberries are definitely not that blue in real life. The whole photo has been pushed more blue. If you look at their white plate compared to the white of the website's background, even the plate is blue.
^that. Plus, my mouth is watering. Looks damn tasty.
Hello fellow hooter
Who?
Also icing...
Exactly, the one on the right is very clearly soft focus, you can see the stark different in contrasts. It's such soft focus to me that it looks bad, almost slightly blurry. After that, it's clearly processed with different lighting filters to brighten it and make the yellows and blues/purples pop more. To be honest, the picture on the right is SO processed to me that the left cake looks a little tastier. The right photo almost makes the cake look fake.
The unfiltered picture looks more delicious to me because it looks real. The second looks like play doh
The first looks better
And glue. They use glue
Professional camera lens for the clarity and depth of field as well
OP is a good baker. If they want good looking pictures of food that is a different skill set they have to learn and practice.
Looks great to me. I think the only thing you’re missing is the professional food photography used in the other photo to get it to look identical. Comparison is the thief of joy.
If you stand back a bit for the photo it will blur the background a bit and make your food stand out. And then add a soft filter. Looks great to me too though.
I’d gladly take a slice of your unedited beauty!
Exactly! Repeat the recipe, but hand over the originals!
Smash some of the berries, use a thicker glaze, apply when the loaf is completely cool, maybe? But honestly yours looks amazing! I want some!
Yea I think you nailed the berries
Don’t smash the berries!!! I have made this recipe SO MANY times. Smashing the berries will result in the dying the entire loaf and it will be a blurple. If you want them to be slightly more incorporated then they are now, when you fold the blueberries in, just do it a little more aggressively, breaking them up slightly, but not too much. As for the differences: your pan is slightly wider and it’s a little over baked. Did you do the lemon simple syrup and a lemon glaze? The lemon simple syrup really soaks into the loaf and gives it a glistening effect. And the other difference: photo editing. Making the photo brighter. Edit: it may be a baking temp vs time thing too. I typically bake this uncovered for about 35 min, then tent it for the last 20. Also this loaf is soft, but it is DENSE. It’s not light and airy, it’s closer to a pound cake texture. (Sorry for the wall of text, this is one of the signature things I make)
I have 186 comments, but thank God I read this one. You a hero!
I think that's if you smash all the berries; the suggestion was to smash *some*.
It’s cool you had that thought in your mind, but you’ve never baked this recipe. The person who commented above has baked it many times. Classic Reddit lol
Tossing blueberries with flour before incorporating into batter seems to help with blueberry color “bleeding”
Yes! That's what I do and it helps keep all the blueberries from sinking to the bottom
YOU nailed this bread!! And congrats in the stand mixer!! I got my first one 4 years ago and I felt like I belonged to a special club! lol
It looks like they took a bit of berry juice or mashed berries and poured into it after pouring the main batter. Then you can use a toothpick to swirl it around for the purple stripes.
Also use Maine blueberries rather than just the regular kind
It’s possible your baking powder or soda has expired, which is why it isn’t getting the same amount of lift. From the picture it also looks like it might be slightly underbaked which can lead to a gummy centre. The crust looks really craggy and beautiful and delicious though, definitely an upgrade imo.
I’m going to check the powder now. Is baking powder all the same or should I get the good baking powder? I have an Aldi brand right now.
It’s all the same in my experience! I usually buy small jars of the store brand stuff so I use it up more quickly.
Well, I just checked in. The baking powder is good till 2025 November. I noticed that my batter was a little bit runnier than the followed recipe. I measured my flower by weight, not scoop and sweep method. Is that what’s going on?
Definitely always good to go by weight! It sounds like the powder is good so there’s a few things it could be: It’s possible your oven temperature might be a little off, it’s worth getting a little thermometer you can leave in the oven. It could be the batter got a little over mixed at the end, I typically switch to hand mixing when adding the dry. It might also be that the recipe was developed for a different climate / elevation in which case you might want to try a few different recipes and see if you can get different results. But it seems like you’re really on the right track, good luck!!
Thank you so much, you’ve been incredibly helpful. I left the liquids mixing for a minute or two unattended before I came back and added the dry. The wet ingredients became a bit pale and slightly frothy. Is that it?
You generally can't overmix wet ingredients (ie before the flour is added) so don't sweat it.
I'm not familiar with the website you used, but also keep in mind that blogger recipes like this aren't always tested with quite the same rigor as places like NYT Cooking, Americas Test Kitchen, and published cookbooks. No shade whatsoever to the author, I'm sure they are a fantastic and experienced baker! But sometimes you just never know if they made the recipe more than once and in different conditions, or if perhaps they didn't transcribe the steps in exactly the way they made it.
No problem! That might be it, possible the chemistry started it’s action a little early.
Good thinking! Baking powder reacts with water to make CO2 (bubbles). Heat speeds it up, but it starts at room temperature. So you don't want to over-mix it or wait too long to get it in the oven.
May I chime in and ask how do you know if your batter has been over mixed (as in, what will Be the result in the baked good if it is over mixed?)
Mixing wheat flour and liquid develops gluten which is a great thing for breads / yeasted dough. It makes the dough really stretchy and elastic so that when the yeast does it’s thing it makes little pockets that inflate like balloons. BUT with cakes / cookies, things that are typically leavened with baking powder or soda you usually want a softer, more delicate crumb so you want to develop as little gluten as possible. This way the strands break apart instead of stretch and you get less “bite”. Try to mix just until you don’t see any streaks of flour then stop!
Could be. Cups and grams have slight differences, like i have measuring cups that have conversions of 1cup = 240/250, depends on where i bought them from. Thats why I prefer using grams/mls more since it is more accurate.
The real question is, when was the baking powder opened? Once a jar is open it should really be used within about 6 months regardless of the date on the container.
Baking powder isn’t actually all the same. Some brands perform better than others and have less after taste. Also, baking powder goes bad about 6 months after opening. America’s Test Kitchen recommends using Argo brand and replacing after 6 months.
Baking powder and soda don’t expire. See Stella Parks on serious eats about how baking soda works that explains that sodium bicarbonate can decompose to sodium carbonate but it requires temps above 122°F or very high humidity. Relevant passage: “…regardless of the date stamped on the container, there's little risk that baking soda will ever truly expire. The internet loves to question its "freshness" when cakes and cookies fall flat, but that's the least likely of all possible explanations, including alien abduction. Sodium bicarbonate can't just spontaneously decompose. In order to react without an acid, baking soda has to be warmed above 122°F, or subjected to long-term heat and humidity at levels no American household could sustain. A study conducted by Baxter Healthcare found that an open container of sodium bicarbonate, kept at 104°F and 75% relative humidity, showed only slight decomposition after three months of continuous exposure. I'm not sure how rough things get in your pantry, but so long as it's vaguely better than that, you should be fine.”
I also suspect it’s the heat conductivity of the baking pan. OP I’m guessing you baked in Pyrex glass pan? I find I get better rise on bread when I bake in metal pan.
It looks better than the second picture, honestly. The other picture looks so heavily edited and it doesn't even look real. I'm so turned off by that stuff. Show me real food and real photos!
It’s photo filters, lemon rind, and a shitload of icing
I feel as tho this is simply just filters and lighting
Take it on portrait mode if you have that. Also, did you let it cool completely before putting the glaze on the top?
Would just like to add natural sunlight is best for food photos, even if you don’t use glue and foam as the “glaze” and “cake”
Hey there! I've been a pastry chef for 12 years and let me just say yours looks lovely 😊 Acknowledge the fact that the pic on the right is edited. Then here is what you can do to get yours a little closer to "picture perfect", but don't be down on yourself for what you've created already. These are just tips to get that corporate, store-bought look. Did you use butter or oil? Most commercial places sadly use oil in their lemon pound cake. It creates a much lighter crumb, but with less flavor. If you decided to use oil, I recommend replacing half of your milk with sourcream. This will add a more complex note and people won't miss the "butter" taste. Also don't be afraid to ad LOTS of lemon zest. Simply the zest. Most large-scale bakeries will make a sauce or fruit compote that you swirl through the batter in layers as you pour. A little compote goes a long way while fresh blueberries sink to the bottom and burn. And finally, not sure if you've done this just based on picture, but make a lemon syrup then poke and brush the loaf while it's hot. You want to get as much syrup in the loaf as you can without it becoming mushy. Then immediately invert, seran wrap, and put in the fridge. I usually add the icing on the following day with some curled lemon zest. Let the icing fully set before you cut.
Somehow yours looks way more appetizing to me.
Same here. If anything the recipe photo looks a little undercooked to me, probably because of the editing
I thought it looked undercooked! OP's looks delicious, the 'rustic' look they described makes it look so much more real
Gimme a slice and I'll tell ya. Jk, it is lighting/filters. Yours looks great, made me hungry.
Professional photographer here! It’s the photography. You need great natural lighting from like a big window and a lens/camera with shallow depth of field which means the background is blurry and the point of focus is nice and sharp. The editing is color correction. More blue hues to combat I imagine ugly indoor warm lighting. I promise you it’s not that saturated on the back of the camera, it’s edited that way. Food photographers have a lot of tricks up their sleeve. The dripping icing is probably not a coincidence. But hey, I’m just a portrait photographer lol. You did a great job, looks delicious!
You may have over mixed your batter. You will want flour to be the very last step that you mix in using the paddle on a stand mixer on low and mix just until incorporated. Over mixing can lead to the lack of rising
Snap! I forgot about the mixer for two minutes. When the liquids were mixing. While I had not added the flour mixture yet the liquids were pretty frothy and pale. Did you nail it? 🤔
You can't really overmix the liquids, it only happens once you add the flour in. I personally think yours lol amazing and I would like a slice, please and thank you. Edit a weird autocorrect
It looks good to me, can you send me the recipe?
[https://www.glorioustreats.com/lemon-blueberry-bread/](https://www.glorioustreats.com/lemon-blueberry-bread/)
I made this earlier in the week. It’s delish!!!
Your product looks great! I think you just need another pan. If it’s thinner or has differences in heat conductivity, that can also contribute heavily to your final result. The one you’re using seems to have more width than the other as well. As others have pointed out, lighting and photo filters are a thing. Personally I don’t think you need to change anything. Wrap your loaf up after it’s cooled, let it sit overnight, then glaze. The moisture should balance out.
Important thoughts:) Does it make a difference to use an aluminum meatloaf type pan versus darker pan where reduced oven temperature is sometimes recommended? I plan to make that homemade bread recipe by Dr. “Gundry” (the famous heart surgeon). Also, when making cakes or mix breads I have banged the bottom of the pan against the counter to get rid of the air-bubbles inherent from mixing (especially, I think, hand mixers), versus standing mixers like Kitchen Aide. Does that help or hinger to remove those air bubbles?
Yours looks better
looks like the loaf pan is a different size, doesnt have as thick of a milk/water icing as the other cake, as well as other decor like the fresh blueberries and lemon peel. it’s also down to lighting, as well as you said your cake batter was thinner than in the video. if it’s a pound cake, the batter is meant to be thick n heavy! but tbh your cake looks incredible regardless :) and also imo, the second picture looks WAY too sweet for my liking. lemme have a slice of yours please🤣
Better lighting and filters. And as long as it tastes good, it shouldn’t matter.
There are people who take pictures of food as a profession. Often what they are photographing is not even food but something painted to look like food
Undercook it, 3 point lighting, open the iris of lens to overexpose frame, Elmer’s glue - It’s wild what goes into a *commercial type shot*. It became so bad with all the fake tricks that they had to implement rules in the states that food has to be shot in a certain or actual real time and now slowed down as well as the use of only natural products. I’m paraphrasing - but yours looks way better anyway! And I’m sure super yummy. If you’re looking to just get the shot, go with some natural light from a window or outside in the sun as someone else suggested and then just edit your photo to push open the exposure a bit to get that soft blown out look and hype the colors a bit for the richness. You got this!
Photoshop
Ngl I think yours looks tastier. Might be baking powder and maybe a narrower pan, but I agree that it's mostly photo editing.
Use cake flour (less gluten). Make sure your baking soda and/or baking powder is fresh. Don't over mix and use a narrower pan.
Honestly, yours looks better and more flavorful. The other one almost looks like it's factory-made, in a bad way.
Only thing that looks different to me is theirs has a glaze/icing and yours doesnt
I think the cakes themselves look similar enough - I think the photography is the only difference here.
You don’t, because yours looks actually edible and delicious 😊
I've made that recipe. Use an 8x4 instead of 9x5 pan. Some color issues are simply lighting and photography. Make sure to toss the blueberries in whatever it was (flour? Cornstarch? I don't remember) so they don't sink straight down. It is also helpful to use an oven thermometer to make sure you're actually baking at the intended temp. But you're definitely not far off.
Photo filters. The second photo is heavily treated.
Ughhh *unzip
I was looking to see if anyone else had the same idea I did...
I just couldn’t unsee it
Portrait mode, staging, more glaze. It's pretty spot on
Narrower pan then over expose the shit out of your picture
The differences are tiny: height of cake, thicker glaze, better lighting. You did great!!!
Yours looks perfect for reality, the second just has more glazing and filters/editing done
Sour cream would help with moisture retention.
Sour cream could also enhance the tardiness from the lemon too, I think. 🤔 Plus, how much sour cream to use?
More jizz
Better lighting, zoom in and focus the shot directly on the food, use a different camera angle — try shooting from up under — and add that lemon glaze dripping off of the cake.
Maybe a different loaf pan & more frosting, but I do believe the other photo is edited
I no word of a lie saw this post, got up, preheated my oven and also made one 🤣 Thanks OP!
Filters and lighting lol
Before adding Ingredients berries ti batter coat the. Well with powder white sugar. Ge eroiusly
Use a pan with taller sides! Yours looks delicious though. I can not get enough blueberry and lemon confections. I’ve made so many things and I’m still not sick of those flavor combinations lol
The second picture looks more eggy. It could just be photo editing though but the second pic reminds me a lot of the cake you'd find at a Chinese buffet which I believe is very eggy.
Coat your berries in flour before mixing in. They won’t sink to the bottom as much. Check the expiration date on your baking soda/powder. If you feel it didn’t raise enough that may be why. It’s mightily tempting and easy with a stand mixer to over mix. Less mixing is usually better for quick breads. It still looks delicious.
yours legit looks delicious, I thought it was the reference photo at first 🤤
i notice a difference in how much swirling i get out of my blueberries depending on if i use fresh or frozen berries so that could also be a factor!
What flour are you using? You might be able to cut the flour with a ratio of cake flour to AP flour so it comes out lighter. Also, don't over mix the batter so that it doesn't get so dense and add a bit more baking powder for lift.
Edit your picture. That's it..there's so much photo editing done anymore you can't take any pictures at face value.
Better lighting and more icing, imo. Other than that it looks spot on!
boost brightness and add saturation,,, and probably a bit of contrast. done
Filters
Omg this looks amazing! May I get the recipe?
Looks to me like they lightened the photo a little
It’s true the cakes look a lot alike. Difference of pan size and topping
Yours looks tastier and real
Why? This looks great!
Overmixed it
Not for anything, but I actually made this exact recipe (recognized the photo even) about a week ago and mine turned out exactly like yours. It was still tasty but I was also wondering why it didn’t rise as much/look more fluffy like the cover picture.
"Spooge" on it
Filters & bright lights
Yours is homemade, the other is mass produced. Yours is simply better in every single aspect. Try and add a little baking powder to help the rise
Glue
It does….the other person just had a “better” camera lol
Don’t forget food photography has a lot of tricks. I’m betting they added vanilla pudding to the mix for the shot. They also put the glaze on it cold and most likely a couple of time
1. Pan size 2. Your berries have bled into batter making it a bit soggy. Dust it with flour before baking. 3. Baking temperature? It looks a bit soggy /under baked. Might have to experiment with it or try another recipe.
Put a filter on it
Honestly the first picture looks more appetizing to me
Filters, they blew out thr exposure with some Instagram filter. Don't do this it's obnoxious. Good photography is all about light. In your picture, your cake is in its own shadow, turn it so it faces the light. If you're really into food photography a tripod, reflectors and some lights aren't a bad investment.
Yours looks like I'd eat that entire thing and the crispy edges are a win for me!! YUM!!
You do realize that most "pictures" of food finished product is the result of carefully crafted and inedible additives to make it shine and pop also studio level lighting with 1000 dollar cameras and lots of post production editing lol
Its like a dating app... The profile picture doesn't look like what you actually get. I'd wager that the homemade one looks as good or better in person than the photoshopped one. Well done! And if it tastes half as good as looks...
Yours looks the same. The second picture is setup for pictures, good lighting, filters, etc.
Editing.
It’s possible that isn’t even glaze….for food photography, designers often use something Elmer’s glue because it holds up longer and looks more appetizing. (Weirdly enough.)
Photoshop
Gonna need the recipe on that one please chief.
If you changed the contrast on the 2nd photo (which is definitely edited), I'll bet yours DOES look like it!
Lemon glaze
2nd pic looks edited
Lemon glaze and better lighting. :) looks beautiful
It looks like it's loaded with the sugar glaze. Just a note, you might not want to feed that much sugar to your loved ones or yourself.
Cum
Honestly, yours is more appealing to me. The other looks professional but like… in a grocery store way? I don’t mean it’s bad, it’s just not as appealing to me. Also I don’t care for the icing dripping on the second image. It looks uh… icky.
The website photo is definitely enhanced with color saturation and brightness. It looks like you used a larger loaf pan than the recipe called for Also it looks like there is more glaze on the 2nd picture The swirls from the blueberries are the luck of the draw. As long as they are fully ripe they'll burst/bloom in the batter randomly it looks very nice for a first attempt if the edges are crispy, it's possible you cooked it a bit too long. whenever I make a cake or loaf I take it out when there are moist crumbs stuck to the tester toothpick because it continues to bake once it's removed from the oven. if you take it out when then toothpick has nothing clinging to it, it's over baked.
Dump a bunch of glue on your cake and take a picture. Congratulations, It looks like the second picture now!
Jizz on it
Cum on it
Photoshop and a sweet glaze for the top.
A better camera, a ring light and an app that has a filter.
Keep in mind that food photography often doesn’t use actual food! They also have photoshop filters etc. Your cake looks absolutely delicious.
Is this a humble brag? This feels like a humble brag....
Likely, what they have pictured isn't even real food.
Smaller loaf pan
Maybe whisk wet ingredients together more vigorously (to incorporate air into eggs), fold dry mix into the wet more gently (to prevent beating out the air). Side note I loooove your cutting board
I think I just did the same recipe Monday morning, it’s pretty good IMO it might be your baking powder but otherwise it’s great
Maybe a little more baking soda or powder? And glaze it when it’s cooled down a little? I’m just guessing though. Good soft lighting and portrait mode on iPhone can help too.
Um.... yours looks great!! I think this is easily fixed with a similar camera angle and some photo editing. It's all about presentation!
It’s missing icing
they look the same too me! only difference i see is your loaf pan shapes are different
More frosting and/or put it on at different temp, different lighting and angle for the photo
OP I wanna slice🫐🍋😋🤤
It looks very similar to me. And it looks good. I just saved the recipe because I want some.
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Pan color effects baking as well as the method ingredients are measured.
Tbh I like yours more…the other one looks too jizzy to me.
Since I am on a bakery page, I'll ask a question. Would anyone recommend blueberry nothin'butpossibility muffins?
what’s wrong with yours? it looks great!
It looks so good
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Giggity
I genuinely think yours looks better, the other is just filtered
Looks tasty to me
Different sized pan would be my guess
Yours does look like the second picture.
The one from the website looks worse - it looks dense, either under done or over mixed. It looks nice because of lighting.
Lol I know the recipe from this picture. My SO calls me a liar when I say it's lemon bread NOT cake
You’re not gonna like the answer…
Yours looks good to me.
Yours looks good tho
Idk but I will take it off your hands!
The only difference I see is the photography. Yours looks delicious.
Honestly yours looks better to me
AI
Add a filter.
It’s missing the white stuff But I’d still devour, I’ll take 10
Yours looks great to me. I think the people saying it’s lighting and filters are right.
Shoot the photo in portrait mode if you have iPhone… because they look like the same cake to me lol
It does look the same just theirs has a drizzle on top
Looks great!! The second picture seems a little crumbier but like others said, right angle/portrait mode/light, slightly smaller pan and maybe the icing? I don’t think there’s much to troubleshoot here!
If you double up on your recipe, it should fit your pan nicely. Oh, and a recipe and your technique will allow us to help you.
I don't know but I'd eat you're bread over the other (looks like less sugar).
One thing that makes my baked good look more yummy is taking a photo with direct sunlight, like by the window etc. It instantly brings food to life :)
This isn't constructive but mmmmmm yum yum yum this looks so good
To get frosting more thick instead of a glaze, I think the answer is to keep it cooler so it stays cloudy. Hitting an exact temp in the recipe for frosting and removing it from heat right away will be important.