Food & Style Workshop with Sweet Laurel Bakery and Kitchy Kitchen

This past weekend, I stepped outside of the rehabber box and took a “food and style” class with Sweet Laurel’s Laurel Gallucci and Kitchy Kitchen’s Claire Thomas. I know it isn’t quite rehabbing, but making beautiful food is kind of like DIY in that you can be creative with what you do and that it is okay to try new things.

I also figured if these ladies could help me make cake as beautiful as this and that was healthy (for a cake!) I was in!  The workshop was at the Hedley & Bennett factory just outside of downtown LA. We arrived to coffee from Columbo Coffee and delicious snacks like almond milk cheese with flax crackers and curried yam crostini.

After spending some time snacking and meeting Claire and Laurel and the other workshop attendees, we were treated to a tour of the Hedley & Bennett factory. I love that you can mix and match colors and patterns for the aprons and straps, and that they’re made in LA. My favorite part of the factory was the playful vibe and the inspirational quotes on the walls.

After the tour, we watched Laurel give a presentation on ingredients she uses and why, and then she got down to baking the featured items of the day, a light lemon poppy bundt cake and lavender sandwich cookies.

While we waited for the treats to bake, Claire gave us a class on food styling and photography and we got to test out her tips.

Now, I’m going to show you a photo I took at the beginning of the class versus the end so you can see just how awesome and helpful it was!

Now for the payoff. Notice the huuuuge difference in the photos above and the photos below.

These are my favorite photos from the class:
  
After testing out our new skills, we got to enjoy Laurel’s amazing treats! The cookies were a nice bite of something sweet and the lavender wasn’t overpowering at all. The lemon bundt cake was light and airy and you couldn’t even tell it was grain free!

All in all, it was an amazing class and I learned so much about a healthier way to bake and a better way to get good photos. I can’t wait to do more of both and practice my new skills!

Thanks to Sweet Laurel, the Kitchy Kitchen, and Hedley & Bennett for such an incredible afternoon!