Behind the Book Cover: Photographing Gluten Free: Now What?

Creating the perfect photograph is harder than it looks! For more than two weeks, I've been in what felt like a losing race to finish the cover of my upcoming book, Gluten Free: Now What?

I thought choosing the right photograph would be the easy part. After all, I bake beautiful cakes all the time. How difficult could it be to make one, photograph it, and put it on the cover?

Famous last words!

Finding the Right Look for Book Cover

First came the research. What should the cover look like? I spent time studying other books in the gluten-free category to understand what readers expect to see. In publishing, a cover needs to feel familiar enough that readers recognize the kind of book they're looking at, but distinctive enough to make them stop and take a closer look.

That presented a challenge because Gluten Free: Now What? doesn't fit neatly into one category. Many gluten-free books are cookbooks filled with recipes, while others focus on celiac disease and the science behind living gluten-free.

My book is a little different.

It's about finding your joy again after going gluten-free. We begin with what you can eat, rather than everything you must give up. From there, we explore how to prepare meals for your family, make your kitchen safe, clean out and restock your pantry, and build the confidence to cook and bake again.

Each chapter includes a recipe that reinforces what you've learned, because I believe there's no better way to understand something than to put it into practice.

The cover needs to communicate two things: practical teaching from someone who's been there and the promise of delicious food.

We decided that my French almond cake would be the perfect way to represent the recipes. It's beautiful, naturally gluten-free, and one of the cakes that helped me rediscover my love of baking. The typography would carry the other half of the message, with a clean, welcoming design that's easy to read.

Simple enough, right?

When a Familiar Gluten-Free Cake Becomes a Challenge

Enter the French almond cake.

I started by making it the way I usually do, in my 9-inch springform pan. Unfortunately, the cake was too thin for the photograph. The original recipe calls for an 8-inch pan, which I didn't have on hand.

A test cake wasn't working

So I decided to get creative.

What if I made a fancier version in a Bundt pan? It might look lovely, but then I had second thoughts. Would readers assume they needed a special pan to make this simple cake? That's exactly the opposite of what I want to communicate.

Back to the drawing board.

Next, I doubled the batter, thinking a taller cake would solve the problem. Instead, it took far too long to bake. The outside became overly brown while the center was still underdone.

Ugh. Rookie move!

Here I was, writing a book about understanding ingredients, baking techniques, and the importance of using the right pan, and I was making the very mistakes I teach people to avoid.

At least I was practicing what I preach about learning from our mistakes!

Back to the Basics of Gluten-Free Baking

Taking a photo of a test cake in my lightbox

Meanwhile, I was also working on photography. I bought a light box to eliminate some of the variables and give myself more consistent lighting. Photographing food is an art of its own, and even a beautiful cake can look rather ordinary when the lighting isn't right.

Finally, I returned to my trusty 9-inch springform pan and did what I should have done in the first place: a little back-of-the-napkin math.

Rather than guessing how much batter I needed, I calculated the adjustment for the larger pan. This time, the cake baked beautifully, with the height and texture I wanted.

Success!

Now I just needed the photograph.

I took two rounds of pictures of that final cake. The first set was promising, but something was still missing. The front of the cake needed more light to show off its lovely texture, so I brought in the light stand I regularly use for my photography at the kitchen island.

That did the trick.

The second round produced the winning photograph, and after two weeks of baking, experimenting, and photographing I finally had the image for the cover.

A Cover That Tells the Story of My Gluten-Free Journey

There's something rather fitting about the whole experience. This book is about learning to approach gluten-free cooking and baking with confidence, understanding why things work, and not giving up when they don't.

And there I was, standing in my kitchen, learning those lessons all over again.

The finished cover represents much more than a beautiful cake. It represents the journey back to the kitchen, the pleasure of learning something new, and the joy of sharing good food with the people we love.

I'm delighted to finally share it with you!

Here is the cover of Gluten Free: Now What?