The skill of styling and photographing her food is something Rajpal has refined over many years, much as what she bakes has changed over time
Author and Content Creator Deeba Rajpal
Image: Madhu Kapparath
Deeba Rajpal’s social media posts will make you want to have cake. Lots of it. Her Instagram page displays a variety of desserts that she bakes, from cheesecakes and tarts to puddings and trifles. The challenge of creating an exquisite visual representation of a dish and then photographing it for internet consumption is something that motivates this 56-year-old resident from Gurugram, apart from the process of baking itself. So, on her Instagram page of recipes, as you watch a reel on how to make a vegan coffee pudding, you cannot help but notice a small cup of coffee beans, a round glass vase of roses, a few scattered petals, and a burning tealight adorning the frame.
“I noticed that all her photographs were meticulously taken; apparently artless and simple-looking, but it’s anything but that,” says Marryam H Reshii, food writer and critic. She adds that Rajpal strives to present her desserts in an apparently unadorned manner. “Deeba wouldn’t highlight the texture of a cake or call attention to it, but if you have an eye, you will notice it,” she says.
The skill of styling and photographing her food is something Rajpal has refined over many years, much as what she bakes has changed over time. For instance, when eggs were unavailable in the wake of the Covid-19 lockdowns, she started experimenting with baking eggless cakes.
“Now, I cannot go back to baking with eggs. I enjoy doing everything without eggs,” she says. Another change she has brought about is only making and sharing small desserts—like a black forest dessert cup or a Biscoff dessert shot—in a bid to encourage people to make and consume smaller portions. “Somewhere along the way, we need to realign,” says Rajpal.
Her career in baking, food styling and content creation was also a realignment of sorts. Her father was in the air force, and even in her childhood spent in air-force quarters, baking was “always part of home” for Rajpal, her two sisters and their friends, who used to gloss over cookbooks to keep busy during summer vacations. They used to work with whatever was easily available, like cocoa powder, oranges, pineapples, etc. Later, when her sisters moved to the US and she went to visit, she came back with Bundt tins, which she began using frequently.