The Domestic Goddess

All Original Text & Photography
Copyright © 2004 by Jennifer Hamilton

16 May 2004 - The Art of the Pin Up

cheese-cake n.
1. A cake made of sweetened cottage cheese or cream cheese, eggs, milk, sugar, and flavorings.
2. Informal. Photographs of minimally attired women.

pin-up n.
1. a. A picture, especially of a sexually attractive person, that is displayed on a wall. b. A person considered a suitable model for such a picture.
2. Something intended to be affixed to a wall.

The provocative subject matter of cheesecake or pin-up photos were meant to lure the person looking at them in, not to be pornographic or disturbing. They affected a sort of promise on the viewer (or voyeur, as some seemed more like the view through a peep-hole) of something yet to come, rather than a fait accompli that cannot leave you wanting more.

Marilyn Monroe, Hedy Lamarr, Betty Grable; all with their mayonnaise skin and million dollar legs. Photos and drawings of beautiful women used to sell cologne, perfume, even chocolates and biscuits -- never showing more than was absolutely necessary. They were habitually humorous, with subtitles, different from the cartoons of the time only by being full-color paintings rather than simple line art.

To me, food can be quite gorgeous. Certain ingredients are striking to the eye all on their own, like a buxom red pepper or an unmarred, amethyst-coloured eggplant. Even a flawless cut of beef can be attractive in its simplicity. Some really seductive dishes can even verge on pornographic, when prepared and presented lovingly. My brother is really beginning to prove himself as quite the pin-up photographer. He took his first cheesecake photographs this weekend…gorgeous, sexy and droolingly delicious. And what better recipe to have his first experience with than Nigella Lawson's London Cheesecake?

recipe