Deeba Rajpal's love for baking and stunning aesthetics are an internet-winning formula

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

By Divya J Shekhar Forbes India Staff

Published: Oct 21, 2024 12:03:57 PM IST

Updated: Oct 21, 2024 12:22:23 PM IST

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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.

Rajpal went on to study Economics, but realised that it was not for her. She then joined British Airways in the late 80s, and was a passenger services manager at the Delhi airport. “Those were a happy eight years of my life. I met everyone, from John Major (former prime minister of the United Kingdom) to Mother Teresa,” she says, adding that she quit the job when her daughter was born.

Around that time, in the early years of the internet in India, she discovered blogs. Pastry chefs from around the world “inspired me to timidly put my stuff online”, says Rajpal, who started clicking photos of the food she made and posting a few recipes online. People started taking note of her work and soon she was part of a thriving global food blogging community.

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In between, for instance, she started a small online macaron club (Mactweets on Twitter, now X) and was part of a group called the Daring Bakers. The latter, she says, sharpened her skills and gave her an idea of what people were baking internationally. It is where she learnt how to make desserts like lemon meringue pie, galettes, tres leches, the opera cake, the zuccotto, and other international pastries.

(From left) Deeba Rajpal’s cookbook; hosting a book launch for Gurugram moms

All the while, she also loved styling and photographing whatever she made. She went to Old Delhi markets to collect traditional copperware or other small collectibles, and soon built a “truckload of props” that became integral to her signature style.

When Sonalini Chaudhry, a book editor, moved to Dharamshala from Delhi in 2018, she started missing some of the food, particularly desserts, which she used to have in the city. She reached out to Rajpal for some of her recipes. “She has this whole bank of them on Instagram, so beautifully explained, and she was quick to answer any queries. Because, for a first-timer, you don’t know what you’re getting into when you start baking,” she says.

Chaudhry’s baking soon got so popular among friends in Dharamshala that they encouraged her to start her own café. She now runs The Fat Teapot, where certain recipes that she has learnt from Rajpal, like banana bread, lemon cake and cookies, are permanent fixtures on the menu.

An eggless chocolate blueberry layer cake (left), and an eggless raspberry chocolate cake, styled and photographed by Rajpal

“Baking is a science. Deeba has been able to understand that science, break it down and make it easy for others. She has many one-bowl recipes and quick fixes. You don’t have to slave in the kitchen all day in order to have a dessert,” she says. Baking could also become an expensive hobby, but Rajpal is never after elitist ingredients, Chaudhry explains, adding that the ingredients she uses are easily available in local markets.

Rajpal also collaborates with brands, mainly for styling and photography. She recollects an early collaboration with tea retailer Teabox, who wanted her to style their tea as part of a rebranding exercise. She also worked with chef Vikas Khanna on styling and photographing for his book My First Kitchen.

Digital content creation on social media has opened up more avenues for commercial partnerships, but Rajpal says her brand collaborations are rare because of, sometimes, limited creative freedom paired with her desire to offer value to her audience. “The script often comes written by somebody who is disconnected from a creator’s personal style,” she says.

Rajpal authored her first book on quick chocolate recipes to make at home in 2021, titled Passionate About Baking. She is contemplating working on another cookbook of eggless dessert recipes.